Phillip Jones Painting

Another Bodhi Tree

2011-12-27T15:50:00.006-07:00

I think this is the third bodhi tree i've painted. They seem to be quite popular. Was recently asked to paint another one that is 36x48. That will be my biggest painting.

This one is 30 inches high. The friend that asked for it wanted a 36x36 painting, but paper that high is not easy to find. This was actually a piece of illustration board. I hope it is archival quality?

So after it was done and as photographed above, I cut it to 30 inches wide. My friend wanted a square painting. It didn't look as good square. I think next time I'll cut the paper to the size required before painting, so it will be painted to fit the correct ratio. That is the composition will be correct. I'm not against square paintings, I just think that i painted it in a rectangle and when it was cut to be square it didn't look as good.

phil hours

2011-11-05T21:06:00.005-06:00

It's been a long while since I've blogged or painted. There are so few phil hours in the day anymore, I really need to decide what is going to give me the most satisfaction.

I'm not complaining. Life gets like that for everyone. But it seems to be going so quickly right now, I don't think I can waste it on something that isn't going to satisfy. So I spent a couple hours today painting.

The painting didn't turn out like I envisioned (like they ever do.) But I didn't execute like I know I should have either.

I just planned to do a contour drawing and wait for the lines to dry (to cure bone dry) before painting the shade inside. But I didn't so the lines and shade mixed and some lines pretty much disappeared.

I also bought Exile on Main Street. That was 20 bucks well spent!

Outreach Peru

2011-03-20T22:25:00.004-06:00

I'm pretty happy with this iteration. Not sure if it will be the last. Looks great in the frame bought for the gala auction.

Maybe it's time to move onto a different scene and offer something different for my friend?

Outreach Peru

2011-03-19T20:52:00.002-06:00

Here's another version of the same scene I've been painting over and over again. I think it turned out pretty well. Maybe the composition isn't quite right though?

I'd like to bring the foreground mountain forward and make it look three dimensional rather than flat like an aerial photo. It also seems like the shapes are too equal. Maybe some should be skinny and some fat?

Maybe i need to make the whole foreground mountain much darker to give it form? If anyone has any suggestions to do it differently, I'd love to see comments.

Horse and Train

2011-03-14T10:13:00.009-06:00

I love this painting by Alex Colville!

I tried painting my own version and pretty happy with it. It's definitely not as awesome, but I think the experience of copying is very interesting. I didn't get the horse quite right. In awe of how he captured it's form.

I drew lines over the original to study composition. I noticed how the bottom half of the horse's ass is in shadow and fits under a diagonal intersect and the lighter half of the torso is above the diagonal. Also, the horizon is pretty much two thirds up the paper following the "rule of thirds." Even the smoke from the train follows a diagonal in the NW quadrant. It's very interesting.

Abstract time lapse move

2011-03-04T12:11:00.002-07:00

Abstract Portrait

2011-03-03T12:39:00.007-07:00

I like this painting now. I didn't when it was first finished. It turned out much different than intended. So perhaps disappointed at first and not liking it for what it is. But we're all good now.

I wanted to make a pretty realistic portrait and then put wet wrap over it and smush it around until it was partially unrecognizable. That is, eyes and nose and mouth etc might blend or be distorted. After the smushing everything was unrecognizable and only a vague outline of head and shoulders remained.

I feel like I'm learning a lot everyday about how to paint watercolors and my learning curve is very steep right now. If that is true, I must still be at the very start of my 10,000 hours of painting. That's kind of exciting.

Recent revelations include:

1. layering a colour over another before the first one is BONE DRY will lift the first one and reveal blank paper underneath.

2. A dry brush swished around over almost dry paint or a slight damp area can make some nice brush strokes.

3. Over mixing of colours makes a muddy dull color.

None of these revelations really relate to the painting above. The Peru pictures are move applicable.

Mountain Steps

2011-03-02T15:02:00.003-07:00

Here is another work of Peru based on a photo by Donna. It's definitely not too realistic. I like the variety of colors that are in the mountains and the light in the background.

Well I haven't been a full time painter recently. I've been putting more effort into finding a full time job. Maybe I was previously slacking on that, but it still is my number 1 priority. I have been putting more effort into being productive and not blogging so much about it. It's sort of silly to be wasting time complaining about not producing enough when I should be painting. Overall I'm painting more and more active in my job search. Happy the funk has passed!

If I Really Was a Painter?

2011-02-17T11:40:00.006-07:00

I'd have to sell my paintings for about a grand each to actually quit looking for a "real" job. That's pretty lame. That is my productivity or laziness is pretty lame.

I wondered how much my paintings actually do make? So I averaged all the non-vetta paintings I sell on iStock per month by the number of paintings, and i make $1.50/painting/month. Obviously i could adapt my style or subject to try and be more marketable. But that is quite a bit of guesswork.

A buck and a half seems like such a low number, but maybe consciously being marketable and then adding a lot of paintings every month would quickly add up to a reasonable number?

If i worked 20 eight hour days per month and made 1 painting per hour, after a year the portfolio would have over 2000 paintings. If it was still performing at $1.50/painting/month, that would be encouraging enough I think, to continue.

But there a lot of risk around the $1.50. That number of paintings might water down each painting's performance? On the other hand I might have to consider other venues for selling paintings, like etsy.

Okay I'm going off on a huge what-if tangent when the biggest uncertainty is actually my own discipline and painting 8 hours a day. To actually make painting my job. As long as I don't compromise looking for a "real" job, It might be interesting to see if I can be a real painter in the meanwhile.

Peru study

2011-02-15T13:27:00.003-07:00

Even though I haven't been painting much lately, I'm still super stoked about contributing to my friend's Outreach Peru gala silent auction. My other friend is also letting me use her travel pictures as photo references, which is super nice and cool. Above is the first attempt.

I like a lot of things about this little study, but on the other hand it still looks a little weak. The terraces in the bottom left don't seem quite right. Maybe they need to be more opaque or I didn't get the perspective quite right? I paid a lot of attention trying to give the painting depth, by making the distant areas light and mauve-ish and the closer areas darker. But I think I need to do more of this as well as blurring the distant horizons.

Outreach Peru

2011-01-28T15:08:00.008-07:00

Pastel Abstract

I got a really exciting request yesterday. My buddy Errin asked if I would donate a painting to a silent auction to raise money and send a medical team to help children in Peru. I love that I can help out even though i can't send a bunch of money. It will also be interesting to see how much one of my paintings will raise.

I'm going to try and paint a Peruvian landscape so there is a connection for the buyer between the artwork/donation and the cause country. But Errin and I will figure out which painting is best. The gala auction isn't until April.

This Pastel Abstract isn't that landscape, just a just finished painting. I like the way it turned out. It's a mixed media work.

I started with coloured sidewalk chalk making pastel shapes. Then i applied water using a paint brush and pushed and pulled the shapes. I think it turned out pretty good, but whether you like is probably highly dependent on if you like the colour scheme. It would probably be best in a room decorated by a little old lady.

Mountain Lake Abstract

2011-01-24T17:23:00.022-07:00

I started this painting trying to stencil some curved marks onto the paper. They looked okay but i wasn't sure how i'd make a whole painting from this technique. So i quickly started using the brush full on.

I was probably using too watery a mixture because the painting was starting to look too greyish without any depth. I wanted some hard lines and texture so i put on the plastic wrap again.

I like how the black trickled down the wet wrap, so i covered the whole painting using this technique. Then the board was flipped over and red was applied in the same manner.

After drying it and flipping around to see which way it looks best, i settled on the vertical aspect. It looks a little like a mountain scene with a lake and red sunset reflections in the foreground.

I'm sorry the video has poor lighting. I started it in the late afternoon and most of the light was coming in the window. But by the time it was finished the lighting was tungsten so the white balance is wrong.

Closeup Portrait

2011-01-18T16:06:00.009-07:00

I'm pretty happy with how this painting turned out. I didn't do any planning or sketching but carved out the face as I went along. It's a bit of a surprise the proportions are more or less okay. It looked better wet than after it dried though. There is probably a fixer or something i can spray on it to look wet? The nose looks a little too straight on and should probably be pointing more to the left. But maybe she is an ex-hockey player and it's bent out of shape? That's the story i'll go with. Overall I still like it.

Moab

2011-01-17T23:45:00.007-07:00

Okay I promise this is the last time I paint this scene. I'm tired of it too. I like this version the best. The video gets dark about half way thru because I finished with indoor lighting whereas the first half had a nice light from a window.

I came back to the painting because i decided that the closer hills were too dark in the painting. So I applied a masking fluid to the foreground rock and washed away a bit of the darkness in those hills. Then i rubbed off the masking fluid and bob's your uncle.

Two Minute Watercolors

2011-01-15T15:28:00.008-07:00

Today i worked on two minute watercolor sketches. I was hoping for happy accidents, but am pretty unsatisfied. Maybe I was being too controlling? Maybe i'm expecting too much? I was trying to accomplish some dry horizon lines in the foreground to help suggest which hills are closer and give the painting depth.

I might have to revisit the David Dunlop video to be inspired again. But i'm also tired of painting my Moab photo. Going to look for another photo before continuing with 2 minute watercolours.

I made little time lapse movies of my paintings. I think they all went over the 2 minute mark because I wasn't happy with the result. Going against conventional wisdom i'm sharing these crappy paintings with the world. On the upside, i liked the scraping effect created with the end of a metal ruler.

Moab

2011-01-13T13:31:00.007-07:00

I made a time lapse movie of a pretty "realistic" painting. It's a bit longer than I hoped it would be. Sorry if it's boring.

First I applied a masking fluid to save areas where I wanted to put some green plants. Then I sketched out the hills. I looked at an old photo taken way back in the 90s. I put some plastic wrap on top of the wet paint to try and get a nice texture. I didn't like the texture and painted over it.

I mostly like the painting, but I might try it speedier and hope for more spontaneous happy accidents.

Gestión del tiempo

2011-01-09T13:17:00.006-07:00

Gestión del tiempo es difícil. Búsqueda de empleo y pintar son la prioridad, pero un pocos minutos todos los días puede ser para aprender español. Hoy me adherir 'post-its' en artículos domésticos. También voy a conjugar los verbos en este párrafo.

Fire Abstract

2011-01-08T15:27:00.002-07:00

I'm REALLY happy with the way this one turned out. I used a combination of paint and colored chalk. I smeared the chalk on while the paper was still wet, and then brushed that into the painting again. Then i laid clear film on the lower half of the painting for texture. If i could duplicate these results i'd make 100 more paintings like this.

Actually I've been working on a different technique today. Results were not expected but I'll save that for when I post that work.

It's been a good day overall. I've kept the tv off even though i don't watch it closely when it's on. Today seems more productive than usual. I'm thinking tv is more of a distraction than i've admitted. I've even worked out somewhat intensely, which is a huge turn around to the trend.

Abstract7

2011-01-06T18:55:00.003-07:00

I liked the way this painting turned out. You can get lost looking at the little details in the texture. Many layers of colours were applied and swooshed around. The texture is a result of pressing clear plastic wrap on the wet paint and waiting for it to dry. Then another layer of colour was added and plastic wrap again used for texture.

Happy 2011 Everyone!

2011-01-01T13:30:00.004-07:00

I think if i died now my biggest regret would be wasted time. I feel like i should be way more productive. I need to re-prioritize. Make painting just as important as checking my email, brushing my teeth or making a pot of coffee. The same could be said about exercising.

Last year my resolution was to shoot every week. Started stronger than it finished. That said, i did shoot a lot more than 2009. I'm inspired to shoot more than i have the last few months, but this year I want to focus on painting. If i really want to be a success, i need to keep painting all year. Maybe closer relationships with other painters will help keep me focused?

I hope everyone has a great year and pursues their dreams.

Portrait Attempt

2010-12-30T19:30:00.004-07:00

I've been looking at all the wonderful watercolor portraits on flickr and inspired to try one myself. Judging by my sketch it might not be very realistic. The model is much more attractive. Hopefully the finished painting will capture that. I'll take more pictures to show the work in progress.

Art Deco Painting

2010-12-24T11:12:00.004-07:00

I don't think this is what most people would consider "art deco." It's much too sloppy with errant brush strokes and paint runs. But the colours make me think of art deco. I love how bold they are.

I don't know why i feel the need to classify or label different paintings? In my last post i wondered if my painting was "abstract expression?" I looked up that label and it said something about being anarchic, which isn't a feeling i had about those paintings. So i was probably wrong calling them abstract expression.

Joy to the World!

Abstract 4

2010-12-20T13:24:00.002-07:00

I need to do a little research and see if i really should be calling these "abstract expressionist?" All i know is not much thought is put into design or colors when they're started. I just stop when i like them. I like the yellow square at the bottom of this one. It's a total accident. It wasn't planned. But maybe as the Freud saying goes "there are no accidents." I do think about balance though and try to make sure the eye doesn't get stuck in one place, or if all the action is on one side to balance with something on the other side.

Blue Abstract

2010-12-17T16:05:00.005-07:00

I like the way this one turned out. It reminds me of when we rented condos at Fernie and the moon light falls on fresh mountain snow at night. It was pure abstract expression. I just painted the paper blue and then wet my brush and tried to clear some areas of pigment. There are multiple layers of blue and yellow revealed like a canyon carved by a prairie river.

Abstract Expression

2010-11-18T11:15:00.007-07:00

I was inspired to paint this after seeing a painting on the show "Mad Men." Wow that show has style!

I like the way this one turned out. It's funny how my works always turn out completely different than the works that spurred me. I chose the wrong colours to begin with so i had to layer over some of the first shapes to change their hue.

I really need to paint more. I've improved my process of creating large files and colour correcting for upload to iStock. From what i earn from only a few files suggests that if i add a few hundred more paintings it could be a full time income. Although it's probably naive to make a reasonable extrapolation from such a small sample. Get busy Jones and find out!

Gotta Keep At It

2010-08-17T09:10:00.006-06:00

As the infrequent entries in this blog might suggest, I haven't been painting much lately. That's totally counter intuitive given my last entry was all about how well my paintings have been selling on iStockphoto.com/philsajonesen

So here is something done on the weekend. No planning involved. Just started painting and this is what i ended up with. Kinda looks like a nature landscape.

In the recent watercolor magazine I saw an artist who ran a black marker along any hard edges. So i gave that a whirl too, but only around some shapes and below is the result. The change in colour temperature is just how both photos were photoshopped differently. I like the warmer top photo better.

iStockphoto Stats

2010-06-24T12:23:00.006-06:00

A quick analysis of downloads from my iStockphoto portfolio in the last month reveals that:

36% were businesspeople
21% were paintings
15% was food
15% were travel pics
9% were girls
3% were miscellaneous photos.

As a percent of dollars:

29% were businesspeople
45% were paintings
7 % was food
11% was travel
4% were girls
4% was miscellaneous.

Wow! Really should proportion time spent on each similarly.

Mixed Media

2010-06-22T13:40:00.003-06:00

This is an overlap of the picture i took of Venessa and the work-in-progress painting. Quite like the result.

updated Bohemian Forest Woman

2010-06-18T10:03:00.007-06:00

detail of work in progress

Even though i've had lots of great response to the photo of the painting posted two days ago, I wasn't quite satisfied. Jackie always yells "no, leave it alone" when she sees work in progress she likes, but i keep working it. Well we can always make a nice print from the photo of how that painting was.

Firstly i bought some masking fluid. I've never used that before. I applied it over the figure. Then i wetted the rest of the painting and put down plastic wrap with vertical wrinkles. Was hoping the results would look much better. The paper buckled horizontally when wet and the vertical pattern of the wrap didn't impact like i imagined.

So i'm going to try the realistic style again and see if i can paint some trees that make me happy. If not, they'll get massacred again.

These photos of the work in progress show the masking fluid over the figure. So i'm hoping that the figure will look like it did two days ago when i'm finally satisfied with the trees and peel off the mask. Stay tuned.

Bohemian Forest Woman

2010-06-16T14:04:00.007-06:00

This painting is derived from a photoshoot with wicked Venessa. I'm pretty happy with the way it turned out. I'd rather the trees be thinner and more delicate looking.

I tried to be much more methodical with colours and less splashy with the paint and brush. It's less abstract that way. I can imagine wetting it again and laying plastic wrap with vertical folds might add nice texture. But then Venessa might be diminished. That might be a good thing to work her into the background? Or i could put a mask on her and then put the wrap on the wetted background. I don't know?

I have a nice photo of this stage, so perhaps i shouldn't worry about it and go ahead and push it even more?

The Photo's Impression

2010-06-04T10:40:00.021-06:00

I finished this painting last night. It's been a work in process for a few weeks now. It was getting muddier and muddier as each new layer was applied, and further from having any dynamic range. It was looking very dark grey and monotone.

So i thought "what the hell" and washed as much as would come off in the kitchen sink. I was left with a slightly lighter green colour block devoid of any shapes or patterns. Then i roughly sketched a scene from a group of seven painting with watercolour pencils onto the wet paper. I quite like the result.

The photo (above) i took of the painting seems to have a much greater tonal range from the light areas to the dark darks than how the painting looks in real life. And more colorful too. If i sold this painting online, the photo would definitely have to be darkened and desaturated to more closely resemble how i see the real painting. Otherwise i think the photo would be a misrepresentation of the painting. Maybe i just remember it under bad light? I've altered the photo to resemble how i remember the painting (below).

Then there is the issue of how i'd really like it to be. So i went to town in Photoshop and adjusted the tonal curves and saturation quite a bit. The image below is the one i prefer. I might have a large print made from this variation and see how it compares to the original painting. I wonder if Photoshop needs to be how i finish all my work and only sell prints. The original painting perhaps trashed as inferior?

June 16th Update:

Istockphoto rejected the version that i considered "final" (above) for being too dark. So i lightened it up, and resubmitted it (below).

Fractal Abstract

2010-03-22T11:33:00.015-06:00

I quite like how this little watercolour painting turned out. It was inspired by the works of Sam Francis. I like his organic or "natural" looking patterns. I also really like the way his colour combinations work. I personally doubt i'll ever get that impact satisfactory.

I haven't painted in quite a while. Almost a month. I'm quite bogged down with the painting for Joanie. I fear that something quite bold must be done or it will look flat. When i photograph it with my cell phone and dappled light is coming through the window, I just love how it looks in the picture. That's what i want! It's intimidating. I may have to randomly pour water on it and give it a swish or something to get that impressionist look. I don't know what i'll do?

But i'm happy i did this little painting in just one night. I must try to paint more little ones, even if i don't feel like tackling Joanie's at the time. I hope it sells tons on istockphoto too. My paintings are doing quite nicely there. Certainly a good reason to keep painting little works.

June 16th Update:

Did i write i was happy with this little painting? Well since that post i disliked it. It spent too much time in plain view around the house and i altered it some more, including flipping it upside down.

Work Still in progress

2010-02-22T09:32:00.010-07:00

I worked on Joanie's painting some more. The green background paint was wetted and lifted. I don't like the edge the green painters tape made along the topside of the canopy. The paint bled a wee bit under the tape. Maybe i'm applying the tape incorrectly? Wow, i really like the how this photo looks because the dappled light was shining thru the window onto the painting. I wish i could make the painting look like this under regular circumstances.

Because the other print Joanie has is kinda bluish, I thought i'd try to stick with more of the same palette. So i painted the background blue. The painters tape edge is still present so i'll have to tackle that somehow. I think i'll try to lift the blue in somesort of random manner to emulate the impressionist light i got photographing the previous version.

I should be using a better camera than my cell phone to capture these work in progress photos so i can upload them to my istockphoto account. Kinda silly not to.

Today i'm feeling a bit blue. Shouldn't be. It was a pretty good weekend. Enjoyed taking my parents to Stagewest. And they loved it. Had a challenging run in the morning and stretched my hamstrings good thereafter. So shouldn't ask for more. Just feeling blah.

Felt like this for a couple weeks. Thismorning my photography looks really boring compared to others on Flickr. I thought it was because my new focus on booking shoots was plateauing six weeks into the new year, and that's just how the mind works, focus fades and i'd just have to bust thru it.

But this coffee has given my a new idea, even though this Blackswan book i'm reading says i should lay off the causal explanations for stuff. I've speculated before that lack of sleep makes me blue. So maybe that's all that's necessary. Get some sleep and life is good.

Work in progress, Joanie's Bodhi Tree

2010-02-12T10:17:00.003-07:00

I snapped this work in progress with my cell phone this morning. I like the light that was coming through the window. It's an impressionist feeling to me. Inspiring. Makes me want to take it in a whole new direction.

Joanie's Bodhi Tree

2010-01-28T16:00:00.003-07:00

The previous Bodhi Tree was initially supposed to be for my friend Joanie. It turns out she wants a painting much bigger than the 19x23ish inches it is. So i'm trying recreate another version that is much bigger. Here are the first two layers. Hopefully it will even be better than the first attempt.

Sunbathing

2010-01-15T15:34:00.004-07:00

I painted this one YEARS ago. Probably at least 20 back. I recently uploaded it to istock. I'm not sure if they'll accept it, but WTH. It's really dirty and faded. Not really surprising considering its on a spiral book of paper that's been kicking around under my bed. It's probably good i took a picture of it. It will probably be completely faded in another 20.

It's definitely from my minimal paint stage. When i didn't realize paint could be dug up and pushed around the sheet. Back then painting was like using a pen to do the crossword puzzle. Every brushstroke was permanent, i thought.

Jong Ro Homage

2009-12-05T22:40:00.014-07:00

I really admire the paintings of Jong Ro. I suppose the fact that i like her paintings is enough in itself, but i'm also wanting to learn a lot more about abstract painting. I wonder if there is a theory backgrounder that can be found on the subject, so that i might appreciate abstract much more?

Jong Ro painting.

Pool Shark Attack continued

2009-11-23T10:29:00.007-07:00

I've had enough of this painting. I really don't think i can fix it up so i'll love it. Maybe if i took a fine brush and detailed the hands and face? But that's not going to happen. The law of diminishing returns rules.

another iteration

yet another iteration

finished

Yacht

2009-11-20T10:30:00.006-07:00

I quite like this one. Even though the entire time i was looking at it as a horizontal. In fact i'd had enough of it and thought of it as a failure. But i thought i'd take a picture of it and upload it to istockphoto anyway in case someone wanted to use it for grunge texture, or something like that. But when veiwing it vertical like this, i really like it.

I planned on painting shapes, like i did for the bodhi tree, but in this case i'd paint repetitive triangles, thinking of sails. It really wasn't abstract enough in the beginning so i kept adding and subtracting layers many times and made some scratches and texture lines with a watercolor pencils until finally i was just through with it. It wasn't going where i'd hoped it would.

Looking at it vertical is a really happy accident.

Pool Shark Attack

2009-11-19T09:34:00.018-07:00

For this painting i referred to a photo i took last year. In the photo you can obviously tell Danielle is on the pool table at my office, but it's not so obvious in this painting. I suppose that gives it a bit more mystery.

I don't think it's quite done. I will probably define the hands a little more and put a little more shading, particularly on the right of the face and body to give more roundishness and less flat looking. I also think the background needs some more reddishness near her arm and head; to give it a more bloody look. And the dress needs a strap on the left shoulder.

It took quite a few layers, as you can see in this video to decide the colouring and whether it would be more of a middle value or a very dark key.

The time lapse video was captured at 1 frame per second and the playback is at 15 frames per second. The actual painting time is around an hour and a half.

istockphoto

2009-11-13T10:30:00.000-07:00

Uploading photos of my paintings to istockphoto.com may turn out to be a better idea than i expected. I only have a couple in istock's Vetta collection, but they're earning a nice little income.

I've probably earned more from them on istock than if i'd sold the originals. Especially the little 5x7 inch painting. That wouldn't have earned >$50 by selling the original. And i haven't incurred any shipping charge.

By taking photos of a painting's progress, i can also avoid the issue of ruining a painting by continually trying to improve it. Jackie always says, "leave it alone!" But i'm not completely satisfied, and it turns out worse than it was. By capturing it along the way, some pre-finished version might be quite sellable on istockphoto.

I suppose people are buying from istock so they can print and hang for their interior design.

Torso

2009-11-12T09:00:00.000-07:00

I painted this from a photo i liked. But first I manipulated the photo in photoshop until it was quite abstract. Then i painted from the manipulated photo.

Because i used a long sheet of paper, i think the proportions are a little too elongated. I might squish the height of a photo of my painting if i upload it to istockphoto. Or maybe not?

Bodhi Tree continued

2009-11-11T10:39:00.012-07:00

I've added some more squares, trying to fill out the tree's foliage a bit more. Trying to keep a careful eye on balance. It's at the point where it won't give up the stains via my wet lifting technique. So not much can be removed, only added. I think it's pretty much finished. Unless i walk by it and see a gaping hole out the corner of my eye.

I like the painting. Don't "love" it. Perhaps i'll like it more when it's framed with a white matte?

Bodhi Tree continued

2009-11-10T10:23:00.018-07:00

Lastnight I worked on the same sheet of paper that seemed ruined on Sunday. I tried to add colour blocks to represent the big areas of leaves on a tree. I wetted the paper and lifted the old paint and painted in the new yellow or blue. I thought this piece was beyond repair, but now i'm quite liking it again.

I think there is too much negative space around the tree in the sky area, but i plan to crop over that area with the matte from the frame i have in mind.

I'm not sure if it's done now? I think i'll have to walk by it and glimpse it, or put it upside down to see if it seems balanced.

The actual painting doesn't have as much pop or saturation as this photo. But it may look better in the photo and i'm going to upload it to istockphoto, so i didn't dial down the colour saturation to make a truer representation of the painting.

Bodhi Tree

2009-11-06T13:08:00.000-07:00

I've been asked by Joanie to make a painting. Cool!

Unfortunately i've been having a hard time getting something to be happy about. I initially wanted to do something drippy and fill in all the negative white space thereafter. This is crazy intensive for a big piece. But i spent some time trying it. When i got to the sky space around the tree, i really liked the little dots created from lifting the wet paint with a dry brush. The sky was a similar look as another painting Joanie liked.

So i thought i'd try to extend this wet and lifting technique into the dripped tree area. Perhaps i did it too much? But it wasn't turning out. Unfortunately painting doesn't have an undo button, so i just had to keep going forward. I even got a pallet knife involved with some scraping.

I think this piece of paper is beyond ever reaching a satisfactory state and i'll have to start with a blank sheet again.

Good, Bad, and Ugly

2009-07-22T15:12:00.002-06:00

I haven't been painting recently and thusly not posting here. That's the bad.

The good news is Travel Alberta emailed me asking if they can use some of my flickr pictures in their online magazine City Spice. They're going to compensate me with MEC gift certificates. Sweet!

The ugly is my plan to try out the recently discovered time lapse photo feature on Jackie's camera and record a painting session. The lawn needs mowing firstly so hopefully i can get to painting thereafter tonight.

Malaise

2009-07-14T14:41:00.002-06:00

The previous post was a speech i gave at Toastmasters. When i did a rehearsal for Jackie, she didn't like it because she says my time management skills suck. It's more like, sometimes i don't feel like doin' stuff. The Toastmasters club seemed to like the speech though.

I think the really true thing from that speech is that you're not going to be world class at something unless you do it full time. Laziness and what i called "lifestyle" eat up too much of the rest of the day.

The art auction is over. The unsold pieces just have to picked up along with the cabbage and write a cheque to the Alberta Cancer Foundation. So i haven't been as inspired to paint.

Sometimes i wonder if i procrastinate doin' stuff because i don't have much to do? That does sound crazy. I wonder if dr. Phil knows what that's about?

Maybe laziness is a function of nutrition? Yesterday i only had a couple packets of instant oatmeal. That probably reduces the old metabolism to that of a hibernating bear.

Maybe i need to set up a reward for achieving some targets? That does sound childish. I'll run it by Jackie Chan and see what she thinks. Better pick up a basket of apples on the way home tonight too.

Paradigm Shift Required

2009-06-11T15:38:00.012-06:00

In Malcolm Gladwell's new book "Outliers" he examines the difference between talented piano players and merely competent students. The explanation is extraordinary players are not in fact "gifted" but have practiced much more. He asserts, 10,000 hours of polishing is required to shine in your chosen field. He gives several more examples of people who've spent 10k honing their skills. You can probably think of some as well, like Tiger Woods, Wayne Gretzky, Paul McCartney....

10,000 hours is Wow!!! That's 3 hours a day, 7 days a week, for 10 years!

My question is, does a balanced lifestyle including, career, exercise, walking the dogs, charity, gardening, friends, family, and most importantly spending time with my wife, mean i can never be more than a jack of all trades concerning my passions of real estate investing, photography, and painting?

If the hours in the day that remain after the balanced lifestyle is my spare time, are there 9 hours a day to devote to 3 hobbies? Maybe if i don't sleep.

If i want to keep all three hobbies, I'm going to have to compromise on the hours in the day devoted to each field. This is the frustrating conclusion. It's frustrating because i know i'd be much better at any of the three things if i wasn't spending time on the other two.

Lately i've been spending more time painting. The reason is to replace works that are selling in the silent auction to raise money for the Alberta Cancer Foundation. Since i've been painting more, it's obvious my skill is improving. I'm over the moon that my painting is better. It's tremendously rewarding, and yet the exciting part is i haven't even made a dent in 10,000 hours of painting. I can't imagine what my artwork will look like in 10 years.

But of course, because i've been painting more, i've been shooting less. That means my photography portfolio isn't growing, and that income stream isn't growing. Income aside, as a photographer, i'm also stagnating. New lighting techniques, compositions, equipment and special effects aren't being mastered. A growing, yet neglected list of people who want to be shot is frustrating.

What If i spent more time looking for great real estate deals? What would that mean? Probably i'd find more sweetheart deals. Looking for and analyzing deals is something i really enjoy, and besides the fun aspect, there are pretty big kickbacks that are hard to ignore.

One creative option, might be to focus exclusively on buying real estate and retire early, and thereafter shoot and paint to my hearts content. If gardening and watching hockey are sacrificed now, the timeline to retire could be even shorter. If i stopped wasting time walking to work and stayed awake longer drinking espresso coffee every night, who knows how short i could make that timeline to retire and start painting? On the other hand, maybe after 10 years of no gardening, no hockey, no walking and staying up late drinking espresso, i won't feel like painting. Maybe i'll just feel like sleeping?

Currently i'm prioritizing the balanced life, and all three pastimes. It may be impossible to achieve 10,000 hours in 10 years for any hobby by keeping all three, but hopefully i can find happiness long before shining in my field. Perhaps all i really need, instead of an extra 6 hours in the day, is a paradigm shift. To focus attention on the joy i've found in the first few hundred hours investing, shooting and painting, and not how very far i am from being 10 years older.

Carabao

2009-06-08T10:19:00.010-06:00

I feel like i had a pretty productive weekend, painting-wise. The weather was crap, so it's an easy decision to stay indoors. And we didn't have any pressing business to take care of, so painting was at the top of the agenda.

I'm feeling more and more confident with my ability to control the paint and my results. I used to be under the impression that if something initially didn't look just right, it was a lost cause and overworking the paper and paint made just an ugly mess. Now i'm realizing how malleable the medium really is. I think making the concertive effort to paint is paying dividends.

Malcolm Gladwell asserts in his new book "Outliers" that mastery of a skill takes about 10,000 hours. He used an example of young piano players and differentiating between the ones who appeared to be truly gifted and those that were merely proficient. People assumed that a few players had a gift or genetic advantage over the proficient piano players, but further investigation reveals the "gifted" players had practiced much more than the others, at least 10,000 hours says Gladwell.

Jackie Chan asked me why i'd been making so many little paintings lately. I wanted some little ones in case people were starting their search at etsy.com with lower prices, and if i had offerings at those prices, it would at least get them into my shop and some exposure to the bigger higher priced paintings. The big painting alone in the shop wasn't getting any viewings. I also wanted to use the smaller ones to practice and quickly experiment with less paper expense.

Sunday i decided to make a big one because making larger paintings is quite different than how quickly little ones are done and i should also practice making the big ones.

I started by taping a 20 x 24 sheet of 140 lb Strathmore paper to my clip board. I used the brown gummed tape rather than the green painters tape because i tried to stretch the little sheets last week and they still buckled and waved when wet and later dried buckled when i used the green painters tape to stretch the paper. The little sheets were of only 90 lb paper stock so being lighter weight might have also limited the ability to resist waving. This big painting on 140 lb Stratmore paper didn't wave, so i'll have to try the brown gummed tape on the lighter paper to see if it's the paper or the tape that matters.
I made a rough sketch referring to a photo i took at the beginning of March of a carabao in the Philippines. I dived right in painting all the negative areas with black paint. My new confidence that i could re-shape it later no matter if i started with the light areas or the darks took the painting quickly to the tone i wanted it to be.

When i got to this point it was starting to become clear that i'd never be satisfied with a photo realistic "Robert Bateman" kinda painting, and that spending the hours necessary to paint each and every plant leaf wasn't how i wanted to paint either.

I used the cellophane film AGAIN, yes. But this time i think it was really appropriate because lying the film in the wet paint and then shaping the wrinkles to curve the way i want really resulted in a natural plant like impression.

It looks pretty much done to me, although i might thin the girl's snout and perhaps make the foreground rise again on the right? And sign it.

Yellow & Blue

2009-05-25T10:26:00.011-06:00

I'm pretty happy with this painting. It's a 15x19 inch watercolor on 140 lb Strathmore cold pressed paper. It's mostly a happy accident because the process was not exactly as planned.

The paint mixing chart from the January 2nd blog entry was used as a reference to pick Cotman's lemon yellow and intense blue. I used a dab of Cotman's cobalt blue here and there as well for variety. I'm very satisfied with the color of the painting so having the yellow and blue mixing chart was very useful. I should keep making these kind of charts for other combinations that may be used down the road.

My intention was to put down a big yellow area and then cover part of that area with wet blue and then lift vertical lines of that blue with a dry brush. The paint wasn't lifting very well. Maybe because the 140 lb Strathmore cold pressed paper has more texture and tooth than the smooth 5x7 inch sketch pad paper where i've tried with better success the lifting technique? More water was applied to try and unlock the stain in vertical lines, but this merely softened the line between where paint was and where it wasn't supposed to be. I wanted a more distinct border. So the whole painting was looking quite "soft" and i was disappointed. Then the "old crutch" cellophane wrap was laid on top of the wet mixture and wrinkles were purposefully made vertical. When that was dry, the painting was complete as it is now.

There was a bit of buckling in the paper and the paint pooled at the bottom of these waves. The wrap didn't touch the whole length of the paper because of the buckling. So if i try this one again, i'll make sure to stretch the paper using meat cutting tape to avoid the buckling. I may also try it again using hot pressed or smooth paper to see if the wet paint lifts more readily with a dry brush.

Old Style

2009-05-08T12:41:00.015-06:00

I've been working on this pretty big painting for the last week. I've let it dry completely between layers of paint. Probably should have done many studies to figure out the colours before going ahead using a big sheet of 20 x 24 inch paper. Have been trying to adjust colours as it goes.

Part of what's bugging me is that i'm not sure how abstract it is. Of course i know what it is and the repetitive shapes should be matching if it was realistic. Maybe it wouldn't matter so much if it was a much looser style.

Even though i'm not exactly happy with it yet, i'm pleased i've been able to control the paint much more than i could even just a short while ago. I feel my technique is much stronger and less reliant on happy accidents.

Taking pictures and looking at it here has also given me a new prospective and a few of the problems with this painting are much clearer. I'm still optimistic going forward.

Rothko Homage

2009-04-21T18:41:00.018-06:00

I was watching mtv's cribs on the weekend and Tricia Helfer's home was featured. She breezed by a fantastic painting referring to it as her Rothko. After a little bit of internet research, i have a brand new addition to my list of fave artists.

I love the way i react to Rothko's colours and their layers emotionally even though they don't necessarily evoke memories, deep thoughts or anything in particular. The don't require interpretation, they just evoke emotion.

I wouldn't consider my attempt entirely successful. Partly because of suspect technique and also because of my struggles with colours. How is it possible to be affected by colours but unable recreate them? I suspect i need to be patient and apply many layers. And also try to avoid muddling them somewhere along the way.

I started my painting on a sheet of Strathmore cold pressed 140 lb paper, running a Chinese mop brush all around the outside border wetting the paper about an inch wide all around the outside of the sheet. Then with another brush, undiluted pale cadmium red was added to the wet area, but only on the outside centimetre of the inch wide border. At this point the trouble with watercolour began. The edges of my sheet curled up and because my wet border was so wet, the water ran from the curled up edge to the middle of the sheet. Lesson: try to pre-wet the border evenly so water isn't pooling. Make sure the paper has soaked up the water.

I also thought that using paper that is stretched would keep it from curling and buckling from being wet. So i started another version that i'd complete in parallel. The second version being done on the top sheet of a watercolor block of Arches 140 lb paper. Again the outside border of the paper was wetted about an inch wide. And again the pale cad red was added to the wetted border undiluted. This block of stretched paper didn't allow the wet paper to buckle and the paint didn't run outside of where i wanted it. I waited overnight for both sheets to dry.

I used the same technique to apply the rectangles as was used for pale cad red border. I decided to make the yellow rectangle 1/3 of the sheet of paper, based solely on the rule of thirds, though i doubt Rothko ever used a principal so unnaturally. The paper was wetted and then lemon and cadmium yellow was mixed and applied to the wet rectangle undiluted.

On the Rothko painting i was referencing, the pink rectangle looked like it was about half the sheet, but not quite. I didn't want to risk cutting the sheet in half, so decided to make the pink area 2/5 of the sheet instead of closer to half. The 2/5 area was wetted and then an undiluted mixture of Indian red and Chinese white was applied to the wet paper. This layer was very transparent and looked more brown than pink, so an undiluted mix of cad red and Chinese white was applied to that while the original layer was still wet.

The black strip on both sheets was made in the same way. A wet line was drawn across the paper with a big brush and then a smaller brush added undiluted ivory black. The undiluted paint diffused into the wet area.

When both sheets were dry, i re-did the pale cad red border on both paintings.

I like both paintings, but not for the same reason i like Rothko's. So that's why i can't consider the exercise entirely successful. The runs and squiggles that resulted from loose watercolour technique are interesting and will probably beg the viewer to "interpret" them as if they were purposeful. They look like landscapes to me. I want the colours to be something more than they are here. Next time i'll go slower and apply multiple layers.

Mixed up Slazenger

2009-04-14T14:51:00.014-06:00

I made this painting in response to a call for submissions by the Alberta Sports Council. It's a tennis player, but that's not obvious to everyone, so i hope they will like it and see it's relavent.

To make this one, i firstly used green painters tape to block out the area that would be the ball. Then i painted the racket area around it. The person was blocked-in with pale cadmium red. Then the round and box shapes were roughed-in in blue. I wanted them to lead the eye back to the racket and ball and create a repetitive rhythm of the ball. Even though extra layers of all the shapes were made after the first layer was dry, it still didn't pop and looked flat. So finally i wetted the whole paper and used a black Derwent coloured pencil to outline the shapes. I finally removed the green painters tape and splashed in the yellow. Plastic food wrap was lay on top the yellow ball shape as it dried. When it was dry the wrap was removed and I filled-in the wrap resulting pale areas with a cadmium yellow. After that was dry, the ball area was wetted again and the black Derwent pencil outlined the shape.

Great Day

2009-04-13T14:20:00.013-06:00

I'm having a great day! It suddenly dawned on me how to make this blog more successful. It's a pretty simple idea, but just a different frame of mind than i had before. If i want this to be a medium for communicating with fellow artists, i have to develop those relationships and then maybe they'll visit here. Before i was just hoping they'd discover this blog. So i'll work on growing relationships.

I also got a couple more calls to show the house that will be vacant in May. Di and i were considering lowering the price because we haven't had any interested renters inquiring over the last couple days. But that slowness was probably on account of the Easter holiday. I'm still confident we can get that place rented on time.

I'm experimenting on the backside of a "unsuccessful" painting. I put vertical green painters tape strips down to keep part of the paper white, and then put wet indian red and burnt umber paint on wet paper in between the stripes. After that dried, i put ivory black and intense blue where the green tape had been.

The whole thing still had a pretty flat tonal range, so ivory black was put over parts of the indian red and burnt umber strips too. I thought it was still lacking something, maybe texture? So i taped plastic food wrap over the paper and tried to drip ivory black paint down the backside of the film wrap between the film and the paper. This added texture on the areas where the paper had buckled from being wet and not being stretched and it touched the film. This created texture horizontally because the paper had buckled horizontally. I also ran my finger nail down the length film over some of the strips and that created even more markings on the paper.

Realism Attempt

2009-04-03T14:15:00.004-06:00

Lastnight i was working on this painting. I started by making a drawing with some Derwent water colour pencils. I looked at a photo i'd taken of a friend as the basis for the drawing. I was reasonably happy with the drawing. Then i used a big ol' mob brush to wet the drawing and intended to use cellafilm wrap to add texture. But the probably too wet mop brush erased almost the whole drawing. All the lines diffused and dispersed on the wet paper. So i had to draw it again after the paper dried. I tried using a smaller wet brush to again make it look more like a painting than a pencil crayon drawing. Again it diffused too much, even though i used a significantly drier and smaller brush. So i tried applying the Derwent water colour pencils to the wet paper and it left larger more permanent markings that didn't diffuse with brushwork. These are the markings that are visable now. The whole thing wasn't as pleasing as my original drawing, so i was quite disappointed. It was bed time, so i thought WTF i might as well try something else, so i used the big brush and some dark blue and black paint and applied broad strokes around the eyes, nose and mouth. It didn't look too bad. When i looked at it this morning, i was really pleased with it. It doesn't look close enough to my original photo of my friend to be recognizable though, so in that respect i'm pretty disappointed, even though i'm quite happy with the colour and styling. I photoshopped a picture of the painting and enlarged the eyes, nose and mouth and that looks a little more like the friend. But the original painting is finished the way it is.

First Day

2009-04-03T11:14:00.003-06:00

Today is the first day of the rest of my life. Haha, that is pretty cliche sounding, but so true. Too bad words of wisdom are so familiar they don't seem very insightful. Like the main point of every book on becoming wealthy is save 10% of your salary. Whenever i hear it, i'm like yeah, yeah what else do have to say? Maybe if i would just do that and stop looking for something easier or maybe more secretive, or i don't know why everyone just doesn't do it? Requires discipline i guess? Anyway getting back to the point is that today i'm a painter.

I've been painting the last couple evenings, and had a couple pretty successful paintings come from it. I'd like to keep it up. It seems purposeful. That i'm just not wasting days, nights, weeks waiting for my next vacation. That sounds pretty bad reading it back. Like i don't have a good relationship with my partner. Well i'm probably guilty of not trying hard enough sometimes and that's why it sounds so bad. But everyone needs alone time and it would be good if it doesn't feel wasted.

So doing these last couple paintings makes me want to continue on a regular basis. I don't know how acclaimed this work will be, but if i put in my previously mentioned 10,000 hours, i should become somewhat proficient, at least to myself. I am a painter.

Off again on a tangent, which i feel at ease doing because my audience here is so easy going, I wonder when people say "just be yourself" when performing, or producing some sort of art, that if some people are more commercially viable being themselves than others. I mean obviously the king of pop appeals to more people than the guy in the park spinning around in circles and howling at the tree tops, but is Oprah being herself when she does her favourite things show or book club selections, which produce obvious kickback opportunities. I've heard if you're not yourself, people will know you're ingenuine, if not consciously then intuitively just not like you.

Can i name drop paper or paint brands in my painting blog and still be myself and potentially get some kick backs like Oprah, or is that kind of thing ingenuine? Maybe it depends on how much i really love a paint brand. And also if my audience likes my work, and would like to know how i did it? But is that being me, or is it ingenuine? Maybe people like Oprah or Rachel Ray are great successes because they are genuine and genuinely a commercial success, but perhaps other folks who are being themselves just aren't succeeding because there is no commercial component to their self. What if someone is great and people love that genuine person, but they started plugging something? Would that make them ingenuine and turn those who previously loved them off?

Silent Auction

2009-01-19T14:45:00.003-07:00

I talked with my buddy Darren down at Divine in Okotoks again about when i could put my paintings up for a silent auction to raise money for breast cancer. He said i could have some hallway space, but a whole restaurant show would have to be a year or so away. Some other artists are queued up. That might work out best because we could have just a few pieces up at a time for auction, and when a month is over put some other works up in their place. Most of the artists' work stays up for 6 months, and i don't think that would be an appropriate duration for a silent auction. It would be nice to have the whole place, but given my limited number of works maybe this is the best way to go until i have lots of stuff ready to fill the restaurant.

Warm Window

2009-01-09T12:50:00.016-07:00

For this painting i'm starting with a photograph. I'm not too sure if the photographer needs credit or if i need permission? I usually use my own pics as inspiration. But i doubt i need to so that's what i'll assume.

I modified the photo in photoshop by using the "cutout" button, which reduced the photo to four colours without any blending. Kind of a paint-by-numbers look.

But i want to use an art deco kind of colour palette, so i found a nice art deco poster, and sampled some colours from it and filled in my modified photo with these colours. I'm not completely confident this palette suits the subject matter, but it's pretty abstract and the subject might be lost to most people. So i'll give it a whirl.

The plan is to do a line drawing on my sheet of paper and fill in the shapes with colour and not blend but keep a crisp line between shapes. I'll try as best i can, being red/green colour blind, to match the colours in my modified photo by applying multiple layers of each colour. That is, i won't blend the paints on my palette, but try to achieve the proper tints by layering washes on top of one another.

Update: January 15/09

I worried about doing the sketch. The proportions of the altered photograph are different than my paper size. The photo is more squarish than rectangular. It didn't turn out to be an issue though. I put the window lines at roughly 1/3 and 2/3 of the sheet and again about 1/3 up from the bottom and then took a stab at fitting everything from the photo roughly onto the sheet. I struggled a little bit trying to get the woman's bottom just right and finally resorted to drawing a grid on that part of the photo and another on that section of the paper to get her shape just like in the photo.

I tried to pick a red colour based on the warmth/coolness and realized several layers of washes would have to be applied to get the proper tone. The rest of the colours were also picked using this criteria.

Obviously the dark background in the photo was more purplish than the blue that was going on in the painting, so after the blue wash dried, i put a red wash over it. This purple looked too red when dry, so i again put another layer of blue. This same process was used to try and achieve the tint of the blackish area at the bottom of the painting so it matched the altered photo. Many layers of washes of varying tints were applied.

At one point i decided a blue wash was necessary over the blue and red areas so i painted over both sections at the same time. I don't like the way that idea worked because some of the dried blue and red was lifted with the new wet wash and mixed with the neighbouring colours. So unless that effect is desired, i'd paint over each colour individually. I finally put black wash over much of the darker areas but i applied it over each color one at a time so the red wasn't transferred into the purple or visa verso.

I'm pretty happy with the result. It's looking a bit too paint-by-numberish for my taste, but i like that similar tones and tints were achieved as the altered photo. It might look really smart with a silver metallic frame. I'll try to pick one up from Ikea soon.

When i wasn't working on this or waiting for a layer of wash to dry, i was setting the piece upside down on the easel because i wasn't sure if Di realized the subject was a derrière, and she isn't usually too fond of any nudity or even painting girls with clothes on. So i was hoping this was too abstract for her to decipher. I was almost done though when she made some comment on the colour of the woman, so it turns out she knew what it was after all. She likes it too. Go figure. Women are complicated.

Amanda

2009-01-07T15:28:00.002-07:00

I quite like the way this one turned out. I've had a funny array of comments on facebook regarding it.

To create this one, i started with a photograph of my friend Amanda and manipulated it in photoshop. I used the "cutout" button with 4 levels and it looked pretty abstract; just like a bunch of shapes. I printed that and referred to it generally as i painted these shapes.

I may have given this one away. If not, i think i will use it in my silent auction at Divine in Okotoks to raise money to fight breast cancer.

Silent Auction

2009-01-06T14:34:00.004-07:00

My esposa was urging me to tell our friend about my plan to have a silent auction to raise money for breast cancer. We were all watching the hockey game lastnight and it did not seem like the appropriate time. I don't want to be painted with any saintly light, when especially i'm so far from accomplishing my goal. On the other hand, it might be nice for our friend to know we all want to do what we can to support her and ensure a win. It might also be nice to take her to Divine in Okotoks and surprise her with what i'm doing. I don't know when or if i should tell.

Our friend saw the surgeon yesterday but i didn't converse with her about it as much as the esposa did. Apparently she's considering a double mastectomy even though one breast is clear and has an independent likelihood of developing cancer from the other one. This consideration is probably a reflection of how stressful and how out she wants this thing. Indeed she and her partner said their lives seemed to be flashing before their eyes, referring to so many decisions they were facing.

I wish hours of hard labour was all it took beat this thing. Then i have no question we'd win. At any rate i'm sure everyone will do what they can. I've decided to set aside non-negotiable hours to devote to painting.

Headshot

2009-01-05T15:23:00.028-07:00

I'm making another attempt at my headshot abstract painting. This time a number of little study paintings were done until a reasonably pleasing design was achieved. The two primary colours were picked utilizing the blue and yellow mixing study (see the previous post). I liked the way Prussian blue and Cad yellow combined. I wanted one of the colours to be warm and the other cooler to get a yin yang thing going on. But i also wanted the blues and greens to be a little bit representative of the subject's eye colour. I'm not sure if either of these objectives were met, but i'll save judgement until the end.

I've been having a hard time making any progress on this project in the last few days. Perhaps it's a function of the holidays or maybe non-negotiable time will have to be scheduled specifically for painting. I want to get a portfolio together for the restaurant auction asap.

Update: January 7, 2009

Yellow strokes were added over the first wash of blue strokes. Then i decided the big opening in the centre needed some horizontal action. I still don't disagree with that, however as soon as i put the horizontal blue strokes in the centre of the painting i was kicking myself. I should have been more careful and put some compositional thought into it. After that dried, i added some yellow underneath the horizontal blue to try and move the centre of that mess downward, unsuccessfully.

I added another blue layer vertically to try and fill in that centre hole and repeat the vertical curvy line left of centre. But the horizontal line still stuck out like a sore thumb.

I filled in some of the white negative space with a very diffuse yellow wash to try and take the bright edge off. Then i wanted to add some black to the most predominate gestures to fill in the darker side of a full tonal range, to have a complete tonal range in each gesture. Then I decided to move the whole key of the painting to dark and blue.

I washed off paint along the sides of the gestures trying again to add tonal depth to the gestures.

I'm pretty happy with it now, however i think it needs something in top right to balance the painting, and i'm going to try and wash off more of that horizontal stroke in the centre.

Update: January 8, 2009

Those few horizontal brushstrokes in the middle are causing the most trouble in this painting. I re-wetted the paper and tried moving the paint around to "erase" them. I then had to reinforce the vertical lines that were over the horizontal ones. That wasn't as successful as i hoped. Then i took a plastic eraser to the offensive parts and again had to re-apply paint to the vertical strokes. I think the horizontal part isn't sticking out as much as a couple days ago. After applying so much dark tones on the vertical marks over the horizontal line, i think the whole thing is now looking tonally flat. I also made a dark horizontal line in the top right corner to add a little more balance.

I splatted some Prussian blue on the light area at the top, and quite liked that. I then splatted water on the middle and lower third hoping to get more interesting texture to compensate for the whole thing still looking flat. But that didn't do much. So i went back to the old crutch and applied yellowish wash onto the entire surface of a big piece of cellophane film and lay that on top of the entire painting. I let that dry before removing it. It's done.

I asked Di if she liked it, and she said "no". I chuckled inside. This girl is brutally honest; to a fault sometimes. I guess it's not really a fault, just brutal. And given a choice I'd rather hear the truth than have a friend awkwardly lie. I think the photo of the painting looks better and is more vibrant than the actual painting. Maybe i should spray glossy fixer on it? I don't like the painting either, so Di and i are in agreement. I'll keep it, but hopefully i'll come up with some better stuff for the auction.

Blue and Yellow

2009-01-02T10:37:00.004-07:00

Blue and Yellow
Originally uploaded by philsajonesen

Here is another study of different yellows and blues mixing together. I suppose this kind of experiment should be done over and over because it might make a difference what colour is on top, the paper, or the dilution of the washes.

Blue and Red

2008-12-30T18:31:00.006-07:00

Blue and Red
Originally uploaded by philsajonesen

This isn't too exciting. Just a little experiment to see how the different blues and reds look one wash over another. It also gives me a pretty clear idea which reds and blues are cooler and warmer than others.

Motivation wise, i have a couple things to keep me busy and productive. Recently we learned one of our close friends has breast cancer, so i wanted to do something positive. I talked with my friend Darren Nixon who has a restaurant, Divine and some available wall space, so i talked with him about having a silent auction of my paintings to raise money to fight breast cancer. So i need to keep focused and get productive.

Red Drip

2008-12-22T11:31:00.005-07:00

IMG_6346a
Originally uploaded by philsajonesen

This painting was made in the first half of 2008. It's pretty big, 20x30ish. I'm really happy with the way it turned out. I only spent one evening working on it. I gave it to my brother as a thank you present for being my best man when i got married this summer.

It's watercolour on drawing paper, so it buckled and waved quite a bit as different areas got wet. That created a bit of an issue when i was trying to frame it, which turned out to be more frustrating than painting it.

The painting process began with flicking red paint on the flat paper. My original intention was to make it a Jackson Pollack-ish style drip painting. I haven't developed a great way to do that with a watercolor brush yet so i wasn't getting enough coverage to create much of a painting.

My next step was to make big really wet blotches and then to tilt the paper so the wet spot would run. I did several blotches in all four directions and ended up with a bit of a multi-paned window pattern.

Then i tried to fill in all the white areas but excluding the area immeadiately around my splatter dots. So in effect the dots would have little white halos. I filled some areas with warmer red and some with a cooler red. I added a bit of blue to some wet red areas to create even cooler areas, but they turned out pretty much blue.

I used a tiny brush so it took at least a couple hours to paint this. But that's about it and how it was created.

When i take pictures of these paintings i need to include a grey card so a colour balance can be done. I wish i had documented the process of the painting, but that's the idea for future paintings.

Headshot

2008-12-19T10:44:00.025-07:00

I started a new painting last night. I still have a lot of room for improvement documenting my processes. I finished a little 4x6ish study without taking pictures of any intermediary steps. I want this painting to be completely abstract, but i started with a head shot of one of my friends.

I marked the paper with green oil pastels to represent the darkest areas of the photo. Then i used a blue oil pastel stick to mark in the areas that are more intermediate tones in the photo. Maybe i should have used cool colours to represent the dark area and neutral temperature colours for the intermediate tones. I already wasn't liking my colour choices or that you could see it was a persons face. So i knew this was a write off. I used a big brush and wetted the paper and then put cellophane wrap over the drawing and lifted off corners of the film one at a time and painted cadmium red water colour on the underside of the film, and then pressed it back down to the paper. This didn't improve my liking of the picture at all. So i used my yellow pallet knife and scraped very hard to move the oil pastel around and mix the blue and green a little. I also used the edge of the knife and made some deep directional grooves. Really this was a complete yucky mess and not at all what i was going for. So i tried again with a 5x7ish sized paper.

I used a big inch sized brush to make some blue marks where the dark areas should be in relation to the photo. I wish i had taken a photo of just the blue strokes. I didn't worry about detail or representation at all. I didn't like the pattern it came out as, so i was already desperate to save it. So i went back to laying the cellophane over the painting and i used a tiny brush and slipped black paint into the edges of the big blue strokes and pressed the film back over that area each time. I continued this and tried to keep the sheet balanced with not one side or top or bottom having more black than the other. It still seemed a little boring, so i added a little bit of red to some blandish spots that were just sort of grey.

When i removed the cellophane this morning, this is what i had. I'm thinking of adding a bit of yellow in to the white areas so there are not so many sharp edges and add a bit of warmth. I'm also going to go over the blue strokes again to hopefully add some dimension. So this picture is already more cluttered than i was hoping for. Obviously i need to do a pencil sketch of where my big blue strokes should go. Lack of a satisfactory initial drawing seems to be a reoccurring issue in my failures.

Update - December 21/08

Yesterday i added some yellow (as seen on the left photo) then i put another layer of blue over the blue strokes and splattered some red paint to try and add more warmth and perhaps another dimension (as seen on the right photo). I don't know why exactly i splattered the red paint, it was just missing something. It's not a completely awful little painting, but it's not something i'll be showing off to everyone either. I think it was mostly just an exercise in trying to make the best of bad planning or sketches? Obviously need to give it another go.

Gift

2008-12-18T16:01:00.002-07:00

My plan is to blog all the stages of a painting. But this latest painting was pretty much done before i started the blog. I didn't document the beginning stages. This photo was the almost complete version.

The painting is a Christmas gift for my sister-in-law. I'm not entirely pleased with how it turned out. I'd have liked to make the top part of the tongue rounder than flat, and have the right ear higher on the head, and probably make the shape of the head a little rounder than oval. But it's supposed to be somewhat abstract and not necessarily immediately recognizable, so it will do as is. Next time i'll have to be sure i'm happy with the drawing before getting on with the painting.

In this painting i experimented with a couple ways of adding texture. In the tongue, i put down some pinks and blacks in wet paint, and then lay cellophane that was kind of wrinkly in the wet paint. I pulled the cellophane off when the paint was dry. I wish i hadn't put so much black in the mix and only used pink and white for the tongue.

To make the trees in the background, i lay the cellophane down and scooted several colours under it and then waited for the paint to dry before lifting off the wrap.

For the hair on the cheeks and the grass, i made some hard scratches on the paper with a pallet knife to represent individual hairs and blades of grass. I'm not entirely pleased with that either. Maybe i should try making lighter scratches and doing several layers of scratches and paint and let it dry between each application?

The final version differs from the earlier photo because i painted over the white fence with green grass paint and blended the trees with wet green paint as well. I didn't want the white fence to pop so much. I also added a layer of reddish paint to the body to match the colour of the head better.

Dianne marvelled at how much better it looks framed. I agree. Framing anything seems to make a huge improvement.

Table Tree Sculpture

2008-12-18T10:16:00.001-07:00

Okay, i realize this is supposed to be a painting blog, but i thought of this great idea for a table walking to work today and i'd better write it down before i forget about it.

Make a table from a pegboard with holes. Put fibre optic cables down each hole, and bundle the cables at the bottom to form three or four tree trunks. Wrap each cable from top to branch to trunk with a putty or clay. Cut off the excess cable on the top side of the pegboard. Remove the pegboard and the legs of the pegboard table. Put a light source on the bottom of the fibre optic tree trunk. Put a glass table top on the top.

Another variation might be to put coloured glass cups on the top side of each cable strand to form little flowers at the top of the tree.

Family Canoe

2008-12-17T13:29:00.009-07:00

This painting is one of the first attempts at a painting I made for my sister and her family. I'll ask my sister to take a snap of the painting i eventually gave them so you can compare this one and the final version.

This one has a higher viewpoint of the family in the canoe than i cared for. The lower viewpoint in the final version looked more like the perspective of the rear paddler in the canoe. I'm not completely satisfied with the cropping in the final version. But i was under a deadline, so i ran with it

The purpose of the painting was to create a family vision for my sister and her family. Bonnie and Troy adopted two little girls from Ghana. But the Canadian government was dragging their heels granting the girls visas. So the little girls and thus at least one of the adopting parents also had to wait in Africa for the visas to be granted. This painting was meant to be a reinforcing vision of the whole family together in Canada, in a canoe.

Update - Dec 19/08

Here is the version of the painting that i gave to the family. As you can see, it's certainly less abstract and the perspective is a little lower and the girls seem closer. Probably more like you'd see if you were actually in the canoe. It's funny the people look transparent and the water looks more opaque. It should probably be the other way around, seeing how water is usually pretty see through. I wish there was some slight difference between the inside sides of the canoe and the bottom of it. I wouldn't have cropped it so tightly if i could change that too. Oh well, live and learn.

Dawson City Meeting

2008-12-16T13:28:00.002-07:00

This painting was meant to be a wedding gift for our friends Davy and Zoe. It didn't turn out to my liking, so they've never seen it. I believe it was the summer of 2007 that they got married and the painting was started. This photo of the painting has better colour saturation and pop than the actual painting, so i quite like the photo of the painting.
It's my understanding that Davy and Zoe met in Dawson City at an annual music festival that is held there. Initially i wanted to incorporate an elephant to represent Davy, who is Indian, and a moose to represent Zoe, who is from New Brunswick, the big red and white tent that is set up at the music festival, and this red hotel from a picture i found of main street Dawson City. I think they met in a bar, but i don't know if it was this hotel's bar or not? Odds are not. Dianne didn't like the idea of the animals representing people, and was worried Zoe wouldn't find being portrayed as a moose amusing. So i settled for this design with the hotel and the big tent.

I quite like this photo of the painting, so i may go back and try the painting again but make sure it's just as saturated as this photo. I'm also going to work on the original concept of incorporating the moose, maybe doing a yoga pose and with a binder dot, and with an elephant too. I quite like the idea of putting two animals together that definitely don't have the same geography to represent two people in harmony with different backgrounds.

I'll make some sketches and blog my progress.

Inspiration

2008-12-16T11:01:00.002-07:00

I've been inspired to start this blog after viewing a video posted by Chase Jarvis, http://www.viddler.com/explore/chasejarvis/videos/27/
In this video the speakers talk about how you can get so much site traffic by giving people something of value for free, and what comes around goes around. Blogging helps people find you, know who you are, and explain what you're doing. When Google ranks you, what you're doing is mentioned over and over, so you'll get ranked higher than a static site.

I've watched this video about 4 times now and the nuggets I've taken from it include; providing value to a community with a common interest, turn myself inside out, be honest and share the frustration as well as the victories. It's about the human experience. Self promotion will fail.

This blog will document my painting. Hopefully I'll get in my 10,000 hours and become somewhat proficient at it over time. Here I'll share my trials and progress, and share techniques and inspirations with others interested in painting.

Phillip Jones Painting

Another Bodhi Tree

phil hours

Outreach Peru

Outreach Peru

Horse and Train

Abstract time lapse move

Abstract Portrait

Mountain Steps

If I Really Was a Painter?

Peru study

Outreach Peru

Mountain Lake Abstract

Closeup Portrait

Moab

Two Minute Watercolors

Moab

Gestión del tiempo

Fire Abstract

Abstract7

Recommended Video

Happy 2011 Everyone!

Portrait Attempt

Art Deco Painting

Abstract 4

Blue Abstract

Abstract Expression

Gotta Keep At It

iStockphoto Stats

Mixed Media

updated Bohemian Forest Woman

Bohemian Forest Woman

The Photo's Impression

Fractal Abstract

Work Still in progress

Work in progress, Joanie's Bodhi Tree

Joanie's Bodhi Tree

Sunbathing

Jong Ro Homage

Pool Shark Attack continued

Yacht

Pool Shark Attack

istockphoto

Torso

Bodhi Tree continued

Bodhi Tree continued

Bodhi Tree

Good, Bad, and Ugly

Malaise

Paradigm Shift Required

Carabao

Yellow & Blue

Old Style

Rothko Homage

Mixed up Slazenger

Great Day

Realism Attempt

First Day

Silent Auction

Warm Window

Amanda

Silent Auction

Headshot

Blue and Yellow

Blue and Red

Red Drip

Headshot

Gift

Table Tree Sculpture

Family Canoe

Dawson City Meeting

Inspiration