Wednesday with a Wood Duck...and a visit to Volunteer Park

Yesterday I looked at one of the many art technique books I've acquired over the years:  Paint Radiant Realism in Watercolor, Ink and Colored Pencil by Sueellen Ross.  She does incredibly detailed work, and the process outlined was incredibly complex and intimidating.  So I ignored most of it and just tried the basic method:  use a brush and India ink on all of the darkest values in the piece, then when dry, paint the rest in watercolor (going over the ink as well), and when that's all dry, add details and highlights with colored pencil.

I had a Wood Duck photo with some nice dark areas in it, and tried it out:

Rather nice, if I do say so myself.  I forgot to take photos during the various stages, so here I try to recreate two sections step by step:

Paint India ink only over the darkest areas -- here are the head and part of the back feathers:

Watercolor on top -- greens on the head, blues on the feathers:

Colored pencil greens and blues over that, with ivory for highlights:

Okay, on to the other Wednesday activity -- Truman and I explored parts of Capitol Hill, looking for sketch opportunities.  Mostly I took photos of buildings and homes to practice sketching later in comfort, as it was chilly.  I also tried sketching from inside the car, which okay, but not ideal.

So here is Truman -- forced, once again, to go places!

At Volunteer Park

The Conservatory

The Gage Academy on 10th Street

Right next door -- St. Mark's Cathedral

A viewpoint from the cathedral parking lot

Today's forecast is for clouds and rain, so I suspect it will be a day spent indoors.  Oh, well.  More time to work on art projects!