Female Cardinal - update

I started out with this a few weeks ago.
Female Cardinal and male Cardinal

In the meantime I have only worked very little and only on the female.

Here are the two shots I have made to document my progress. And notice eventual errors early enough. So that I can still correct them.

Just the brownish grays here.

Adding a little red already; and yellow and white.

It sure looks  cute already.
I hope, I can keep that look on the bird.

=))

Female Cardinal and Male Cardinal

New Painting Project 2013 - part 1:

The Background

Finally I am back to painting, with acrylics again.

All Winter long the light was just not right in the room I use for doing the art work. 

Now, with Spring finally here the sunny days with the right light to see the colors "as they are" is back. Electric illumination falsifies them too much for me. 

This is the image I'm working on:

Female Cardinal by Marilou Aballe

Contrary to the usual "bird-on-twig = background is sky blue" setting, the background here is a blurry grey. 

And I need to do the background first, so the details of the twigs won't get painted over when adding it as last thing to the painting.  

I mixed the black and white and applied it to the canvas. But that turned out too dark, and streaky:

Using additional water and swirl motion:

Still too dark.
Next trick to get some of the wet paint of by placing a paper towel over it and rubbing it gently:

The result is this:

Nice, but quite the blurry, cloudy background I has aimed for. The color though seems great. Additional careful rubbing over the canvas produced this:

And since there is also a male Cardinal photo, I decided to do the pair:

On this above photo is the print out from another female Cardinal (by Laura Waterhouse), that I had saved last year for painting. The details around the eyes are different and I mistook it for a male. 

This is the male cardinal I will paint on the second canvas:

Red Cardinal by Marilou Aballe

I'm just not sure yet if I place it in the same tree, or leave it on this minimalist metal wire. Grey as background works here just the same.

(Sorry, if some photos are a bit wobbly - I was in a hurry to make them before the paint dries.)

I will update as I progress with these.

Happy Easter 2013

One year has past.
Easter has come again.
The Easter decoration in my village looks like last year too.
Happy Easter was the post last year.
Only change is that Easter is earlier - and that it is much, much colder this year too.

In some places they say this Easter is more like the Christmas we wanted to have in December.
In respect to all the cold and snow.
And for some even in the amount of presents they get.
Not so much in chocolate eggs and bunnies; not so healthy.
Now many place non-food things in the Easter baskets.

Well, I'm not. ;-)
But I will give you presents too.

Photo presents.

Sunrise at 7:25 on Saturday from my kitchen window.

Frozen Motion; an impression of the cold times this Spring.

A hot fire to warm you up again.

My maxi chocolate egg -

and the surprise it contained: an artist sheep.

=)) Perfect present to me. Thank you Easter Bunny.
Now all I need is just some free time and good light (and warmth) and I'll be back to creating some more paintings.
In the meantime, I'm working on these little candle holders.

HAPPY EASTER 

too all; if you celebrate it or not, or some other festive on this weekend.
Have a good time, enjoy yourself, enjoy life.

=))

Mr Rabbit and Reulek - the lost adventure

While Mr. Rabbit was here for his visit,
he had an adventure of the different kind.

He was hunted down by a Reulek.

Mr. Rabbit was inspecting a rock with small cave like openings.

He did not notice a Reulek following him.

Sneaking up from behind a tree, ready for ambush.

"Help, help. Don't shoot. Let's be friends!"

And so they became friends for a while.

 Mr. Rabbit

and the Reulek take a train ride together.

"Look, humans at the train station."

"Kill, kill!" shouts the Reulek.

And jumps out to ambush them.

When finally reaching the village Mr Rabbit was visiting, he had to realize his friendship with the Reulek was only short.

The village was being invaded by a multitude of Reuleks.

 And this is the place they all had come from:

Guess, the snow and cold was too much for them to stay in hiding there all winter.

Mr. Rabbit's Big Adventure - in Germany(18)

Hello, Mr. Rabbit here one more time.

This is my last day in Germany.
I'm getting ready to travel to my next location.
We had another sunny day.
I got to play with the shadows on the wall.

Incidentally, I'm too big to fit through the slit of this mail sending box.
So, Micha will have to find another way for me from where I can start my travel.
Maybe I fit in one of these boxes? Which one will it be?

And, yes, I can take my green bag along too. And the ear warmers and jacket, of course.
I might need them where I go next.

Bye, bye, Micha. We had a good time and lots of fun. Thank you.

 (\_/)

(=’.'=)

(“)_(“)

Mr. Rabbit's Big Adventure - in Germany(17)

Hello, Mr. Rabbit here.

My visit is coming to an end.
Soon I will move on.
To may greatest surprise I had some visitors myself on Sunday.
Well, OK, they came to visit Micha and her family to belatedly celebrate a birthday.
For me, it was a "good-bye" day cake.

The baker is +Miriam Höltschl and she wrote how she made that special  Rainbow cake .

Coming closer to inspect the cake. It smells a bit yummy.

Cake is being cut and distributed. See the rainbow?

And those flowers in the pot next to me brings in Spring feelings; together with a lovely sunshine now.
I wonder what the garden would look like in  Spring?
Right now it's all white with snow.

And there are such fancy things in the garden!

And the cat walks through it too. I found the tracks, the cat stays away from me though. =)

Mr. Rabbit's Big Adventure - in Germany(16)

Hello, Mr. Rabbbit here.

Today, I bring you some comrades I met while visiting. They are to be found all over the place.
And I think there are even more, but I didn't find them.

The guardians at the entrance; enjoying the warming sun rays.
This early in the day it was still a bit cold for me though.

 I went back inside to visit the Lion, and the reclining Lady. She was not liking my visit that much.

Can you see the snake and the lizard hiding in the palm tree pot?

This gecko had me cornered!

So the two huskies came to protect me.

My best friends were these two bears though.
Guarding Micha at night.

 My visit will soon be over. Will I miss them? Who knows what other new adventures I will have. =)