How I work

some images along the way to a completed painting

I took this video on this roadrunner that couldn’t figure out how to get out of my temporary fence area. So I was able to get some fairly close images. Although the quality wasn’t the best it was enough for me to work with.

This is an early stage in the painting. Things are just getting filled in. I like to add a darker color for the background and gradually go light or change colors completely as I ended up doing for this painting.

I usually just start painting on my canvas or panel. I block in the image with broad brushstrokes to get the general features. At some point if the image looks off I’ll take a picture of the painting and check it against the original image and add an outline to it. I sometimes will need to do this a number of times. It’s amazing how your can be fooled and it seems okay but it’s not. That sounds like a life lesson too!