You might think that’s just a play on “I see dead people” – okay, you got me, it is – but I do see some chickens! There’s a couple things I want to update y’all on, and to start us off is my first(-ish) painting series. (I say first-ish because I somewhat did a digital series, but we’ll cover that afterwards. Let’s just leave it at this one is actually more thought out, and that’s why it’s first. …ish.) Let’s begin!
Painting Series I: i see chickens
General Information
- Theme: Chicken portraits with geometric shapes
- Number of Paintings: 9
- Medium: Mixed media (ink, watercolor, copper leaf, and colored pencils)
- Style: Semi-realism
- Paper Type: 6″ x 9″ cold-pressed, cotton watercolor paper
- Fun Fact: The portraits depict some of my current birds. 🧡
The Fabulous Subjects
- 1 – Carl: black and red Easter Egger rooster
- 2 – Eabha: blue Ameraucana hen
- 3 – Carrie: red, black, and white Speckled Sussex hen
- 4 – Ein: white-crested, blue Polish pullet
- 5 – Timber: polished wood colored Easter Egger hen
- 6 – Aedan: red and white Swedish Flower rooster
- 7 – Smoke Jr: white and gray Naked Neck cockerel
- 8 – Buckbeak: multi-colored Ameraucana cockerel
- 9 – Astrid: chestnut Naked Neck hen
For this first – of many! – series, I wanted to choose a subject that was near and dear to me and one I could have a lot of fun with. I’ve been reading about ways to help develop your style as that’s honestly been one of my most pressing concerns over the years. There’s nothing worse than feeling like what you pour your time, energy, and soul into is just generic white noise. I definitely want my paintings – no matter the subject or medium – to look and feel like they came from me, even if my signature isn’t on there. It’s a goal I continue to strive for, and I’m hoping painting in series can help as I explore various themes and develop a strong familiarity with an array of media.
Exploring An Ancient Program
As I’m not quite ready to show you the in-progress Carl piece (soon!), I hope I can entertain you with the five paintings that could arguably be considered my actual first series. The subjects vary, but these were all created – at least primarily – with good ol’ MS Paint. My goal was to explore this ancient program, which my partner uses almost exclusively, to see if I could make something pretty too. It turns out she was entirely right about the versatility of the crayon tool! …but you didn’t hear that from me.
Another fun note is that all but the fifth painting just used the basic color palette. I was curious to see what I could make with it!
My first subject was quite simple – a sweet ball python hatching out of their egg. This painting let me experiment with techniques I would later refine with more complex figures.
Apparently, I couldn’t just draw a lovely swan. I had to make them into this swan-dinosaur-lava-critter. It was pretty fun!
For the third painting, I wanted to do something with a horse, so meet Limai who is a beloved character from my equine-like jypsi species. She’s a particularly stunning example of her species, and I wasn’t sure if MS Paint was up to the task!
The fourth is really two images. The tiger skull was first, and then I scaled it down before drawing the vulture. The background was added in Photoshop; it consists of scans from my watercolor paintings.
This handsome boy is a currently unnamed aerog – my other main, original species. He’s practicing an aerial courtship dance at the moment so needed a watercolor background too! (I started to fall in love myself during the sketch phase, which is why he got to have hand-picked colors.)
As a little teaser for next week… I will be announcing an exciting update for y’all titled “calling in my birds of a feather.” Thank you so much for sharing some of your time with me this week!
Stay tuned!
surreal vulture 