I just finished up a sketch for a new dry brush watercolor. It is for a very special friend and it will have a tremendous amount a meaning in it for them when it is done. And I am honored to be able to do it for them.

The finished painting will be something a little different for me. I will be adding text into the negative space on the right side of the painting. There will be quiet a bit of it and it will all be hand lettered.

Finished Chickadee Watercolor

The little chickadee is done. He has become my new favorite painting of the year. There is a quiet tranquility to him. He exists in one of those perfect moments in time where there are no cares or worries. A moment to just be.

Progress so far.

Black Capped Chickadee drybrush watercolor

Starting a new drybrush watercolor today. This little chickadee has found himself a perch atop a milkweed plant that has gone to seed.

Barn Swallow watercolor update.

The Barn Swallow painting is done. As promised though I do have a photo of the work in progress to show to you along with the finished painting.

Here you can see the sky and clouds have been filled in and I have begun to paint the swallow. I like to start with the area of interest, in this case his head, and work outward from there.
The finished painting.

Book Project

I have always liked to write poems and short stories. Over the last few years have spent many evenings coming up with short and rather silly bedtime stories for my son. Recently while at breakfast with a friend and her husband the subject of gnomes came up ( don't ask ). This spurred a series of sketches. The latest resulted in this fellow. He finally may be the inspiration for the book project I have been wanting to do for years. I will be posting some of the sketches and the progress of this project along with my regular paintings and sketches.

Barn Swallow Watercolor

If I had to pick one of my favorite birds to watch fly it would have to be the Barn Swallow. They fly swiftly and effortlessly. Often barley seeming to move at all, like an athlete at the zenith of his jump or kick. All of that kinetic energy channeled into a perfect moment of physical movement in which time seems to slow down before it cascades it into flurry of motion. I hope to capture some of that feeling in this painting.


The Swallow has just completed a dive and banked into a air current at the top of a hill along a long forgotten fence line. This rising batch of warm air will give him a tremendous burst of speed, sending him rocketing off into the distance.

American Bald Eagle Painting Finished

Well here it is. It is finally done. Now, what the heck am I going to name it......

Long awaited Eagle painting update.

Thought you might like to see where the eagle painting has progressed to. It should be finished this week. I still have to put in the feathers on the upper wing and the tail. And I think I am going to add some mist as well.

Oil painting update

Ok, ok, I now I said weekly updates on this painting. I would blame the dog , but he would take it out on my pour helpless shoes.

Well any way.... here is the painting at a intermedate stage. Not much detail in the eagle yet and I am still developing the background.

Sketch for a new painting.

Tonight I am posting something a litttle different. This is a sketch for a up coming oil painting. It will be the largest painting I have done so far this year. It will be approximately 16x20 inches, maybe slightly larger. I will be posting weekly photos of its progress, so check back often and feel free to post coments or to email me.

Timber wolf finished

I finished the timber wolf painting earlier today. He ended up being much less detailed than what my work is usually like, but from the very beginning of this one a little voice kept telling me to keep it simple. In the end he turned out just as I had imagined him.

A little further on the timber wolf.

New Watercolor

I started a new watercolor last night. Here is what it looks like so far.

Art washes from the soul
the dust of everyday life.

-Picasso

I stumbled on this quote today.

And found it very moving.

New Projects and Ideas

As some of you may know the last several years have been...lets say a bit distracting for me. Over the last few months I have regained contact with some long lost freinds. I had forgotten what a good bunch they all are too. And just being able to chat with them again has been fantastic and inspiring. There are new thoughts and ideas stiring, and I plan on sharing them here.

Thanks Guys and Gals!

The Barred Owl Has Landed

I just finished the Barred Owl and I am very pleased with her. They are not the most colorful of birds. Mainly brown, grey and white. But I was able use some blues here and there along with the green back ground to make the browns pop a little more. The deep brown of the eyes draw you in and hint at a world that you could lose yourself in. I think I'm going to call her Athena.

Painting Update

It has been a crazy week around here! I have been be painting a lot at night. I am sure the lil old neighbor ladies are wondering what I could possibly be doing at two and three in the morning. Ya know, it's funny they will come over and ask when I'm going to mow my lawn, but never what it is that I do.



Well anyway, I am back to work on the Barred Owl painting. It is coming along nicely (at least I think so, but what do I know I thought parachute pants were cool in the 1980's). I have added some green to the background to help draw out the reddish tones in the browns of the feathers and the eyes. I am also trying to loosen up a little and only put a lot of detail in the areas that I want to focus attention on, like around the eyes.



This is something that one of my professors had mentioned to me years ago. I had understood what he was saying at the time but I don't think I wasn't ready to "see" things that way. I was to fascinated by the intricate details and complex beauty of nature close up. After doing so many detailed miniatures this past year I have begun to feel the need to express more feelings and emotion in my paintings. I think I am content to leave the behind my attempts at highly detailed images. Not to say that I wont still paint in detail, but that it will become secondary to the thoughts and feelings I will be trying to express in my up coming work. I used to express my feelings and emotions more in words. Occationally some little bit of writing scrwaled on a napkin or scrape of paper would lead to a painting, that often was better than it would have been on its own. I don't see this as much of a new direction, but a home coming.

Life is Good

I know I haven't posted anything in a few days, so I thought I thought I would check in.
The last few days have been very busy and at the same time just terrific. Saturday night I had a get together with some old friends none of whom I had seen in years. It was like no time had past at all. Everyone talk for hours, laughed a lot and just enjoyed being together again. It's strange how the bonds we develop and share in youth never seem to fade. And for me at least it was a much needed break and has left me feeling recharged.

And today was Fathers Day. I had a great day just hanging out with my family at home and chatting on the phone to the ones that could not be here.

Did I get any artwork done, nope! But ya know, that's okay with me.

Sleeping Bunny Painting

I just finished the sleepy little fellow and listed him on Ebay for auction. He looks pretty comfy tucked into that clover. Maybe I'll join him for a nap.

Osprey Ebay item number

I have listed the Osprey painting for auction on Ebay. The item number and link is:

Osprey Original Watercolor Painting by Eric Dull SFA

180369842889

Sleeping Bunny

Things have been kinda busy around here lately, which means I have not been able to get out to the woods or any place interesting lately. So I was pleasantly surprised when the idea for this sleepy little bunny tucked into the grass and clover came to mind. See it what happens when you don't get the lawn mowed twice a week. When the clover comes up so do some ideas. Lucky me.

He should be done tonight or tomorrow and I will be listing him and the Osprey painting on ebay. I'll post the item numbers when I list them.

Osprey Painting Part 2

Woohoo, he is done! I had a lot of fun working on this one. I got to work in my usual tight detail, but I also got to loosen up a little bit in the background with lost of brush strokes. I am really starting to enjoy working on the Arches paper. The colors keep there intensity better and my lines are crisper than on the illustration boards. I think this is my favorite painting of the year so far.

Barred Owl Painting

Another painting I'm working on. A Barred Owl. Their eyes intrigue me. They are so dark and deep they look black until the light hits them just right and you can just make out the rich dark brown. Like a still,dark, pool their strange warmth draws you in.

Oh well I always did have a thing for brown eyed girls, maybe that explains it. Good thing Michelle's are green or I'd be in big trouble.

Osprey Painting

I finally got started on the osprey painting last night. As you may have noticed he doesn't look quite so angry now. Just kinda intense, maybe he had a good lunch.

I am painting him on 140lbs. Arches watercolor paper that has been stretched. That's why you see the lovely brown tape around the edges. Actually it reminds my of art school when I ran out of drawing paper and couldn't afford to buy any, I used the old brown paper grocery bags until I could buy some regular paper. They are still some of my favorite drawings.

I got a new sketch book over the weekend and needed to break it in. It was wet and rainy out this morning so I desided to stay in and sketch out an Osprey for a up coming painting.This is the first year I have seen them here in Ohio. The first was at Spencer Lake in Medina County the other was a good old Sandy Ridge in North Ridgeville. They are some of the fiercest looking birds I have ever seen. And from what my biologist freind Dr. Rothacker at OSU has told me they have a personality to match their appearance. I tried to make this one seem only mildly annoyed, instead of just down right pissed off.

With the way things are in the world today I thought we all could use somethings that are either cute, fun or just plan ridiculous to look at to take our minds off things. As you can tell I started with cute. The others are on their way. And with the goofy ideas popping into my head lately, they will probably be of the ridiculous variety. This little fellow will by listed for auction on Ebay starting tonight. I'll post the link to him later tonight.

Nothing ever stays the same.

We went to the Carlise Metro park Visitor Center today for a opportunity to photograph some of the raptors that are cared for there.
Evan loved seeing the birds, what six year old with a fascination for animals wouldn't. Michelle and I where a bit disappointed. We had volunteered there when the raptor program had just started, caring for the birds, helping to build enclosures and doing educational programs with them. Michelle had even taken classes with Walter Crawford at the World Bird Sanctuary on a grant from the Black River Audubon Society. After Evan was born we volunteered less and less as he took up most of our time. Today was kind of a shock to us. After six years all of the people we had known and worked with there were gone. The birds are well cared for, but the new people seem to be far from relaxed with the birds. The program was short, just an hour, with only a few minutes with each bird, and some of the birds were unavailable.
All in all we left feeling that we had lost something. The Raptor Center and our time there was filled with many fond and wonderful memories. Today was like returning to a home you once lived in and finding only a house. The sense of home was gone, it had faded way into our memories. It was a sad moment for us, but it lead us to revisit those memories. To dust them off and live in them again for a time.
To Roy, the original members of the Raptor corps., Casper, Caspet ( two wonderful American Kestrels) and Alice the Coopers Hawk, today we were thinking of you.

He is finally done! It took a day longer than I thought, but he's done. WoooHooo! I had to photograph it the end the scanner just did not want to do the job. Thanks to a kind donation of a copy stand and some advise from Walter Rowe of Grafton's own Rowe Photography. Thanks Walter I owe one.Now I just have to get Mr. Prothonotary here listed on Ebay tonight.

I hope everyone had a great holiday weekend!
I did manage to get a little further one this little guy. Added some more color and shading. With a little luck he will be done today and then he will be off to Ebay.

I have added some color at this point. Using mainly drybrush techniques that allow me to work the watercolors in a somewhat opaque fashion, developing layer upon layer of color.
It is after 1:00 am and things are getting blurry, so think I'll pick this up tomorrow.

So here we are at the under painting stage of this wee little painting (2.5x3.5 inches). I just very quickly blocked in some of the values and am ready to start laying in color.

I have also officially established that my scanner hates the color I mixed to do this in. Maybe it knows about the new camera and is jealous. Can you send flowers to a scanner?

Sketch for a new ACEO Painting

This sketch of a Prothonotary Warbler is from another trip to Sandy Ridge. He should be a finished watercolor by Tuesday. They are nesting there just off the trail.

Sandy Ridge

Michelle, Evan and I where at Sandy Ridge in North Ridgeville Last weekend and got some great pictures of the Sandhill Crane that Evan spotted all by himself! It was a nice evening walk through the woods, as long as you didn't stop long enough for the mosquitos to find you. Of course Evan's favorite part was stopping at Hershey's on the way home for ice cream.....mine too, but don't tell Michelle.

First post on my new blog.

Well, here goes my first post on my first blog.

This blog will be about me and my artwork. I will be posting sketches, works in progress and finished pieces. It will probably be a slightly eclectic collection of work but will mainly center around images of nature and wildlife. From time to time images from bedtime stories I tell my son may creep in. There are many of those stories rolling around in my head that I am sure will end up as a personal book project very soon.

With all that said here is a post of dry brush watercolor study I did yesterday. All in all I think it came out okay.