Post #445110 by Robb Hamel on Mon, Apr 6, 2009 7:34 AM

Thanks mucho, Tobunga. Your Valentines card work was mind-blowing.

Hi everybody. I was away for awhile, we went on our 10th anniversary trip, and have been doing series paintings that y'all have already seen.

But I've got a new velvet featuring something I haven't done before: A NEW GUINEA HORNBILL!

A bird?

Yep.

And it's kicking my butt. I can't seem to get exactly the right Japanese Wood Block print effect (a favorite compositional style of mine). So in the end I'll end up improvising a lot. And holding my breath.

Here's a few of my sketches. I found some pics of these birds, but in an attempt to do my own thing, I'm doing my own pose for this animal, without much luck (I've been on this about a week).

I decide to do a large sketch so I get a good look. This bird's beak is weird, and looks a lot like a pair of talons, but I can't draw it correctly.

I have to look at this sketch and keep in mind that I want light areas around the black areas of the bird and black behind his yellow head.

I sketch in a rough setting, not knowing that I'm about to junk much of it. I need a break away from working in my house and go to Daddy Katz (Dayton's Tiki/Hot Rod shop).

Bill Winger, Daddy Katz' owner, puts up with me as I complain my way to this stage of the painting.

I haven't been able to get the freaky beak of this creature to look right in a week. I'm hoping that I can pull it off as I paint it for real but am a smidge nervous about blowing it....

http://www.robbhamel.com

Check out my website or my
mom will destroy the world!

[ Edited by: Robb Hamel 2009-04-06 07:36 ]