Ostrich Play with Selena Stevens

This month the Colour Blast Challenge is all about birds and a touch of colour.

I drew inspiration from the above challenge. I was also in the mood for some quick gesture drawing, so I brought the two together to create today’s blog for you.

I looked for an image to draw from and came across this and thought it looked like fun to create an impressionistic painting of an ostrich.  The above image can be found at here.

To watch the video of this process, go here.

So, lets begin ….

I began by stamping with a feather stamp in a dark orange colour in a cluster in the direction of the feathers.  I am looking at the ostrich on the right for this page.

Using a palette knife I sprinkled a little of the Colour Shimmer Dust (Sunflower) onto the page and wet with water.  I ensured that the Colour Shimmer Dust was dissolved and created the body of the ostrich with my fingers by spreading out the colour.  I flicked splatters of the Colour Shimmer Dust with my fingers to create “feathers”.

I then picked up a small amount of Colour Shimmer Dust with my palette knife and drew into the wet area to give the impression of feathers and movement.   And then I left it to dry, but I did speed up the drying process with a heat gun.

 

As the original stamp was difficult to see under the Colour Shimmer Dust, probably because it was a similar colour, I restamped with the feather image and black permanent ink.  Again the stamps were placed in a cluster in the direction of the feathers to create volume.

I unscrewed the lid of the Colour Spray (Sunset) and used the “stalk” on the inside of the bottle to draw with.  I used quick, rough gestures to create the head, neck and legs of the ostrich, all the while using my photo as a reference.

For my third colour according to the Colour Blast Challenge, Colour Paste (Sienna) was scraped with a palette knife onto the darker areas of the ostrich for a little depth.

 

I enjoyed doing this a lot, so I did a couple more.

This ostrich was inspired by the one in the left of the photo.  I used Colour Shimmer Dust (Cobalt) for the body.  Colour Mica Powder (Olive Grove) for the stamping of feathers.  The neck and legs was drawn with the stalk from Colour Spray (Love).

This ostrich had Colour Shimmer Dust (Peacock) for the body.  Layered with washi tape to suggest feather.  The neck and legs were drawn with Colour Spray (Violet) and Colour Paste (Rose Petal) was smeared over the ostrich’s body randomly.

I hope you enjoyed this as much as I did.

Selena