Number 90: Passing Through...

While taking a break after going bananas I took my camera out to the garden to get some shots of the latest blooming flowers for later works. As soon as I got down to the garden, I knew that something out of the ordinary was up. It turns out that migration season has started for the monarch butterfly. It started with a handful when I took a couple of pics and beat feet to get my pochade box. When I got back there were monarchs EVERYWHERE!! I took a pic of the one I decided to try to paint - and I'm glad I did. It just kept flexing it's wings. Up and down, up and down. I tried to paint everything as fast as I could, all at once - alla quick! But not quick enough. It flew away...

But I got enough done to get the general colors down, which took a whole fifteen minutes. I then went inside and hooked up the camera to the computer to see if there was anything that I missed. Not with the monarch or the sunflower, but I did have to add the stem and the leaf.

Looking at the painting now it appears darker than it did outside. I'm going to have to watch that in the future...

Anyway, here's the progress... Notice my sketch of wings spread, wings folded, wings spread...  ;-)

 

And here's the final. Not much work done but notice how much darker, and maybe warmer, the painting is than the photo... I think this is why they say to not paint from photographs - at least not the colors.

Passing Through - 5x7 Oil on Canvas Board