Bison Drawing

     Here is my finished drawing of the bison.  As usual I thought I was finished a couple of times and then after looking at it for awhile I thought it needed something changed.  That is a pretty normal process for me and I usually avoid posting anything until I have a chance to look at it for awhile.  On this piece I decided that it needed a background, more sage and some distant hills.  I'm still thinking about a name for it and several have come to mind.  "In His Prime" is one I'm thinking about.

On the Drawing Board

This is what I'm currently working on.  I've almost finished with the bison and still have the foreground and background to do.  Usually I do a very minimal background but I haven't decided on this one yet.  This is done on 1/4 sheet of D'Arches hot press watercolor paper.  For this photo I've cropped some off around the bison that is just blank paper at this point so the composition will be a little different.  I will probably take a few more days of work on it for me to finish it.   I will post the finished piece when it is done.

Lopez Island was the location of a recent paint out that I attended.  It's a beautiful island with and endless supply of beautiful scenes to paint.  This painting is of a view from Spencer's Spit.  There is a very nice park there and even though it was a little bit of a hike down the hill it was a great place to paint.  This was painted in the afternoon and I even came back the next afternoon to try to catch the shadows and reflections as I saw them when I started painting.  I've had the opportunity to see this painting hanging on my wall for awhile and I'm thinking I will tone down the very light grey logs in the middle distance.  They were almost white in the bright sunlight but it seems to me that they don't really add anything to the composition and actually become a distraction.  It will be a simple thing to darken the logs or take it out completely.  I'd be interested in other viewers opinion.

I'm looking forward to some warmer weather so that going outdoors to paint is more appealing.  I have on occasion painted in very cold and/or wet weather.  When it's really cold paint doesn't move around well and every time I've painted in anything more than a slight drizzle the painting was a disaster!  Once at a paintout in northern Idaho I tried setting up my large umbrella and started a painting even though it was just pouring rain.  Didn't work! Even with the umbrella water was soon drizzling down the front of my canvas and into my palette. 

Another time I was painting in East glacier when a camp robber (Grey Jay) came and sat on the top of my painting and then before I knew it he jumped down into my palette and took a big bite of my cad. red!  When I first saw him land on my painting I happened to have a small camera in my pocket so I took some pictures.  This all happened while I was standing there painting! I hope he survived the toxic paint!