Common Kestrel with Top Progress

I thought you might want to take a look at the progress of the Common Kestrel with Top painting. Getting prepped for the trip to Wyoming has the studio hoppin' and unfortunately this has been put on the back burner. I might not get a chance to work on it until I return.

The ongoing struggle of pricing inspired me to really document time, expenses, and mental notes on the process of building a painting. Under each image is the time spent and notes for each step.

Stretching and priming canvas: 2 1/2 hrs. 1/19/10

Painting green background foundation: 1 hr. 1/16/10

" Don't ever feel guilty about pricing. Building a canvas and planning a painting alone take hours and that's before a splatter of paint touches the canvas. So what if you don't sell it - make it because you need and love to."

Drawing, placement, and painting Kestrel/experimenting with top: 1 hr. 1/22/10

Designing wallpaper design and making stencil: 1hr. 15 min. 1/24/10
Transferring wallpaper design onto canvas: 1 1/2 hrs. 1/25/10

"I forgot how time consuming, confusing, and frustrating transferring wallpaper is. If you think my paintings are too expensive - f**k you...this sucks! I've traced this same design at least 22 times!"

Painting wallpaper design: 2 1/2 hrs. 1/26/10

Foundation for Kestrel: 3 hrs. 2/2/10

Changed top - new drawing: 45 min. 1/31/10
Painted top: 2 hrs. 2/9/10

Top detail

Looking forward to spending more time with this painting. I really want to work on the accuracy of each bird species, so I'm working on each feather one at a time!