Canada Goose with Po Man Chan - April 11th, 2015
The Canada Goose is easy to identify, yet painting this goose with its well-known markings is more difficult than meets the eye. Po Man Chan began her workshop by starting with the beak in a single brush stroke.
The neck and the upper body followed. To get the look of the feathers, Po Man Chan used the side of a dry brush.
The dry brush was also used to create the lower body. Po Man Chan created the look of the goose without painting each feather separately.
The webbed feet can be painted with the same colour as the beak. Po Man Chan used only the black ink and the orange ink to create the goose.
Then we tried to paint our first goose.
Po Man Chan gave us lots of handouts to help us get started.
Getting the head and feet right is actually a key to painting the complete goose.
A painting by Po Man Chan showed a geese family, similar to the geese family she painted at the workshop.
The next goose was a younger goose. Interestingly, the goose could still present a kind of character just by the way the head and body were arranged.
The younger goose was painted in the same manner. The beak was created first, followed by the neck and upper body. Then the lower body and feet were added. Po Man Chan used a twisting movement to capture the dynamics of the geese family.
Another large goose was added to the group.
This goose was also turning around. Po Man Chan began with the beak and head.
The upper body was created afterward. You do not need to create the neck before the body. But you should think of where the neck will go when you are adding the body.
Po Man Chan then connected the body with the head and the goose took shape.
The family of geese emerged from the painting.
Po Man Chan brought a number of paintings to help those in the workshop create a variety of geese.
Another variation on geese is the swimming goose.
Po Man Chan helped us select the correct colours. Only minimal colour is required for the Canada Goose.
Finally, Po Man Chan turned to the environment of the geese. Creating an effective setting for the geese adds composition to the painting.
The large black leaves and yellow petals created an appropriate setting for the family of geese.
As the painting proceeded, Po Man Chan would occasionally stop and look at the progress before moving on.
Vines were added to tie the vegetation together.
Also, some pads of green made the ground vivid.
Grass springing from the pads completed this engaging painting.
The geese painters gathered for a workshop photo with Po Man Chan.
Geese are common in cities and rural communities. Po Man Chan's workshop on geese taught how to turn these everyday birds into works of art.