and other procrastinatory problems
To head off some of my reluctance to paint, I decided to crack on with some of the drawings for the Ecuador bird poster project, and managed to complete a few and get them ready for colour. I mixed some beautiful red for the Scarlet Macaw, and feeling suitably motivated, made a start. I tend to work in colour blocks with the birds, so I finished all the red bits, and went to make a coffee.
One of the things I love about gouache is how quickly it dries – a matter of minutes even in cool weather. Those minutes were long enough however, for my cat Sausage to make his mark, literally:
Sigh. This rather sapped my enthusiasm, but to be honest I isolate the birds and standardise the backgrounds anyway so it doesn’t really matter. I have bought some new gouache colours from Jackson’s Art as a Christmas present to myself, and one is a beautiful turquoise – perfect for a number of illustrations on my list.
In the meantime I’m going to carry on with my fish paintings as I would like to start selling them in the new year. I’m currently working on a cod and a plaice, all part of my Fish are Friends initiative!
