The Art of Teri Rosario - Works in Progress

Lady Hawk -- Work in Progress
While I was working on "Room for Angels" (the commission piece that I just finished) this piece was running around in my head. I think the Universe even wanted it done. I've NEVER seen so many Hawks in my life. So here goes. I think this may be the first in a series of "Winged Woman" . You see there's a Raven and a Trumpeter Swan flying around in my head too.
	Here we go. She's off and running. The size for this one is 36" x 36". Recently I've been working mainly in 24" x 36". The height was good for this but I needed more space to really showcase the wings. The concept here isn't really based on the movie of the same name. It's just more of my love for wings! LOL! Anyway, watch along with me and we'll see if I can make her fly.
	Since I haven't started the wings yet, I thought I'd give you a closer look at her face & body. She's got a bit of attitude. I'm going with a sort of Huntress concept. I REALLY love the sword. It sits on her back, right between her wings.

Sorry, I know these are kinda hard to see. But I'm being photographically challenged lately. And I'm sure it's me and not the camera. You would think that after owning the thing for almost 10 years, I would know how to make it really dance. Ummm... Nope. Anyway, The wings are coming along really nicely. Which is a good thing considering they are supposed to be the focal point.
	Much better photograph this time! Yipee! I think the wings are in now. And I think I did a grand job, even if I do say so myself. I'm loving this piece more and more as I go on. Hopefully this feeling will continue! LOL! I really never know.

The details are going in! Took me a while to figure out the skirt. I wanted it to represent the hawks tail, so lots of erasing and redrawing took place before I was happy with the results. And if you look closely you can see a really subtle representation of the hawks talons in the way the skirt drapes on the "floor" in the front. In addition some of her hair has appeared along with detail work on the sword, the dagger, and her arm bands. I'm still pretty excited by this one. It seems to be one of those that has a life of it's own.

Much better images here. Yippee!! Lots of the detail work went in at the session. I was able to finally decide what the intricacies of her clothing were. I stayed with a bit of a medieval look which really just seemed to work for me. I think the reds & browns in the feathers of the red tailed hawk, brought to mind a lot of leather, which of course in my head translated to medieval. Go figure! LOL!! ... Should only take one more session at the drawing board. Then on to paint.
WoooHooo! The drawing is finished! I'm really excited by this one. I only hope that the Paint work will do it justice.
Here she is transferred to the wood panel. The wood panel has been gessoed 3 times with a sanding done in between each application of the gesso. I roll on the gesso with a small stain roller. When the process is complete the surface is really smooth, but it has enough "tooth" to hold the paint. I love it!
Here comes color! There's gonna be lots of earth tones in this one, as you might expect. And as usual, I start with the background. I think that this series will have a mottled background that will coordinate with and set off the main image.
Moving along rather quickly. Well, it looks that way anyway. This piece has called my name and I'm working long hours at the easel. But joyfully so. The only down side is that the oils aren't drying fast enough to keep up with me! LOL! Anyway this one is really fun!
Working on different sections as the other sections get a chance to dry a bit before I go back in with the second layer. So... The skirt got some color. Not really sure what I'm going to do with it. So a really like color went in first. Hopefully that will help me to decide on what to do with it. Then I had a blast with her bodice, arms, and waist. Some fun stuff. Unlike most, her hair color seemed to jump off the paint palette. It's just gonna take a while to get it in. Then... the wings were dry enough to get a second coat in.
Got snowed it yesterday, and it does have it's advantages. The outer section of her wings now have their second layer of color. I'm really pleased with how they're coming out!! I did decide to take out the stripes that would be on this type of Hawk wing. When I tried to put them in, they just didn't look right. So I think I'm just going to suggest their existence.
The first set of inner wings have gone in and the ones on the left side even have their second coat. Her skirt received a second coat also. I think I may leave it a light color. The under body of a red tailed hawk is usually light in color and that seems to be working for the skirt too. Those floating ribbon things that I seem to be so enamored of, now have color also.
The right side of the inner set of feathers now has it's second coat also! Working my tail off to get this one finished for my show at the Harely Davidson dealer here in town. The show is biker's who are artists. should be tons of fun. And your's truly is the featured artist!
Mostly just worked on her hair. You all know how much I love lots of hair! LOL! And goodness, she just didn't have enough.
She's not far now. Sorry about the copyright, but had to get her protected. Since the last update -- The back flares of her skirt received a bit of shadow towards the edges. I thought that it helped to represent tail feathers better that way. -- There's a bit more shadow between the outer feathers and that first layer of inner ones. I think that helps them to pop a bit. -- The outer edge of the piece itself also received a bit more shadowing, and the section just above her head got a bit more highlight. I think that it all works to make the piece more dramatic. -- Then I started the lining work. That's some thing I stole from the master illustrator's of the early 20th century. It really helps to make the center image pop off the canvas.

Lady Hawk -- Work in Progress