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Welcome to Painting Doc by   
Kathleen Kelley Reardon 

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For the Birds (Undone version)

4/10/2017

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 If you're just arriving, you'll want to read the earlier blog below about the site.  

Above is the beginning of a painting that is still in progress.  This little guy showed up a few weeks ago in the back garden looking into our window.  I hadn't seen a bird like this in our garden until that day.  Perhaps you know what he is.  I'll be checking.  He certainly isn't skittish.  He stayed around for a while even as I took several photos -- kind of posed, actually.  I posted this unfinished painting along with a later version, as I'll do sometimes on this site, because it lets us talk about beginnings and process.  

The paper is textured, as you can see.  It's 140 lb weight, Arches rough grain and is 12" x 16" (31cm x 41 cm).  Paper quality and texture matters.  While a block of this type of paper is not cheap, there are online options and sales at art stores.  I watch for those.  If you're learning to paint, people might recommend low quality paper, brushes and paints. That's a good way to become discouraged.  Low quality paper and paints, especially, tend to result in less than happy results. Then you start to think you're not suited to painting.  And that isn't the case.  Give yourself a boost by purchasing good quality paper, at least 140 lb, and quality paints for oils and acrylics too.

This painting started with washes.  That involves wetting the paper where you plan to paint. Starting with the sky is good.  You soak a round brush in clean water (perhaps size 11 or 12 size brush).  If you want a very light blue (e.g., cerulean light or cobalt turquoise light), you can also put a small amount of water in a cup or tray and mix in the color to your preference.  Holding the paper at an angle or setting it on an angled table easel, paint across the top letting the blue flow down missing some areas that will later look like clouds. You may need to lift the paper to encourage the flow, but do so slowly.  Use this technique down to where you want the peach section to start. Repeat the same process of wash for this area and the green.  The peach color here and the birds chest are different intensities of Holbein Vermillion Hue.  The green here is Holbein Permanent Green No. 1.  You do not need to use these specifically.  

If you don't have enough white for clouds, while the section you're working on is still wet you can take a small, wet sponge (preferably one for painting) and wipe the color away in spots with a circular motion (usually one circle will do for each cloud).  If the section is dry, you may still be able to to do this, but not as effectively as when it's wet.

Once the background is done, begin sketching branches.  Keep in mind where the bird will be perched so you'll leave room.  Go easy with the first set of branches, to avoid blocking the light with too many.  Make some thick and with a somewhat dry brush. Then add a few leaves, perhaps with sap green, olive green and Naples yellow.  Here again, the color can be mixed in a small cup or tray compartment.  Be sure to go light when doing the leaves too.  They can be darkened later.  At first, you're working on positioning and shape. They can even be left white inside until later.  The white to the left of the bird's head above became a leaf later. 

Now you're ready to paint the bird.  If you're not confident or feeling experimental, sketch first.  I dove in because sometimes I can't help myself -- lightly at first so the color could be swept away with a wet sponge if it went wrong. You're welcome to trace the bird from the painting (make it smaller or bigger if need be) and use tracing paper to put it on your painting.  

Painting the bird was a challenge, but an enjoyable one.  Besides, at this point in a painting a mistake is not the end of the world by any means.  You have more paper, water, and paint, so go for it.  Starting over is fine.  Also, you can use white gauche to whiten areas where you might have slipped and also for the beak and hint of an eye to accentuate.  Regular white won't show up or cover mistakes like gauche. Purist painters may tell you that they don't do that.  Do what works, especially when learning and for small areas.  As time goes by, you won't make the same mistakes and you'll also be better able to plan where you'd like an area to be left white.


As you can see in the second painting, additional branches were added along with both darker and lighter tones to the leaves and branches.   Van Dyke brown, black and burnt sienna are useful here. The painting is almost done.  I'll be adding more leaf detail, but it's almost to the point where I should stop and step away for a day or two.

It's good to walk away from paintings if you're tired or tight.  As PD progresses, I'm learning to do less in any given period of time.  There are advantages.  For example, letting segments dry allows you to see if more color is needed.  Perspective is always good.  Take a break and the painting will benefit.  

PaintingDoc PD Tip:  Try to let your hands relax when you paint the branches.  Let them flow across the page even if you're shaking.  Practice on a separate paper if you're worried.   You might take a look at some Japanese paintings of branches.  Note the beautiful flow.  Some branches don't even need to connect to anything.  We're creating an impression, not a photo.  The same with leaves.  You can paint hints of leaves as well as ones that look leaflike toward the foreground. When painting a bunch flowers, for example, a portion can be hints while others are more realistic.  Too many perfect leaves can make the painting appear crowded.

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    Artist/Author

    In way of introduction, you'll want to see the "About" page by clicking on that above.  In short, this site is sharing ways to paint and maybe we'll get into writing as well sometimes.  I'm a professor emerita of business and preventive medicine, author of nonfiction books on politics, negotiation and communication.  And, since the early onset of Parkinson's, I've become an artist and a fiction author.  Many of the paintings are of West Cork, Ireland where I live.  My debut novel, Shadow Campus, is a fast-paced mystery thriller described by Forbes as a "masterful debut."  The second crime mystery novel is Damned If She Does (2020) described by Kirkus Reviews as "informed and searing" and "a page-turning success."  I hope you'll enjoy this site as it emerges and we paint together whether you have PD or not.  I'll do my best to share what I've learned and continue to learn. We'll start with some watercolors and then introduce oils as well. Thanks for coming by.  Kathleen Kelley Reardon

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This is "Foothill Cottage" -- an early painting of mine that was inspired by the art of John Blockley.  Behind the house is Mt. Gabriel in Schull, West Cork.  One of the most important elements of this painting involved retaining the light -- especially  the white of the house while also allowing the colors on the house to suggest its age.  It's so easy to overpaint or to make a painting too busy.  Both were tough to avoid in this painting.. The land and stones have an underlay of pink, except where I wanted only white to show through.  The underlay is very, very light but it gave the light stones texture and blended the entire area.  

I've learned the hard way that it's wise to go light first and add color as you go along.  I had difficulty teaching myself this patience.  But, it makes a huge difference.  You'll see that in the doorway there is the hint of a person.  What I love about paintings like this is that they're lyrical -- lending themselves to stories.  One of my friends asked, "What's in the shed?"  She already had a sense of who lived in the house and of their lifestyle, even who that person is in the doorway (if that is a person), but allowed her imagination to step beyond what is seen in the painting.  

There was a fair amount of sponge work in this painting.  That's how the look of color almost dripping from the roof is accomplished.  Also, you'll notice that the rocks and land vary in texture as well as depth.  They were created by layering and leaving several areas with only one layer so the white of the paper is visible through the color.

The contrast of the dark ivory to the left and right accentuate the white of the house.  That is carried through in the rocks as well and also in the deep color of the crooked windows.  As much as there appears to be many colors in this painting, it is almost simple palette meaning that the colors are limited and created by blending a few so that they compliment each other and create a sense of coherence.  Hope you like it!

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The second painting at the top of this site is "Colla," It was also painted early.  It is a simple palette painting relying mostly on ultramarine blue, alizarin crimson and Naples yellow.. The key here, again, was keeping the light on the sea and in the sky.  Layering was used so that contrast between dark and light would have more impact.  Also, some areas allow the white of the paper to peek through the color.  The painting was guided by Winston art series.  It looks much like Colla Pier in Schull, West Cork Ireland.  Though here there is only one house rather than several -- the focal point of the painting. It's a lyrical painting as is "Foothill Cottage" inviting a story left up to the imagination.

The house had to be kept very white, so this time I used masking liquid to protect it while painting the rest.  The masking peels off when you're ready and everything underneath it is white.  Whenever you want to be sure to keep an area white, it's better not to trust yourself, especially given the motor challenges of Parkinson's and diseases like it.  I learned the hard way on that a few times.  No amount of erasing gets that pure white back again once the brush has tainted it.  So, better safe that sorry!

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The third painting (far right on site welcome page)  is "Rolling Sea."  It's more recent than the other two.  I've almost always lived near or on a coastline, whether in Connecticut, California, and Rhode Island in the U.S. or in West Cork, Ireland.  The sea is a never-ending source of inspiration -- no less so for many artists.  This painting captures the wild feeling of the beach as a storm approaches.  The variety of blues contrasted with sienna, burnt sienna and hints of white and yellow were in my mind 
before they were on paper.  Notice again how much white there is in this painting.  It contrasts and enhances the movement of the water and sand.  This is a painting of feeling rather than an effort to capture reality.  

I remember early on being told by an established artist that  watercolor painting is not about capturing what it real.  It's about impression, emotion and the coming together of water, color and light.  It's not about getting something right, but more about expression and feeling.  It's about compliment and contrast and, in this case, motion.  There are always better paintings, but that doesn't matter because each one stretches the burgeoning artist a bit further  -teaching something more.

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