Work In Progress: Osprey: Lover’s Key, Florida Update 8

Work In Progress: Osprey: Lover’s Key, Florida Update 8

            Now that all the preliminary preparations are complete, I’m ready to start painting the scene.

            Since the background will be watercolor, and I wanted the freedom to brush across the paper without having to worry about the birds or the nest getting in the way and having to work around them. So, I masked off all but the background with a combination of masking fluid, paper and tape. First, I cut pieces of paper out large enough to fit inside the objects to be masked so I wouldn’t have to paint masking fluid over the whole bird or nest. I then taped them down. I used masking fluid around all the outer edges of the birds and nest, making sure to paint up onto the tape to seal it.

            Finally, I can paint. After all the preliminary work, I’m anxious to get started. I mixed up a good amount of paynes grey to do the background. Next, I wet down the entire area to be painted with water, giving it two coats. Then, I painted wet in wet, building up a number of layers, adding more layers in some spots than others to suggest clouds here and there as I went. When I felt it was dark enough I stopped. I didn’t want to add any more detail to the clouds now. Once the birds and nest are in I can decide if more work is necessary on the background. Since it’s not a good idea to leave the masking fluid in place more than a day or so, I wanted to mask the paper, paint in the background and remove the masking all the same day.

            The photos show the progression from drawing to masking to painted background. Next, I’ll start with colored pencil on the bird in fight.