Aspens, owls and deer, a work in progress

This is what I've been spending most of my evenings doing this past few weeks.  Painting, a glass of Moscato, sometimes watching Sherlock Holmes.  Man I'm a dork.  But I've found it's a much better way to spend my time then surfing the internet or watching TV.

I thought you might like to see what goes into the process of

Draw out my trees and animals, mask out what I want to save.

Masking takes several hours to do. Plus masking fluid smells like a rotten mouse in a dirty gym sock. blech. I then taped off my margins

This is the fastest part. Laying out the wash. Only took about 15 min to get this far.

After it dries (my watercolor board warped - no biggie), I start laying in more details.  (Sherlock BBC playing on my kindle as I paint!)

Giving the leaves more texture. It's the beginning of dozens of layers.

The fun part! Removing the masking fluid. It's very cathardic.

You can see the tree detail here. I guess I didn't take any pics while painting the trees. Which takes FOREVER. Especially since there's several dozen trees here. And I'm anal about it.

Trees are done! Time for the critters

My owl in the tree is finished.  I love this little guy.  So cute.

Final touches on the flying owl. Kinda proud of this pic... shot upside down so I could shoot with my left hand. LOL

Beginning washes on my deer.

Ahh... instant gratification, pulling off the tape when finished!  It's very much like an instant frame!

Finished flying owl.

Finished deer.  Well, almost I think.  I really feel like they need something else so I might do some more touch ups.

It's 40 inches long, 20 inches high. Biggest piece I've done (and probably will ever do).

Click here to see it larger.

I did this painting this time, just because I felt like doing it.  I'd been pressuring myself to work on show pieces and I wasn't doing as well.  I decided to cut myself some slack and I enjoyed the process much better.  I've also decided to start working on some pieces for a book I want to do.  It may or may not ever happen, who knows but I'll share some of the pieces as I go.  I'm thinking if I have fun with it, and create some pieces I love, then a show will just happen, and maybe that book will be a great tie-in for a show.

I keep having people ask me how much I'll sell it for, and this I have not decided.  Not sure if I even want to sell it, which is really bad for a buyer because that means I'll mark it on the high side.  If you make me give it up, I'm going to make you pay for the priveledge. LOL.

I'm not very good at this sales thing am I?