Painting of the Week: Rooster, Hen, and Chick

Hello friends, family, and visitors,

I am posting a recently completed, acrylic painting, Rooster, Hen, and Chick. In a manner similar to my commissioned work, I started with a three step process. First, I decided on the composition and reduced the color photo referenced to three values in black, gray and white. After that, I began painting in the local colors, or the colors that I actually saw in the photo. Lastly, I did some problem solving with the composition by changing the arrangement of the chickens and by adding a baby chick to balance out the composition and fill in the empty space. The painting is available for sale on my Etsy site: https://www.etsy.com/shop/ArtofSchmidt?ref=seller-platform-mcnav. I will also be adding this painting to my Red Bubble site tonight so that it will be available in a variety of formats such as coffee mugs and fine art prints! Thanks for looking!

Stage 1: I began this painting by taking the reference photos into Photoshop and changing them from color to black and white. Then I started painting the acrylic painting in three tones: black, gray and white to simplify the image, and make sure that the values are well balanced.

Stage 2: I started adding in local color to match the colors I saw in the color reference photo.

Stage 3: I decided that the composition needed to be revised and I chalked in an alternative drawing with Rembrandt Soft white pastel. i also added the chick on the right hand side to bring in some lighter values and fill the empty space on the right.

Stage 4: I continued painting in the local color with Liquitex Acrylic paints until I was happy with the values and colors.

Author: artofschmidt

Jodie's focus is on oil painting, mixed media, and soft pastels. View all posts by artofschmidt