4e. Finishing the Painting

Here's a view of where this painting stands now.

Its looking good, but I can see numerous things that need fixing and some unfinished items to take care of.

I have "wiggled in" all the ropes now.

I'm trying to make sure the ropes are in front of, and behind the other reflections.

They don't have to be perfect. In fact, they look more real when they are not. The water's surface does all kinds of distortions to the reflections.

The left building of the background was in need of some warm light, so I did some light glazing over it with some yellow and orange.

I put in some light on the main ropes coming from the smaller boat, stopping just where the light would stop since the dock is throwing a shadow on the lower rope.

I need to add some warm light to the riggings, so I filled my brush with a mixture of yellow, orange, burnt siena and white, and loosely gave some light to all the parts that wouldn't be in shadow.

Just a dab here and a dab there.

While I was at it, I went along some of the wooden parts of the boats and gave them sharper edges where needed.

I had placed some of the roof equipment on the small boat, but haven't tackled the radar yet.

There, the radar has its paint. I put pure white on the spot of all these highlighted areas where the sun would be brightest. Then, blended in some orange and yellow as the light tapered back to the cooler blues and violets.

The large boat still didn't have its roof equipment.

I took care of that with stuff from my imagination. While I was at it, I loosely put on some blue logo type on the radar.

Here are the two boats almost done.

I did some more work on these reflections, and added more light on the ropes.

I have been careful not to overdo the bottom red paint on the black boat, so I increased its intensity to see how it looks. I can always take it back down, but the red is a very important color element in the whole composition. I need to get it right. Each time I increase the intensity, I also have to adjust the reflection.

One of the last things I do on a painting is put in my bird. Most of my paintings, not all, have one lone bird either sitting on a dock or on the upper riggings of a boat. This is a "Laughing Gull," which is very common on the Texas Coast.

I put in a warped reflection of the Gull.

Now its time for my signature, which is what I have used from the beginning. You can see how I stapled the canvas on a crude frame. Once all the paint is dry, which should take about two weeks, it will be rolled up, placed in a shipping tube and be on its way to Florida to be re-stretched and framed.

Here is the final painting. The title is, "Drag-On & The Duzzi."

To me is was a success. It looks like a painting and not a photograph, yet it looks real at the same time. That's what I like.

Next time I have a story to tell about how to build a bar-b-que pit in Costa Rica –– Pura Vida!

4d. Continuing the Reflections

Yesterday Linda and I drove into Jaco to do some shopping at the Maxi Bodega (grocery store). On our drive back we saw this rainbow. While driving I stuck my camera out the window and took a shot of it. We drove right into it and I thought for sure that I ran over something. Looking in my rear-view-mirror I think I saw some bright shiny gold reflections on the pavement.

Speaking of reflections....

I started adding the reflections from the boat riggings. I began with the most important ones first to make sure they were in the right place. If those aren't right then the whole set will be off. The others will follow one at a time.

Oh, you might have noticed that I have renamed the two boats. My commission client these names. One for himself (Drag-on) and one for his wife (The Duzzi) a nickname derivative of her maiden name. They are such nice people that I am happy to do this.

I chose to do this one in all caps in black, typical of many of these small boats. I went ahead and put in the reflections when I finished.

For "The Duzzi" I made up a fun font and painted it in a blue grey color since it was in the shadows. Then I put in the reflection a little darker.

These names are personal to my client and I love that. They are names that could have been the actual names on the boats, so it doesn't hurt the concept/theme I enjoy painting. 

You can see in this photo how I darkened the reflection of the red bottom paint since reflections are always just a bit darker than the color being reflected. I will add just a touch of bright red on the front edge of the boat in my last round of small lighting touches.

Now I've put in more of the rigging structure.

This closeup shows what these look like as I paint them. While I move my flat brush down I am twisting and turning it to create the feeling that the reflections is bouncing and wiggling around on the water's surface. This photo shows a few pulleys and hardware matching the ones in the actual rigging.

Here's another look towards the left side. I have to make sure that the reflections match the original with things in front of the other things.

And here is where I have stopped today. As I finished the basic rigging reflections I noticed that the reflection from the boat's side windows didn't look right to me, although the photo had something similar. Sometimes I just have to start with what the photo is showing to get things going. Then, I come back and make them my own –– the way I think they work best.

In this case I removed a piece of side window reflection and added in the three little vents. If you compare this with the photo towards the beginning of this post where the window reflection has three parts, you will see that one of them does not line up with the reflection of the front window next to it. That's what tipped me off that the reflection was wrong.

As a reminder, this is the photo I am working from. Its not that its reflections are not beautiful in the photo. They are just not my reflections. Again, I'm not trying to copy the photo. I just want to use it as a good starting place for a painting!

This is Chito and Pocho showing off to tourists. As I understand the story, Chito found a young Pocho hurt on the side of the river near his home on the Caribbean side of Costa Rica. He felt sorry for him and nursed him back to health, thinking he would go back to where he came from. He didn't. Instead, he never left Chito's side again as they became best friends. After learning to play in the water with Pocho, Chito thought that maybe tourist might pay to see them play. And they do. 

By the way, don't try this at home. Not all Crocs are this tame!

While I'm at it, here is a tour guide taking big chances for the entertainment of the tourists. You can see this on "Crocodile Man Tours" here on one of the Pacific coast rivers.

Until next time.....Pura Vida from Costa Rica!

STORY: Rainy Season & Lots of Critters.

Here is a view from our new house in the foothills near Playa Hermosa, Costa Rica.

Usually the sun rise over the distant hills and the trees and plants shine with the rain from the night before. 

By late afternoon it rains "cats and dogs."

We are now officially in the "rainy season" or "green season" as the tourist industry likes to call it. We made our move from the beach to this location just before the rainy season started and its a good thing because it pretty much rains every day now.

But, the nice thing about it is that the day typically starts out sunny and bright, like this morning as I am writing this post and enjoying the sunshine coming in through the windows.

The rainy season starts in mid to late May and runs though November, depending somewhat on your location in the country. So, you get everything done that you need to during the day and try to make sure you are home before the rain begins.

When it rains here, it usually rains hard. Driving at night in Costa Rica is not a good idea in the first place, but add hard rain and its just stupid. So, people tend to get together in the afternoon and head for home before dark, which is at around 5:30 here, year-round. 

We are actually really enjoying the start of the rainy season. The sound of rain is very relaxing. We just don't want to be caught out in it. So far we've done pretty well at it. We hear October and November produce the most rain here. Sometimes it rains for days on end non stop. Okay, so that might get a little tiring, but we'll get over it too.

Moving to a new house here wasn't easy, but we got it done with the help of some friends that had a truck. It didn't take long after we moved in to find out we were NOT alone! 

OWLS

The first to greet us was a family of Barn Owls. There are five in all –– the two parents and three babies. This is one of the babies.

They live in our third story, which we are not able to access because the staircase to the third floor was never built. These guys have been living up there for who knows how long. 

Barn Owls live virtually everywhere except for the coldest places on earth. They like to nest in high abandoned places such as church steeples, etc. 

Our new house provides a perfect place for them to raise their young. The only problem we have with them is that they are very loud at night, when they hunt and come back with food for their young. Now the young are also hunting at night and make even more racket. 

Well, that wasn't the only problem we had I guess. They also sat on the ledge above our entry stairs and crapped all over the stairs. We were waking up to a slew of white splatters and hair balls complete with little rodent sculls or whatever they discarded down on us.

We can open our doors and look at them up there looking down on us. Sometimes they land on a branch close enough to look into the house just to see who has invaded their privacy.

We had an exterminator come over and place some wire mesh along the ledge they were using for their toilet and that solved our problem. There is still plenty of room for them on the other side. Soon the young will be taking off on their own looking for new hunting grounds and I guess other Barn Owls. We assume the parents will stay.

BATS

Although I don't have any photos of our bats, we have plenty of them in the attic. They are a problem as they carry a lot of diseases and their guano has some bad stuff in it for us to breathe. So, the exterminator went up in the attic, clean it all out, stuffed the holes with mesh and blew the bats out with one of those professional blowers. We didn't want to hurt the bats, so we hope they have found a new home.

BIRDS

There are certainly some wonderful birds in Costa Rica. Moving from the beach we are seeing some new varieties. This is a Mot Mot if I am not mistaken. Check out its dart-feather tail.

My favorite birds are the Scarlet Macaws that frequently fly by the house. They have been endangered due to the selling of them on the black market. But, they are making a comeback in several locations along the Pacific Coast. Playa Hermosa on the Central Pacific is one of those places and we are lucky enough to be living here.

Macaws are called "Lapas" here. They mate for life and are rarely seen without a mate. You always know when they are nearby as they constantly squalk back and forth to each other. I heard that the other day a pair flew into the little grocery store in Esterillos Oeste, raiding the chips aisle before exiting the store.

We have seen as many as eight at a time flying around the house. They travel from the hills to the beach and back. They are attracted by all the Almond Trees in this area as that is one of their main diets.

This guy was in the tree the other day along with his mate. I think they might be Whistling Ducks, but I'm not sure.

There are many of these brown Robins here. I forget what they are called, but they are the national bird of Costa Rica. We have one nesting next to our house.

IGUANAS

Of course Iguanas are everywhere if you look. This one is sitting on the large tree in our yard. There are many varieties here and we think they are wonderful. Ticos don't like them because they eat their plants. Ticos like to eat them. Dogs are their enemies too, but they seem to reproduce in good enough numbers to overcome the pressure.

INSECTS

There are more insects here than I could imagine. This butterfly came to us recently for a photo op. I'll have to do a post just on insects some time.

Probably the hardest working insects of all are the Leaf Cutter Ants. This highway of leaf cutters is always full. Luckily there are so many plants growing so fast here that the leaves are hardly missed. 

This is one of their entrance holes into their underground farms. They don't actually eat the leaves, but instead use them to grow mold down in their chamber and then they eat the mold. At least that is what I have been told.

FROGS

We know that there are plenty of Frogs here because we hear them at night as soon as the sun goes down. But this little guy was seen in the yard the other day. He is very tiny and we picked him up in a plastic bowl to photograph. Little frogs like this are in danger and some of these are very poisonous.

MONKEYS

And last, but not least, are Monkeys. I took this photo a couple of years ago down in Manuel Antonio Park, about an hours drive south from here. He is a White Face Monkey, probably the most common. I am showing him here because we saw a family of these guys across the road from our house and in some trees the other day. I was surprised because they need a range with tree-to-tree access so they are not exposed to the canines that live whereever there are people. 

We can also hear Howler Monkeys in the distance. They stay farther away from populated area so they are harder to see......but their howls carry far.

So there you are, with another Critter report from Costa Rica. I've got to get back to my painting. 

Meanwhile, the clouds will begin building again because the cool air will come rolling down the mountains and hit the moist Pacific air.......and whalla! 

MORE RAIN