John Lawrence
Active member
I'm starting the March thread a tad early because I'm going to be too busy over the next day and a half or so to do so.
Looks like March will come in like a Lamb here in Pittsburgh. March is also the month of the Westlake show in Cleveland. If you are planning to attend please look me up. I'll be there sometime before 10:00am on Friday and I'll be staying until Sunday late morning/early afternoon. You'll usually find me somewhere around the pool and my decoys will be in room 158. Westlake is flat out the best decoy show going. If you've never been gives some thought to attending this year.
I going to start with my rig of Petite wood duck hens. I found the time to finish them in the last week. And I'm going to bring them to Westlake with me if you should like to see them in person.
View attachment P2260214.jpg
View attachment P2260223.jpg
View attachment P2260217.jpg
I also have that pair of ringnecks to show you. Originally my plan was to shoot a video on how to paint the hen but after some appreciated advice I realized that my plan and time frame just was not realistic. I just have too much on deck right now so the new plan is to carve several new decoys with which to shoot the video with early this summer.
So with that said I had the opportunity to try something new and expand my paint with the hen. I was almost done with her late last week when I took a second look at it and it just didn't set right. The paint was okay but I didn't feel as if I had taken any risks. So I painted over everything on the side pockets, breast and head and started over. The best way to describe what I wanted was a "paint shimmer". I was looking for the colors to progress from the rear of the side pocket to the junction with the neck in waves in increasingly darker values and hues. When I started again I wrote "Impressionism" and "Monet" on my palette and kept refering to those two words as I painted. I really wanted to give up on the scalloped look and just to concentrate on applying the paint in these waves. I used an impasto style of thick dabs so that you can not only see the texture but also feel it. Now I may be a little too far out there for some but when I do these types of decoys they are usually the first things off my table at shows. When I finished the sides and breast I realized that I had reflected the colors of the eyes in the paint.
Next I went at the head and during this process I kept telling myself to give up on the detail and just paint what your eyes see. Once again I used that impasto style and the paint on the head is a little chunky. I like that you can feel the texture so I can see myself doing a lot more of this in the future. So here she is and I'll have iher with me at Westlake should you want to see her.
View attachment P2280233.jpg
View attachment P2280234.jpg
Looks like March will come in like a Lamb here in Pittsburgh. March is also the month of the Westlake show in Cleveland. If you are planning to attend please look me up. I'll be there sometime before 10:00am on Friday and I'll be staying until Sunday late morning/early afternoon. You'll usually find me somewhere around the pool and my decoys will be in room 158. Westlake is flat out the best decoy show going. If you've never been gives some thought to attending this year.
I going to start with my rig of Petite wood duck hens. I found the time to finish them in the last week. And I'm going to bring them to Westlake with me if you should like to see them in person.
View attachment P2260214.jpg
View attachment P2260223.jpg
View attachment P2260217.jpg
I also have that pair of ringnecks to show you. Originally my plan was to shoot a video on how to paint the hen but after some appreciated advice I realized that my plan and time frame just was not realistic. I just have too much on deck right now so the new plan is to carve several new decoys with which to shoot the video with early this summer.
So with that said I had the opportunity to try something new and expand my paint with the hen. I was almost done with her late last week when I took a second look at it and it just didn't set right. The paint was okay but I didn't feel as if I had taken any risks. So I painted over everything on the side pockets, breast and head and started over. The best way to describe what I wanted was a "paint shimmer". I was looking for the colors to progress from the rear of the side pocket to the junction with the neck in waves in increasingly darker values and hues. When I started again I wrote "Impressionism" and "Monet" on my palette and kept refering to those two words as I painted. I really wanted to give up on the scalloped look and just to concentrate on applying the paint in these waves. I used an impasto style of thick dabs so that you can not only see the texture but also feel it. Now I may be a little too far out there for some but when I do these types of decoys they are usually the first things off my table at shows. When I finished the sides and breast I realized that I had reflected the colors of the eyes in the paint.
Next I went at the head and during this process I kept telling myself to give up on the detail and just paint what your eyes see. Once again I used that impasto style and the paint on the head is a little chunky. I like that you can feel the texture so I can see myself doing a lot more of this in the future. So here she is and I'll have iher with me at Westlake should you want to see her.
View attachment P2280233.jpg
View attachment P2280234.jpg
.He will get some glass eyes,and oil paint when I get around to learning how to get started.I will probably thin the bill a little alos. I hollowed the bird after this photo.Not sure if the Wards hollowed any of their birds.