Geoffs artist's reference images - Mandarins in oil

I was recently fortunate enough to work with a great photographer friend of mine on his reference image CD's for artists.
Geoff Stone and his wife Ros are local photographers and good friends of mine.  If you are looking for some fantastic reference images for your artwork click here to vist Geoffs site. Choose "Artists CDs" from the main menu to see the CDs on offer.

Currently you can choose from:

Volume 1 - Birds

This CD contains 102 images illustrating 75 different species of birds from Europe and Africa. The images are sized to print at A4 but can be re-sized and printed larger or smaller.

Volume 2 - Animals

This CD contains 100 images illustrating 22 different species of animals. The images are sized to print at A4 but can be re-sized and printed larger or smaller.

Being a photographer who specialises in wildlife, Geoff produces images that are top notch, very detailed, sharp and well worth the £20 +£2 p&p.

I chose a particularly eye-catching image of a male Mandarin duck and then I saw the image of the female. After a few preliminary sketches I had created a composition that I liked with the two of them:

This is my first piece using Winsor and Newton water mixable oils and I have to say I am a total convert.  No stinky turps and the oil behaves just like any other oil.  I prefer to use the various mediums created for this range of paints to thin and to create glazes, although I do use water with it , but sparingly.

I've used artistic licence to brighten the water a little, but I particularly love the luminous quality that you can achieve using glazes in oils and I think that is somthing that you can see in this piece. 

It's nearly there, I keep going back to it between commissions so another couple of weeks and it should be complete.

The only problem with these CDs is that my head is now full of new wildlife compositions based on all the wonderful shots available, so be warned you'll turn into a paintaholic once you get them!