I’m struggling to stay with the pointillism on the tiny flower shape on this miniature canvas painting.  Working with red is wonderful, I love all the values of red that can be mixed with my limited palette of cadmium orange light and napthol crimson.   I’ve added burnt sienna, or pthalo blue, or ultramarine blue, titanium [...]

The background is nearly finished at this phase and I’ve begun to add the light and dark values to the flower shape. Gail Niebrugge, flower artist

Began another miniature, 5″ x 7″ canvas, of a red rosebud.  Even though these are a new batch of canvases the same paint adhesion problem exists.  To solve this I coated the entire surface with acrylic gel, it is transparent and allows the drawing to be seen.  After the gel coat the acrylic paint worked [...]

At this stage I painted the reflections of the ducks and ripples in the foreground water.  Next I began began developing the Mallard duck figures  starting with the darkest values.  This canvas is quite a bit larger than the previous ones and allows enough room to create a more complex composition in pointillism. Gail Niebrugge, [...]

On this 9″ x 12″ canvas I sketched the figures of a female Mallard duck and her brood of six chicks in pencil then laid  thin wash of acrylic over the sketch, wet on wet as if working in watercolor.  The next step is to begin applying acrylic paint in small colorful dots.  I started [...]

At this phase of the “Snow Bear” painting I am using a #3 brush, but it is difficult to work this small using the technique of dots.  This photo shows the small brush and part of the grizzly bear image on the 6″ x 8″ canvas. Gail Niebrugge, Alaska wildlife artist

I’ve been adding a variety of colored dots to the background and foreground, the moose figure remains unchanged at this stage. This is a close up of the multi colored dots just above the antlers.  Dots on top of dots.  Fun  stuff.  Up close it is amazing how much color is used, but from a [...]

Now I’m layering dots with very dark values in the background to establish the contrasts in this study.  Although the background looks black it is made  up of many different shades of color. Gail Niebrugge, Alaska wildlife artist

During this phase I’m establishing the darkest and lightest areas in the composition.  A transparent wash of acrylic is applied to the dark and mid tones on the body of the moose.  Light colored dots are applied to the landscape around the lower half of the painting.  This study is a miniature 8″ x 10″ [...]

Another in my series of small miniature studies of the big boys in Alaska.  I was fortunate to be able to research bull moose in the rut one year in Denali National Park in early September, and watched some of the largest bull moose sparring with smaller challengers.  This was one of the really big [...]

Yes, I sort of like the addition of the white space along the top third of the canvas, it helps silhouette the antlers and gives depth to the scene.  The dot work is progressing on the caribou, I’m using a #1 brush, very tiny and hard to control when my hand keeps falling asleep.  I [...]

At this point in the painting I’m evaluating the composition.  It is pretty basic, one object in the center of the picture plane.  Not too challenging, but this is a study of a caribou I remind myself.  It is easy to get lost in the dots and overwork the painting at this stage, it is [...]

Now the layering of dots begins in earnest.  I’ve already painted new colors over the top of previous dots to adjust value, this process will continue until I’m satisfied that the exact feeling, values, and punch are achieved.  I did not under paint the caribou in order to help me see the sketch and facilitate [...]

Finally, a day free of business responsibilities, taxes, correspondence, volunteer commitments, and pain from my healing shoulder, a day to finally paint after four plus months!  Where to begin?  I thumbed through my research files for subject matter, sorted through storage filled with various papers, rag boards, canvas, Sintra, and Masonite panels, opened sticky lids [...]