Misty lake loon

I like to repurpose and reuse things; such as this 25 cent frame I found at a garage sale. It's a deep frame. Almost like a narrow shadow box. The back was busted and not worth trying to salvage. No problem... I cut some foam board to size and spray-glued a section of canvas paper to the board. I had the frame and canvas just sitting around the house for quite a few months waiting for an idea. I pretty much  forgot about it until last week. Then I got my idea. Wilson Bickford is a local artist/teacher around here and I keep an eye on his Facebook page. He posts new painting multiple times a week. He recently did a painting of a loon floating on a lake with a great misty scene behind. His painting of course is better than mine. But it gave me the idea and I went with it.

I first painted the loon in acrylics and masked it to temporarily hide it. I then taped the canvas board to a cardboard mat. I prefer this method over using an easel because I like to spin the painting around to get the angle I want. Just my own preference. I used fast flow white as a base and started on the water first. I let the blue fade away into the distant mist by just letting the brush run out of paint as I went up the painting. I did the same with the sky from top down into the mist. I added the hint of the sun penetrating the mist. Next came the distant trees painting in a dull detail to give the feeling of being lost in the mist. I added the hint of a reflection in the water below the loon. I added a bit of the sun colors in the water since there would be some reflection of that despite the mist. Last part was peeling off the masking tape from the loon. I added a clear glaze to the loon and colored in his red eye. I didn't need to do anything else with the loon. If some of the acrylic paint came off with the masking, id need to touch that up. In this case I was satisfied and nothing further was needed.

Below is another similar loon painting I did a week later. This one is a larger stretched canvas.