Backgrounds and two loons.

I am slowly getting into a better working flow in my studio. One of the goals I set for 2018 was to get more work done. This means that I need a more structured daily routine in the studio. It is too easy to just 'float around': surfing the internet looking at other artists, reading, and so on. I guess that is the hazard of working alone at home. A breakfast that lasts 3 hours with several cups of tea and watching artists create on youtube is not unheard of...

So now I have made a monthly and a weekly plan for myself. Having deadlines have always helped me getting work done, it really seems to help when I have to check off things from a list.

This week has been a good week, and I have got quite a lot done. And the week isn't even over yet! It helps I guess that the changes my art is going through are really making me eager to create more.

As the title suggests, I have a lot of backgrounds going on. When I paint my backgrounds with acrylic they often need to dry a little between layers. So having several paintings in progress at the same time is almost a must for me. Then I can rotate them and can continue creating without getting the flow interrupted. This also means that they almost automatically look a little alike, and in a sense seems to belong to a series. So it is all good!

First off today, however, are two watercolours.

Loon in autumn. I used to have a loon as a neighbour when I was living in the forest in Finland. I still miss their call in the evenings. 

These two are supposed to be Black-throated loons, Gavia Arctica. Although it can be that my neighbour loon was a red-throated loon. I only ever saw it flying by in a distance going fishing to the smaller lake, so I don't know. I filmed the process of the first one:

This poor owl has gone through many changes. I am finally getting happy with the colours, so a few more transparent layers behind the owl and then I can get down to paint the owl itself.

These colours are also slowly getting there. I see now that the beak of the lower raven is all wrong. I have to fix that tomorrow before I finish the background.

This is also one of the bird paintings I had almost done when I found myself dissatisfied with the background. So I painted over the background and started again. Not all too easy as I had already started to paint the kingfisher with oil colours. I just have to work around that. This is only the first layer. I will add little more colours and also add a little more contrast.

It may seem weird, but these textures and colours make me happy. I can see a white flower of some kind on this one...

More yummy textures.

I also had a play with my Gelli plate today. If you have never heard of it before, it is a plate made of a kind of gelatin, and it is a very easy way of having your own print press at home. You squirt some acrylic on top, spread it out with a brayer, and then put a paper on it. You can do all different kinds of mark making and stuff with it too, but I just played with layers of colours to get abstract backgrounds.

Look at those textures! I will have a lot of fun painting on these.