Feeding the Seagulls

I'll warn you right away that this is a long post.   I have been writing it for a couple of weeks since there were multiple painting sessions associated with this painting.    It was late May when I began to work on it.   The extra high angle of the sun, long days and beautiful weather had me wanting to paint light and bright.   I tried a paler palette than I usually use - more of a "high key" palette.

Toddler Watching Seagulls Stage 1

Similar to the painting I did a few weeks ago called, "Chasing Butterflies," I developed the midday sky with a combination of white, cerulean and cobalt.    Toward the horizon, the blue sky was gradually lightened with more white and a touch of alizarin crimson.  The summery clouds were painted with titanium white, yellow ochre and a tinge of violet on their underside

The vantage point for the painting was sitting on the beach, looking straight out at the water.    The Stage 1 picture shows the figures sketched in for placement and the horizon line toward the bottom third of the canvas.   A young woman was helping her little boy feed the seagulls.  The horizon line intersects the toddler's shoulders by design.   I was hoping to bring the viewers' attention to him first.    He was fascinated with the seagulls' mid-air gymnastics and near collisions.  Mom was more fascinated with her boy's fearlessness and energy, and everything about him for that matter.

At Stage 1 of the painting the gulls weren't actually in yet.   They play a central role in the painting's theme and their placement couldn't be arbitrary.   The plan was for the viewer to look at the boy and then naturally look to see what the boy is looking at, and his face is turned upward.   I was imagining my picture fulcrum; in Stage 1 the right side was heavily weighted with both figures.    The seagulls needed to provide the balance without stealing the spotlight from the toddler.  I broke away from the painting for a couple of days.

Seagull silhouette cut outs

In my next session with this painting, I first wanted to determine the placement for the seagulls. I cut three seagull shapes out of a gray paint chip card. I moved them around on my canvas to experiment.    I forgot to take a picture of these shapes on my Stage 1 canvas, but here they are on a piece of paper similar to what I did.    I wanted the gulls big enough and close enough to the figures - and each other - to give the impression of how aggressive they were that day. 

Toddler Feeding Seagulls Stage 2

Before I actually painted the gulls in, I took a critical look at Stage 1.  My best objective assessment revealed a few background issues I wanted to correct before going any further with foreground subjects.  The clouds were too yellow at this point, evidently caused by too much yellow ochre.   Also, the horizon line was too pronounced so I decided that it should be softened.     The wind was from the west which caused the breakwater to get propelled up and back away from the beach.   I worked on softening the spray and giving definition to the foam that was rolling onto the sand by drawing a soft medium value shadow under it.

The Stage 2 picture to the right shows those corrections and the initial seagull sketch in.   I'm not completely happy with the way the two gulls in the middle are vertically aligned, but decide that when I tone down the top gull's feet, they may read better.

Toddler Feeding Seagulls Stage 3

Stage 3 began by painting over the boy's right arm and repainting it down by his side.   I wanted to him to look somewhat tense and excited and thought the right hand down would make him appear a little nervous.   I don't have a picture of that stage of the painting, but I didn't like it.   I decided to restore his arm to an outstretched position as if he had just thrown a piece of bread.   I also added a red striped plastic bread bag to his left hand.   I worked on the skin tones and shadows of both figures.    Here is the result after the third painting session today.



The "final" stage is shown below.   More fine tuning, expecially on the shadows and the boy's face.   To be honest, I painted that little boy's face at least six times.  He went from looking too angry, to too old, too alien, too chubby, etc..  The picture below has a crooked horizon line - that is from my photo cropping, so if you spot that, good job.

 I love the subject of this painting.  It reminds me of my sister-in-law with nephews Sean and Ryan when they were blond and little, and running around the beach in Harwich.

I wanted to complete the post to get comments, but there is one last thing that I will do prior to framing and that it to give the whole painting a glaze tinted ever so slightly with white, so that there is the feeling of beachy atmosphere.   It will have to be thoroughly dry before I apply such a glaze.



Toddler Feeding Seagulls Stage 4