Grandfather Buzzard (Cathartes Aura) The Golden Purifier - Final

I did a little more detail work and think I am calling this one finished. 

A new project is calling my name so I am moving on. 

Here is the final painting

Grandfather Buzzard

As with all my work Fine Art prints are available on my website and I can also be contacted there in regards to purchasing the original painting.

To see the final steps read on after the break.

Grandfather Buzzard -Work in Progress 7

I've been looking at the painting for a couple days and started adding more detail today. 

Here is what it looks like right now.

To see the step by step photos read on after the break.

Grandfather Buzzard -Work in Progress 6

I'm getting close to being done. I sprayed a coat of retouch Damar varnish on to see the color better. Now I'll stare at it for a few days and nitpick before starting on the next thing.

To order prints of this painting when it's done and all of my other work, check out my website.

To see the step by step photos read on after the break.

Grandfather Buzzard -Work in Progress 5

I have started o the glazing process. First a clear 50/50 turpentine and stand oil glaze to bring out the color and then adding some color and detail to the painting. 

Here it is as it sits on my easel this morning.

 

To see the steps that preceded this one read on after the break.

Grandfather Buzzard -Work in Progress 4

I started in with oil glazes today, turpentine with a little linseed oil added. Here is what the painting looks like now.

To see the steps to get to this point read on after the break. 

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Grandfather Buzzard -Work in Progress 4

Continuing the battle of creation. Here is where I am with the painting right now.

To see the step by step battle read on after the break. 

Grandfather Buzzard -Work in Progress 3

Plugging along with the acrylic paint. It's nice to work fast in the early stages of a painting. It's really easy to move and change things by just painting over with White. 

I was reading up on the Buzzard and Vulture some more and here are some of the things I found.

"The scientific name for the Turkey Vulture is CATHARTES AURA which means GOLDEN PURIFIER because as it goes about it's lifetime business it purifies the landscape and environment in it's own natural way, ensuring the continued health and life of other living things. The Vulture is a promise that all hardship was temporary and necessary for a higher purpose.  Once a Vulture enters your life as a totem or guide, it will remain with you for life.

Vultures live and work together, both in cooperation and friendliness. They communicate with friends and neighbors when they find something to eat. They let the others know where the food is. And when there is a big feast they communicate with neighboring flocks in distant roosts. Also, Turkey Vultures that range within California Condor habitat areas, when they find food they will go to the Condors and lead them to it. One roost was observed when they had a dead cow in their neighborhood. They somehow contacted a roost of 100 vultures about 30 miles away to come join them. Several days later, before they finished their feast, two more cows died. Within a day the vultures had contacted another roost to join them. At night all the birds visited together in the same or neighboring trees. There were now three different roosts living together. When the cows had been cleaned up the several visiting roosts went home. (source)

In Greek mythology, the Vulture is the descendant of the Griffin.  It was a very Buddhist-like, Zen-like symbol of the non-dual oneness of heaven and earth, spirit and matter, good and evil, guardian and avenger.  The Vulture is the avenger of nature spirits.    Ancient Assyrians believed the Vulture was, like Nagarjuna's middle way, Sunyata, the encompassing overall non-separated union between the day and night. Ironically, regardless of the less than good image the vulture is typically granted by most, think about it:

Unlike the needs of nearly all other living creatures, vultures do not kill.
Their prey either dies or something else kills it."

To see the step by step progress from my last post read on after the break.

Grandfather Buzzard -Work in Progress 2

I did a little more painting today. I roughed in the final position of Grandfather Buzzard and started putting in some color. Tomorrow I need to start thinking about my background.

 I'm not sure I leave it like the mock up. Here is how it looks now.

To see the steps to get here read on after the break.

Grandfather Buzzard -Work in Progress 1

I decided to do another Buzzard painting to go with my American Gods series. I found a black canvas on sale the other day and decided to give it a try. I'm going to do this one in Acrylics. Here is my sketch in white pencil on the canvas.

 

This is the mock up I did in Photoshop. I wanted the Great Buzzard to be King of the birds

I photographed my sketch and then layered in over my digital mock up to
check my proportions before painting.

Once I corrected my sketch a little I started painting with white acrylic on the black canvas this will be another painting using the grisaille technique .

Continuing with the white. I thinned it down with water for more gradation in tone.

For the shadows I am using some thinned Paynes grey for now. 

I will add color when I am happy with all the under painting.

I'm coming up on 1200 images on my website available for Fine Art Prints. 

Check it out if you have some free time.

Vulture: New painting work in progress 3

I started painting on canvas today. This one will be 48"x30" and is about as big as my easel can take. Here is the painting as it exists right now.

Te see the step by step process read on after the break. This painting as well as all my other work is or will be available in Fine Art Prints on my website. Check it out when you have the time.

 

I will continue painting the grisaille until I am satisfied with the detail and the tonal range and then I will switch over to oils for the color work.

 

New Painting WIP "Saytr"

Here is the painting as it sits on my easel this morning.

I think I will switch over to water based Artisan paints from this point on so I can

 do glazing and some wood graining on the head easier.

To see the step by step process to get to this point read on after the break.

If you have some time you can check out more of my work on my website.

New Painting WIP inspired by Quan the Saytr

I've been itching to do another painting lately and decided I really liked the concept of one of my latest Wood Spirits, Quan the Saytr. I decided to go more goat-like in my painting so I mocked up a quick idea in Photoshop to work from.

I'm thinking I will make the bone parts of the skull look more like wood

 but I'm not completely sure yet.

This is the painting as it sits on my easel right now.

To see step by step photos of the work in progress, read on after the break.

To see more of my work be sure to check out my website.

Nemestrinus, God Of The Forests And Woods

I decided to continue doing paintings based on the Woodies I have already created. I recently did one based on Woody 107 and it was a lot of fun. I decided that I would do small quick paintings in a black sketchbook I have and then further refine my favorite ones. 

Nemestrinus, God Of The Forests And Woods is my first attempt and is based on Woody 200.

Nemestrinus, God Of The Forests And Woods

I painted with a flat brush mostly to keep from getting bogged down in too much detail work. I have several more I would like to do so I will post them as they are completed. 

As alway my work is available as Fine Art Prints on my website and I will be at the 

Reno Art Fest on the River, Aug. 19-20 2017

Giaos, God of the Stars

I'm pretty happy with this one so I'm calling it done.

Giaos, God of the Stars is an acrylic painting on canvas inspired by Neil Gaiman's book "American Gods" where the Gods have jobs and live along with regular people and have powers depending on how much people still believe in them. Giaos, God of the Stars, is based on the belief that Aliens created man originally. Giaos lives among us using mind control to keep people from seeing him as he actually appears.

Giaos, God of the Stars

 Check out my website to see more of my work and order Fine Art Prints.

 

Work in Progress Inspired by Woody 107 #5

I stared down the painting last night and the painting won. I decided I needed to add a shirt like the rest of the paintings in this series, so here it is as it sits on my easel now.

I went with a green T-shirt with an "ENJOY THE PROBING" logo. I also evened out the shape of his head, the right side was a little different shape. 

To see the preceding steps just read after the break.

To see more of my work and order Fine Art Prints click here.

Work in Progress Inspired by Woody 107 #4

I started adding the Blending Medium to the acrylic paint today. This is my favorite part where I add layers of glaze to the painting. It smooths everything out and adds a lot of depth to the color.

Here is the painting on the easel now.

To see the battle that ended up here, read on after the break.

To see more of my crazy work check out my website. 

Work in Progress Inspired by Woody 107 #3

Another day of painting and here we are right now.

I think in this series of paintings, unlike the Woodies, I will have to come up 

with names of the portraits along with a back story. 

I think I want more color in the finished piece but it is at least interesting to me at this point. 

To see more of my work and order Fine Art Prints, check out my website.

To see step by step photos of how I managed to get to this point read on after the break.

Work in Progress Inspired by Woody 107 #2

I made some more progress this evening, here is how it looks on my easel now.

I am going to kick up the color quite a bit more next. 

To see step by step progress photos read on after the break, make sure to

check out my website and order a Fine Art Print.

New Painting Work in Progress Inspired by Woody 107

The weather has been getting better and with our new puppy I have been out taking her for walks with my camera. As a result I haven't been painting at all lately. I have had an idea of doing paintings using my Woodies as inspiration. There are over 200 creatures I have created and I thought I would start doing paintings inspired by the weirdest ones. So today I started a new painting, acrylic on canvas 18" x 24" using Woody 107 as a subject and we'll see how it goes.

Woody 107

This is what the painting looks like on my easel right now.

To see step by step photos of the painting being created and some of the twisted reasons 

why I do things read on after the break. 

As always my work is available as Fine Art Prints on my website. Check it out if you have the time.

Wolfie

Another painting done! I put Wolfie up on my website this morning and he is available for adoption as a Fine Art print. I think he goes splendidly with my Modern Coyote painting.

Wolfie

 

 

Now I need to get to work on my Rider of the Purple Sage painting.