Last night after I had posted this painting onto my blog I set it up off to the side of the T V under a light I have set up for such viewing-which is something I do often-and while the Olympics played I studied it. The first thing that really grabbed me was the brush I had put in around the Deer. It was just too much. That bothered me more than the Buck Mule Deer being hidden. My wifes comment was the deer was too hidden. That sentiment was echoed in my blog comments from my good friend, Kay Abeyta. To me it wasn't so much as the deer being hidden as there was too much confusion with all that brush. So.. This afternoon I went back into the painting and painted over the brush. That was after this morning when I did some framing including building this frame for this painting. The liner is a linen mat and I wonder if it isn't too white? Awaitng comments. I know Kay will let me have it one way or the other.
I have used the painting of this piece as a guiding tool for a number of artists out there who have asked a lot of questions both through my personal e-mail and in comments about my gouache procedure. I welcome all. I hope I have been able to answer most. I had mentioned to someone that the beauty of gouache is that you can paint dark over light and light over dark and do it all again. I took a darkened yellow ochre-almost a raw sienna color and with the right consistency of water to paint-painted right over the brush. Rather thickly and not too wet so that it had an opaque quality to it and would cover the dark. Did so with a #8 Filbert brush. Let it dry completely.[just a few minutes here in Wyoming]then with the right consistency, again painted lights and darks of grass and some brush back into the painting. Did add a little Cad Orange straight for leaves on some of that brush to pop it a little. Added a little more detail to the Buck to make him pop some and I think I am a lot happier with it. Will await comments and see if I really am??
I did download the pix as a larger image when one clicks the image here. That way you can get a little larger view of it.