Yet again it’s been a long time since my last post, and I can only hold up a dog boarding business, time creating new pieces and a class at Georgia Tech as my excuses.
A word or two about my art. I’m no longer selling it on Etsy but am now overseeing a couple of new websites (another excuse!), and here they are:
https://deborahdejuan.myportfolio.com
https://www.behance.net/debbiedeju8d9f
Each image is part of a limited edition, is signed & numbered and includes a certificate of authenticity. All images are printed with archival inks on premium fine art paper affixed to a rigid & durable backing.
I especially love working with bird and animal images and am particularly fascinated with the birdcage motif (I use it a lot!). The tutorial today features an image that includes the birdcage and hawks and is called The Rescue.
Here is the image in its entirety.
This image began with a blank canvas of 14 x 11 inches to which I added one of my favorite art papers that I textured slightly with an oil paint filter. I kept it at a a normal blend mode and 100% opacity. On top of that I layered in a cityscape that I found on Creative Commons setting it to soft light at 55% opacity and overlapping it at the bottom edge of the canvas.
Next came a beautiful peach-colored cloud layer that I blended in multiply mode retaining 100% opacity.
This is how it looked at this stage.
For the next portion of this piece (which was very time-consuming and sometimes tedious, I must admit) I had to construct a cluster of the bird cage, the hawk inside the cage, the branch, and the small bird perched on the branch. For this I opened a new 12 x 12 transparent document and added the cage first with the hawk on top. After selecting all of the cage I painted out parts of the hawk so that he appeared to be inside of the cage. I linked these two elements so that I could move them around as one piece. Next came the branch on top of which I placed the small bird and linked these two elements. I then placed the hawk & birdcage with the hook onto the branch and masked out part of the hook so that is looked to be hanging from the branch. Finally I made a group of all of these elements and moved it to the main canvas.
After the addition of this cluster I added an osprey, a hawk, and an eagle-the osprey set to soft light at 100% opacity and the hawk and eagle set to normal and 100%. Some flying birds dot the upper canvas set to darken mode (because they were on a white background) and 40% opacity.
At last we reach the end with the layering of a textured paper set to multiply at a 45% opacity.
I have so much fun!
Next time a re-reading of Little Red Riding Hood! See you then.
