Painting #211 - Aug 23 - an interesting day

This day was a bit mixed up, class was started late, thought I had all my basis covered, all my students but one couldn't make class so, she and I decided to start class an hour late, well, low and behold, got to class, later than I meant to, and a surprise student had been there waiting, boy did I feel like a heal, someone I hadn't expected to show up, did, well, she just got a free lesson, I just couldn't charge her for class when I was over an hour late, but, it was a nice class time anyway, we held class over a bit so she got a real bargain, and the student that I knew was coming to class was just as late as I was, so this was a bit of a discomboobalated day, put that in your pipe and smoke it, lol.

I originally started a painting of spent milk weed (actually all dried up), but my husband and I went for a bit of a drive and out to dinner, didn't get home until late, so I was about to start painting, and I got a call from a friend that I haven't been able to connect with, for one reason or another, and I just couldn't tell her that I had to finish my painting, we've been doing that phone chase for several months, either she's busy or I am, so I just talked (for about an hour and a half, maybe more), so I didn't feel that the milk weed would be able to get done in an hour or so, so I found a picture of this owl that my friend Edith shared with me, and I decided to do the owl. I know what you're thinking, "this is easier than milk weed?", well, I will tell you, I think it is, the milk weed will just have to wait until tomorrow morning so get finished, I also have to prepare for my watercolor class in Sturgis tomorrow, so tomorrow will be another busy day, of course, Thursday will also be busy, I have 3 classes on Thursdays. I'm telling you, there just aren't enough hours in the day lately.

I started this painting by painting a light brown where the owl was, then painted a darker brown for the tree and branches, I dampened my brush and wiped back the shapes of the eye and eye socket, then lifted the lights for the wing and the breast. then I started with the eye and laid in a yellow for the eye and black for the pupil, then dark brown for the brow ridge, and so on, I used my brush and skipped around to shape the feathers then got some light (and I mean light yellow, almost white), for the breast highlights and the highlight in the eyes. Once the owl was finished, I concentrated on the tree and branches, finally I put in some green for the leaves, I added some touches of burnt sienna on some of the leaves to give it a bit if interest. I like this little painting, and I hope you do too.