A few demos from my latest series. Part 1: Koo Koo.

Ah, the good old days! Back when eating copious amounts of sugared cereal wasn’t frowned upon; before the internet made up words like ‘obesity’ and ‘diabetes ‘. 😋

We sure love the absurd connection of various animals to our favorite crunchy pleasures! Today’s feature: the cuckoo bird. Specifically, the Guira Cuckoo.

Part 1: The drawing on primed and toned canvas. I use a carbon pencil to get my drawing down. I usually seal the drawing in with a toned clear gesso.

Part 2: Begin working up the dead layers. My approach varies depending g on how adventurous I’m feeling and what specifically the painting might call for, but this is typically the next step.

Part 3: Continued toning in the ‘dead layer’. How can the layer that brings so much life to the painting be called such a thing? It should be called the ‘living layer’! Umber tones help bring the values forward. Later, when blues are glazed over the umber, they produce different tones of black.

Part 4: Flesh tones. Using cadmium reds, zinc white, cad. Orange, yellow ochre, and a pinch of ivory black, I mix a scale of flesh tones.

Part 5: Main figures. Sometimes, it might be appropriate to work from the background forward. On pieces like this, where the background is a grounding, nondescript plane, I work front to back.

Part 6: Details and glazing. Opaque details and shadow glazing, as well as deepening flesh tones with red and yellow glazes. Background blacks are built up with ultramarine glazes. Finally, highlights are distributed where needed.

If you’ve enjoyed this wee tutorial, or have questions, please let me know! Cheers!