Painting 7

It's been forever since I've updated this blog. I'm enjoying painting and I'm still moving towards my goal. Actually, I'm getting a litte quicker at my painting, and with some paintings that I've completed in a day, I'm going to reach my goal a little quicker than anticipated.

About this current painting. I planned painting this rooster very differently from what I ended up with. I had wanted the rooster to be low on the canvas with an expansive sky taking up most of the painting, but I was too afraid to experiment, and didn't want to end up with a bad composition. And what do I end up painting? A rooster in a bad composition. Seems like the risk may have been worth it. This painting was on a small canvas, about 9x12. I think the handling of the background is effective and draws your eye to the face of the bird, but the cropping of the bird feels awkward. Nor do I think it was a good idea to paint the tail feathers with such detail because it seems to compete with the focal point. Overall, I feel like I overworked the paint, especially in the yellow area of the feathers. Some quick paint strokes of pure color would probably have been more affective. Also, the legs are heavy and too thick, plus, he feels lopsided. Pay attention to details, cause they come back to haunt you!

My biggest challenge is finding interesting subjects in interesting compositions. And knowing all the paintings that are to come in my posts, I'm not sure if I've tackled that issue.