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Friday, May 9, 2014

Animals, Australian magpie, by Elaine (jaguarish)

Yay!  I finally got around to doing a sketch of the magpies that visited me a few weeks ago on my back deck.  The yellow background is from an exercise where I was trying some techniques from the Strathmore online workshop (currently on-going) http://www.strathmoreartist.com/artist-studio/groups/workshop-2-2014.  I laid down a yellow wash of watercolour then added some dots of green paint hoping it would diffuse into the yellow, and sprinkled some salt on the page as well.  This page is not as interesting as some of the others I did, but works well as a background to the sketch.  I was also experimenting with the sketch itself -- I used some graphite paint which has been lurking in my art supplies for a while.  I've never used it before.  I'm not sure if I like it, but it's always interesting to try new things.


16 comments:

  1. Elaine, great painting of the australian magpie! Wow! Is the australian magpie darker than magpies here in Europe or does it only look sp in this light? Beautiful work!

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    1. Hi Sirkka, thank you! The magpie is actually black and white (except juveniles which are shades of gray). You can see some photos here: http://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Australian_Magpie

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    2. Thank you for the link. jaguarish! Yes, it seems to be true, that "your" magpie has a black chest and belly. How interesting! I will draw "our" magpie too, so we can see the similarities and differences, Elaine.

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  2. He's a fantastic magpie, a very strong sketch so for me it has worked very well. It looks so good against the background which suggests indistinct foliage. I love this sketch.

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  3. What a marvellous subtle painting. I really like your use of colour here.

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  4. Great magpie sketch. I love magpies, they have a wonderful song. Great use of materials.

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  5. Gorgeous! Love the minimal style here. It works really well.

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  6. Very nice.


    Carol Ann

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  7. Great looking sketch. Love it!

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  8. Elaine, this is such an elegant magpie! I love the style you've done it in.

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  9. Elaine, I love how the darkness of the bird stands out against that bright background. The magpie glows. I didn't know there was such a thing as graphite paint...sounds interesting.

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  10. This is quite stunning the black bird against the sunny background! I think it works beautifully. Very very well done! Bravo!

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