Strong light

I started painting some strongly lit portraits...working with some unique color combinations and leaving the pure white of the paper as the lit side of the face...this is the most straight forward portrait...for some of the others I used purples, greens, yellows and blues in the face...I'll try to post those some time soon.

Mill in Red

Another one from my week long retreat...this is the main building where you eat all your meals and they are tasty.  My studio was a little further away from the main campus so I managed to walk most of my meals off, plus gather inspiration like this view on my way there!

pear portrait

 

I made myself another sketchbook recently that I filled while I was away at a week long artist residency.  This little painting was the last one I did in the sketchbook on the last day and was of this red pear that kept me company most of the week in the studio and I thought I'd better commemorate it with its own portrait! (actual size 3.5"x2" or so)

Value

When I first started painting I didn't understand the importance of value..this was the hardest thing for me to grasp...now that I've been painting for many years, value has certainly become more clear and is such an important part of a successful painting.

color and color

This piece is 22"x15" and shows some fantastic tail feather colors..I don't think there is such a colorful rooster out there for real..but I certainly exaggerate the pigment choices and hope it makes for a more exciting painting.

drippy double pears

This was a fun experiment while I was away all week at an artist residency.  I tacked a large piece of paper on the wall from a roll I bought for $5.00 at Ikea and then painted these two pears that I had placed on a nearby table.  Fun to paint so extremely vertical...hence the drips. The paper is about 24" wide by 36" long.

subject revisited

Here's a rooster done a few weeks ago and got me back on a roll for painting my feathered friends..so I will be posting those over the next several weeks...painting marathons or lulls hit everyone...sometimes a subject gets put on the back burner for a while, but resurfaces when you are ready to tackle it again...

is it finished?

This is the last installment of my progress pictures...I don't know if the painting is finished at this point or if there is still tweaking to do...but I hope you got to see the major steps involved in my process.

next step

The next step in my process...While I was painting these sunflowers I really had to continually remind myself to stop and take a picture.  Plus you want to take a picture at a stage where it looks like you've done something and it's still possible to see how you achieved the steps vs. doing so much that the viewer can't decipher how you got from stage 2 to stage 3...so hopefully I've been able to  document in a clear way my process a little bit anyway.

Working technique

This is the second stage of my sunflower painting.  I gradually build up layers and darken sections to let the negative spaces define leaves, petals and other shapes.  The most important thing is to let pigments dry in between applications or else everything mixes and can turn muddy or if you overbrush or overwork areas.  Dry paper=hard edges  wet/damp paper=soft edges.

process pix

I had a chance to photograph a painting in progress and I'll post the pictures here the next several blog posts.    It is hard to remember to stop while you are working, especially if you are on a roll..This is a full sheet of 22"x30" and was composed from a few picture references that I took from sunflower bouquets.

navigating

I am working through growing pains with a new laptop...it's not easy trying to navigate the new Windows apps.  Oh well...Plus the systems come so stripped down that I need all sorts of software...any one have any suggestions for some software for photo editing...besides Photoshop or Elements...anyone have any experience with any of the free downloads?  Thanks...

variety

Some purple tulips...where I painted the background (negative space) with color and not the actual flowers. It is a good way to see if your spaces are unique shapes and show variety..which is always what I strive for...

Quote

A graphite study of three 5 minute poses...the warm ups are sometimes the hardest..you have to get the large masses down first and not worry about the details...then if there is time left you can restate lines and put in some shading..How about this quote by famous artist Georgia O'Keeffe: "I hate flowers - I paint them because they're cheaper than models and they don't move."  Well that's not true for me...I love flowers, but they do sit still...and I do like drawing the model, too...

random pix

How is this for something different for me?  I have a large collection of random photographs and I took a picture of this dog several years ago...why?  Well I didn't really know at the time, but recently when looking through said photos...he spoke to me and I had to do a little sketch...so that's why I take pix and save them.. for a rainy day of sketching :)

permanent ink

Tulips are everywhere now, except out in the garden....yet!  This coming week the temps will rise..yahoo!  I've been sketching a lot and trying to fill my sketchbooks.  I'm calling it my artistic exercising to keep my brain and way of seeing in shape.  I do these sketches without drawing in pencil first...I go right in with a permanent marker...like doing the crossword in ballpoint ink!  No guts, no glory!

Book news

Hot off the presses..this painting "Letter Sweater" was selected for inclusion in the next Splash publication, "Splash 15, Creative Solutions".  The book will be out next summer!  Super excited and super honored.  She will follow in the footsteps of my other painting "The Storyteller" which will be out in Splash 14 this year!.

blooming

Back to a floral image..we've brought spring into the house in the form of tulip bouquets, an Easter lily plant and a total find at the grocery store...a gardenia plant in bloom and with tons of buds ready to open!  So the scent of mixed blossoms is in the air!  And captured in my sketchbook!