Finished Painting of cows lying down on Dartmoor

Here's a quick photo of the finished painting, I'll post more soon on the iridescent effects due to the use of interference acrylic. In the meantime I need to think of a title, any suggestions welcome!

Step 4 of a new painting of cows lying down on Dartmoor

Here's step 4, just a couple of modifications for today, the distant cow on the right is starting to take shape and more detail has been added to the foreground foliage, plenty of magenta for the heather and cadmium yellow for the gorse flowers.

Step 3 of New Painting on the way Cows lying down on Dartmoor

 

Here are the next couple of stages of the paintings. Above you can see that the cows are still in their metallic blue phase but some modifications have been made to the background hills. The right and left hand thirds of the hill-scape have been coated in a thin layer of interference blue while the middle section is now coated in interference yellow (the latter being created by mixing some cadmium yellow with some pearlescent tinting medium).

Once dry the trees and hedgerows were added in a loose style. In the second pic (below) I've started to "knock back" the shimmer from the interference blue on the cows by over-painting the cows with interactive acrylic.

When applying the paint at this stage I'm just painting as I would normally, regardless of the fact there is interference acrylic beneath. When the painting is finished I want any interference blue that shows through to be serendipitous in nature and not look "planned".

At this stage I also notice that the cow on the right is somewhat out of shape and resembling one of those creatures Anakin rode in Attack of the Clones. Some bovine surgery will be required very soon!

 

Step 2: Cows lying down on Dartmoor

The plan with this work is to alternate layers of acrylic with layers of interference color. In this photo you can see that the cows have now been over-painted with interference blue as has the sky and distant hills. The moorland in the mid and foreground has been painted with interference copper & violet, respectively. Although it appears that most of the previous layer has been obliterated there is actually a mixture of areas where only the metallic colour shows and areas where some of the under painting is showing through
As the painting progresses the intention is to make the layers of interference color progressively more transparent...but we'll see how it goes!

New Painting on the way / Cows lying down on Dartmoor

Here are the beginnings of a new painting, some Dexter cattle lying down among the heather and gorse of Dartmoor. I've enjoyed painting these cows before, their dark hides lend themselves to the inclusion of plenty of blue where the light catches them. They also contrast well with the magenta, green and yellow of the surrounding flora.
My previous paintings "Time For A Nap" and "A Lunch Interrupted" were both small (24"x8") but this time I wanted to work on a larger scale and this canvas, being about 30"x40", is for me near perfect in size as it allows me to use a reasonably large brush and not get caught up in the annoyances of fiddly intricate bits!
This new painting (if it proves successful)also marks the start of what I hope will be the next stage in the development of my artistic technique. I'm combining my normal combination of conventional and interactive acrylics with the iridescent effects that can be achieved with interference acrylics.
The landscape and cows were all painted with a layer of interference acrylic before over painting with acrylic and I'll expand more on the planned technique when I post the next stage.

Sketchbook Lamb Sketch 'Taking A Bow'

'Taking A Bow' the latest cute lamb sketch

Highly Commended in Patchings Exhibition 2011

My painting 'You Again' has just won a "Highly Commended" in the Professional category of the Patchings Exhibition 2011. It is now eligible for the People's Choice Award, so if you have a moment or two please feel free to visit the Patchings Website and vote for me! (or indeed any of the work by other artists that you like :-))