Sunday 5 May 2013

05/05: ANOTHER BATHING BEAUTY

After yesterday's heavy usage of the 'bathing' water bowl I gave it a thorough clean this morning and topped it up - and the first visitor was:







Needs filling up again - blackbirds and robins do love to splash about

this is one of the drawings I've been playing with - its a cat I photographed at a beach bar in Corralejo, Fuerteventura last month.  He wasn't impressed at having human company but was too warm and comfy to move away from the warm sunny spot he'd found. 
I had some Sennelier La Carte Pastel Card (gritty surface)  in a sand colour so thought I'd use that to help with the texture of the bright yellow beach wall and the picon (volcanic shingle which is used a lot in landscaping/surfacing) in the Canaries

But the colour keeps sinking into the textured paper and losing its sharpness - I hadn't expected that to happen on a gritted paper.   I need to buy some new fixative spray this week and will give this a light spray to see if I can then add more colour and brighten the whites again before adding final details.

So a bit disappointing - but I may be able to rescue it.  No critiques please as, if I do manage to salvage this piece, its one I may submit to UKCPS next week.   It will look better once I get the whiskers and wispy bits done

I've used mostly Derwents and Prismacolors and think perhaps Polychromos may have worked better on this surface, being oil based rather than wax based ... something to try later on




Off to play a bowls match now and the weather is going to be kind to us I think.   Yesterday's match was played in windy showery conditions but thankfully I was a 'reserve' bowler and not called on to brave the weather.     Today is going to be a short sleeve day methinks!



5 comments:

  1. If I ever saw a look of disdain, this cat has it! Poor moggie didn't know you were doing a masterpiece of him. I've spent ages in the garden to no avail, as I heard a beautiful birdsong and couldn't see the bird. If I write down his sound could you tell me what it is? Only joking!!!!

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  2. Definitely no crit from me! It's lovely and tells such a story!

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  3. Robin certainly had a good time. We have pix from North Carolina similar to this with the birds splashing around. Its lovely to see.

    Cat looks good to me, hope you get it fixed the way you want for your exhibition.

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  4. Hi Polly
    Well I think the nicest birdsongs in (our) garden are the robins and the blackbirds so if you aren't sure what they sound like check the RSPB site where you can listen to birdsong for your selected species

    not sure how to put a link into comments box so here's the long way round:

    http://www.rspb.org.uk/wildlife/birdguide/name/r/robin/index.aspx

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  5. great photos of the little robin in the water :)

    that is so odd that the colour is doing that with gritted paper...hmmm yeah polys might work better, hopefully the fixative works

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