Work in Progress Week #3

Here we are at week 3 and I think my painting is almost done!! Posting this work in progress is a growing experience for me and I am grateful for the opportunity.I am learning so much too!

Materials Used:

Acrylic paint (mostly Liquitex, Golden fluid and regular)
Shiva Oilstiks
Portfolio Water Soluble Oil Pastels
Pencil
Pitt Artist Pen (black)
Collage materials (newspaper, sheet music, patterned paper)
Gesso
Matte Medium
Canvas (gallery stretched)

Since I blocked out the bird on the right hand side of the painting, I draw him in with the Pitt pen on the other side.

I fill in the bird with gesso (straight from the bottle for maximum covering strength) and let it completely dry. This usually takes a few hours, depending on how many coats you use. I usually apply 2 coats.

I fill the bird in with Portfolio Pastels and just use my finger to blend. I apply a dark blue to the bottom and a lighter blue at the top to give the bird form. The blue of the bird ties in with the blues in the background and "sings" against the vibrant red/orange. I keep working on the background adding depth, patterns etc.

I add some patterns (using a stamp) to the background and her hair. I also add some music collage to the bottom of her dress. I don't know if I will keep any of these elements in the final painting but...I try out different things to see what feels right to me. I work on her face-adding color and definition (with the Siva Oilstiks and the Pitt pen). Now its' basically a "push/pull" process where I push things into the background by painting over them or pull them into the foreground to make it pop out.

Thanks for looking! See you next week for what will probably be the final part of this process.