PROPORTIONS CAN MAKE OR BREAK A PAINTING

A technique that really works for me after a studio day is to snap a photo of what I am leaving on the easel so I can worry about it later or even sometimes give it an approving nod.

Today isn't a "nod" day. I fear the head is out of proportion to the body. My plan is to sit with a glass of wine in the backyard this evening and wait for the late day feeding to check the goldfinch proportions.

CONSTRUCTIVE TIME OUT

There are all sorts of studio time outs one could take from the intensity of painting at the easel. My preference is to go with the simplicity of paper and pencil and find the lines on different subjects. Of course there is always that option of a magazine or nap on the old couch .

The advantage of these soft drawing times is that you can accumulate a number of images fitting for a studio sale .

PREPARING FOR A PHOTO SESSION

Making an appointment with your photographer for a phote shoot offers you a deadline to step pestering a canvas and submit it as finished as it can be. Or you cancel the appointment which you knew in your heart was pre mature and tuck the painting on a back easel for consideration at a later date as you ponder it.

The hawk image occupied the "tuck away" easel for about a month. This week end I was able to transition it into an image showing some of the qualities of a raptor that I was hoping to find.

This is a studio shot but I am ready to turn it over to my photographer Sidney Smith as finished. It also helps that she is outstanding at what she does.

A WONDERFUL DISTRACTION

The most friendly chicken in our flock of six is Rose. She enjoys my conversations when having afternoon coffee in their coop yard. She often sits on my knee while listening to me talk about a day of making contacts, supply errands, and studio work.

Yesterday she moved up to my shoulder and roosted there as we watched the others in silence.

I have read how chickens can be friendly and fun to watch to the point of distraction and now

here I am here writing about it and thinking gesture sketches, ink etchings and water color.