Saturday, January 26, 2013

Of A Feather

I finished my commission piece, and I have to say that while I started out rather ambivalent about it, by the end I was happy with it!

"Flight" Acrylic, 8x10 on stretched canvas. Original sold, prints available here.


The fairy took a great deal less time than I thought. I really was surprised at how quickly it went, once the bird was painted. It was all those feathers that got me initially. Sometimes I get a little too caught in the details and trying to put in fine lines in a smaller piece like this one, when I need to let go and let there be a suggestion of the lines. They don't have to exist, if the brain will fill it in for us.

Also, it took a while to reconcile the wings. Peacocks are just incredibly lovely birds with the most amazing tail-feathers in probably all of the animal kingdom... who knew their wings were UGLY!? I went through photo after photo completely shocked that this sapphire gem of a bird is hiding these rather dowdy feathers. No wonder they don't fly very often! It must really prick their egos to know they aren't perfect all over! I spiced them up with iridescent bronze, copper, and gold. It helped. Now it's not so dowdy.

I was happy with the mood too. I was going for, sort of an urgent, they're going somewhere, sort of thing. Maybe even running, and that's why she's looking behind her. It just sort of fell that way, I didn't plan it, but it's what I have been feeling lately on a personal level, so it makes sense that it would show up in my sketch I suppose!

I believe this year will have several fairies in it. I want them to be a bit bigger and more the focus though, and I'll likely explore that in watercolors to start with as well. But that will have to wait, because I have the contest winner's painting up next, as well as starting in on the Caterpillar for my Alice in Wonderland Series. February is going to be a big month with lots of paintings!

6 comments:

  1. Lovely! I can feel the urgency and swift flight. We have a peacock wing feather we got at a petting zoo....you'd never know in it's dull brown hue that it came from a peacock...haha!

    You did well not making it look dull at all!

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    1. It's so funny that such a pretty bird had a dull area like that!

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  2. It turned out very nice! I was wondering wich kind of colour you should pick for the hair of the fairy.

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    1. I went with echoing the key with the hair, and the ribbon on the key with the dress for the fairy (and of course, her wings are like the peacock's tail.) Seemed a good match!

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  3. Your commissioned piece turned out amazing!!! I never knew that about the feathers! Very interesting! Can't wait to see all the fairies ;o) Take Care ;o)

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