Fun with Fringe

Today was the most fun I've had in a long time as I painted my fringed rabbit.  Instead of a challenge as I previously thought, it was a breeze.  I just had to remember light shape, shadow shape.  I began with a charcoal drawing on the linen canvas.  Once I was pleased with the rendering, I sprayed it with fixative.

I can hear the critics saying that my drawing is too tight and it leads to filling in between the lines--like a coloring book.  Not in my case.  This gives me the freedom of pushing the paint into its environment knowing that my placement is spot on.  Remember--connect your edges to its environment.

Next, I toned my white canvas with a mixture of cobalt blue and burnt umber.  Then I pulled the lights wiping them out and then squinted down to locate the darks.  The fabric fringe around the rabbit's neck is a flurry of multi-colored dark fringe.  It's all dark to me and that's the way I handled it.

 Now for the background that I call AIR.  Just like in a landscape,  as you recede into the distance, color becomes more grayed.  I am painting with a north light and so the cool light makes me think cool greenish blue.  The gray-green will play nicely off the spots of red that are peppered throughout the objects.  Wet edges need to be worked into wet edges so I persevered and began painting in everything that touched the background.  Check back in tomorrow to see the fun I had with my big brush.

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