Al Fresco Art Club Challenge for Sep 29, 2019: Paint a Common Object, Like a Camera

I was in charge of choosing today’s Al Fresco Art Club challenge. I thought that painting a common object that had simple rectangular shapes, such as a camera, would be something I could easily do. In fact, it would be so easy that I might as well paint two cameras. I chose a Polaroid camera and a Diana Mini.

I dashed off a sketch and painted in the background using some dried paint from last week’s challenge, then blocked in the cameras. About 15 minutes into the hour, I came to my senses — I would have time to paint only the Polaroid — the Diana Mini would have to sit there on the page, an unfinished skeleton, like one of those sketches you might see in the margin of Leonardo da Vinci’s notebook. Future art historians will have a field day with my humble painting.

A Steller's Jay in Gouache

In my children’s book the protagonist is a young Steller’s Jay. I plan to use one of my end matter blank pages for a painting of an actual Steller’s Jay. If you live on the West Coast of the United States, you’re probably noticed these noisy, playful birds that might be called Blue Jays. I always called them that, but when I was doing research for the book, I thought it would be a good idea to double check. I found out that Blue Jays are East Coast birds. What I’ve been calling Blue Jays are actually Steller’s Jays.

I’ve been drawing the comic version of a Steller’s Jay so often that I was unsure whether I could paint a real Jay. I decided to use gouache because I really need the practice.

Here’s my effort today. It’s a work in progress. I’m going to add a few details tomorrow. The top page shows my Wikipedia reference photo and a practice sketch. I used a water soluble graphite pencil for the sketching and M Graham and Creta gouache for the painting. I’m intimidated by gouache, but I love it. When I’m painting I feel the same excitement I felt as a kid doing a really messy finger painting.