From Birds to Bunnies

“Life wants you to touch, taste and see the grandeur of the world’s unfathomable variety.”

Bryant McGill

And now for something completely different . . .

After the satisfaction of completing my vulture pastel painting with reasonable success (my own feelings about the project) I had the need to do something completely different. This is often the case for me when I create something. It is as if I climb a small mountain and after reaching the top, I seek a different type of terrain to explore for the next little while. It seems to keep things fresh for me and kind of ‘cleanses my palette’ and allows me to look at the next creation with excitement and fresh eyes. I feel that it helps me keep on the top of my game and also allows me to learn new things with every piece I create. I certainly never get bored.

The other day I was thinking about what my ‘favorite’ medium to create with is. That was a tough question to myself because for me, it is an ever-changing kaleidoscope of possibilities. There are so many wonderful and fun ways to draw, paint, and create that it is extremely difficult to choose my one that I like best.

After finishing up my vulture (which is done using soft pastels) I felt that it was quite a strong contender for the top spot. But then I looked around my studio here where I have several of my favorite recent creations on display (this changes regularly) and I realized that I equally loved the paintings I did using oil pastels, watercolor, acrylics, and even colored pencils. That doesn’t even include the embroidery and needlework projects that I also get so much satisfaction out of making.

I guess I need to call myself a ‘multi-media’ artist, as I don’t want to (excuse the pun) paint myself into a corner of one type of medium or another. They all give me pleasure and I assimilate learning each method to learning a different ‘language’ of creating. After all – there are many multi-lingual people in the world. Why shouldn’t it be that there are also artists that are able to work with multiple mediums for their artwork? It seems quite natural, as many of the attributes such as color mixing and basic art theory are present no matter what medium we use. I find that while learning a new medium may have its unique attributes that need to be respected, they also have many similarities to other types of creative methods and by having that basic knowledge, we already have a leg up on learning something new.

So after I accomplished the vulture painting, I was ready for something quite different. Another one of my teachers that I recently began following on Patreon, Rachel Parker from Rachel’s Watercolor Workshop, was offering a new watercolor lesson which featured a loose style, watercolor bunny. She called this class “Tolga’s Bunny” and in seeing it, it was the perfect ‘next project’ that I wanted to try.

As most of you who have followed me and my artwork know, I tend to lean towards realism and details in my work. I like to look at my references closely and depict them as accurately as I am able. To me, there is a part of this process that is rather ‘lazy’ for me, as everything that I am supposed to be doing or creating is sitting right in front of me. As nice as things come out, there is part of me that wants to be a bit ‘freer’ and ‘looser’ with my creating, as by doing this, I feel that things are a bit more personal and I am able to use my artistic licence and add a bit of my own personality to the finished piece. The vulture was leaning in this direction a bit, as by picking out and emphasizing those underlying colors, it gave it a bit of a fantasy look while still looking a bit realistic.

Rachel’s bunny did a similar thing, only using watercolors.

She used a reference photo from Pixabay:

And turned it into a fun and whimsical painting lesson.

By following her tutorials on Patreon, I was able to recreate this little bunny in a ‘looser’ style than what I was used to.

I used my new set of Daniel Smith 12-half pan Inspiration set of paints, as well as my Jean Haines’ Master Artist watercolor set (the smaller set shown in half-pans on the left in the picture) also, by Daniel smith. I filled in a couple of colors with my Mission Gold watercolors.

I used some masking fluid with this painting in order to make the whiskers and leave some of the whites on the edges of the fur. But the area under the front ear on the left had a problem. The masking fluid pulled up the paper when I tried to remove it This was after I thought I got the toning and shading done to my liking.

You can see just under the ear, it is kind of choppy and light and dark. I had only used my Canson 140 lb paper, which isn’t my best, so it just peeled a layer away along with the masking. ( 😦 ) But this was only practice really, so it wasn’t a big deal. I was able to use a knife to scrape the loose layers of paper up and repair it from that point. It won’t qualify as a ‘masterpiece’, but at least it was salvageable.

I am not a huge fan of masking fluid. I have had several instances where it has botched up the painting far more than I would have done on my own. I keep going back into that fire however because I don’t want to allow it to win over me. But I will be honest with you all – I am just about ready to raise the white flag. It did what it was supposed to on the whiskers. That worked well. But I really felt the areas that I left masked (the lighter fur on the edges of the rabbit) came out much too stark and “white”. I wound up painting over them after removing the fluid to tone them down. I then went back and used my Uni-Ball Signo white gel pen to add those wispy white highlights back in. It worked fine.

The watercolor ‘purists’ are probably rolling their eyes at me. My thoughts on that is to just ‘let them.’ I find that in art, there are ultimately no set and fast rules that HAVE to be followed. We do what we need to do to make something look how we want it to look. Right?

I remember taking an art class once and the teacher had laid down ‘her law’ of what we should “never” do. She was quite adamant about using “her” process and not deviating from it in the least bit. While I understand that we do need a good foundation of using certain types of materials in order to use them successfully, there is a point where some teachers go beyond teaching these basics and meander into the ‘opinion’ side of things and fail to seem to understand the difference between the two. They insist that their way is the ‘right’ way (and sometimes ONLY way) to do things and are steadfast in that idea. These (as you probably have guessed) are not my favorite types of teachers. I actually find them a bit offensive and avoid them at all costs.

To me, the best types of teachers that I learn the most from are those who give us the basics for a good foundation of knowledge and then trail off and are a bit ‘vague’ in the subsequent lessons, making suggestions rather than demands. I find that I learn far more from this type of teaching and it also helps me develop my own style and learn from my own mishaps and mistakes. These are the teachers that have helped me become the artist I am and will become in the future. They have taught me that each ‘mistake’ is the opportunity for learning something new. And as we overcome each obstacle that we encounter, we build upon our confidence, knowledge, and skills. (Rest assured, I have encountered many!)

So what IS my favorite medium?

Well – yesterday, it was watercolor. Last week, soft pastels. As for today? I just don’t know. I see my needlework supplies calling to me so I think that may be pushing itself to the front of the line.

But for today’s post, I will just kind of bask in my watercolor accomplishment from yesterday:

After uploading it here and seeing it on screen, I realize that I should probably add some wisps of grass at the bottom of the picture. Funny how that happens. We don’t always see things until we put them in a different environment (i.e. on the screen here in a post.) I often see little tweaks that I have to make after posting work in progress or even finished pictures to social media sites.

While it is no “masterpiece”, I feel it is kind of cute and whimsical. Most importantly, it was a lot of FUN! And I did actually learn some important things while creating this. All in all, it was a good day.

(PS – you can see Rachel paint on your free YouTube channel here if you would like: rachelsstudiodotcom
She may be someone you would like to follow.)

And thank you all so much for your amazing response to my vulture pastel (see previous post). I am so humbled by the huge amounts of kind comments and encouragement that I received regarding it. It really does encourage me to try harder and do even better the next time.

So that is about all for this week’s post. Tomorrow is back to the shop for me to cut more orders. I also have my next project in my sights so I hope to be starting that soon. In the meantime, I hope you have a wonderful and creative week.

Until next time . . .