Crow's Nest

15x11 watercolor of three black crows wondering what is going on in their world.  Painted today, I tried to go for the loose look.
Image is COPYRIGHT 2015 Kay Smith.

As the Crow Flies

10.5x8 mixed media collage on matboard started yesterday and finished today.  There are 3 birds in this composition.  Materials used:
watercolor, stamps, handmade paper w/acrylic, India ink, Staedtler Lumocolor black pen, old paperback novel pages, black felt tip pen. I did this for Sketchbook Skool and any chance to paint crows I jump at usually or any bird.
Image is COPYRIGHT 2014 Kay Smith.

Crows and Cardinal in Snow

11x15 watercolor commission of a murder of crows and one lone male cardinal.  This work is SOLD.

Plenty to Crow About

9x12 watercolor on Strathmore 140 lb cold pressed paper; Daniel Smith/American Journey paints., drawn yesterday in 10 minutes or so then painted in 45 minutes, part of a timed exercise on WetCanvas! This weekend drawing event host was Gail Bowers who provided 16 references and a challenge.  The challenge was for us to paint something then make it appear at nighttime, which would be hard to do for a crow being black as the ace of spades! So I made this fellow as colorful as possible so he still reads as a blackbird, but he does appear to be contemplating suicide on this window ledge.  Working only from a black and white image it was a real challenge to make believable with an abstract background as well.

Party of Two - mixed media collage/rework

BEFORE - collage on matboard

AFTER

Today I took the top piece of collaged papers on matboard, drew two crows, then painted them in black gesso, let dry and reworked into a hopefully better one.  I used Liquitex acrylics, stamping with bubble wrap, scraping with credit card and covering most with glazes letting only a small amount of the original show.  Its size is 14.5 x 21.75 done in 1.5 hours.  Let me know what you think!