Birds of a Feather

On Saturday Pat and I trekked downtown where we met up with Michele for breakfast. We then headed over to Westbeth for Dina Wakley's "Birds of a Feather" class. (Brought to us by The Ink Pad, NYC's only stamp store).
This is Dina's project sample that made us want to take the class when we first saw it advertised:




Everyone received a black and white copy of the picture Dina used:




Dina shared an easy low-tech technique (my favorite kind) for transferring an outline of the picture to our substrates. We started with a practice piece on gessoed watercolor paper.
First, the background was quickly done, then the birds. Referring to the photocopy, we painted in the dark areas, then the highlights (lightest areas) followed by the midrange. We used whatever colors we wanted, and the black and white copy made that easy. All you see are the values, not confused by color.
This is my first piece. My background is blue and my birds mainly orange. Since blue and orange are complementary colors the birds really pop off the paper.




We learned brush strokes to emulate feathers, some tricks to make life-like eyes, and finally added some stencils to the background. At home I also snuck in some rub-ons. I like it a lot.
The second piece was done on wrapped canvas. I got it started in class, and completed it the next day at home. I chose different colors, and am happy with this one too.




If you get the chance to take a class with Dina, do it! Besides being a knowledgable and organized teacher, she is a warm and funny person, and the three hour class ended way too soon.