The Longest Grass

I started a sketch of my son. On the last painting I said the head was too small to get much detail into. This face is only marginally bigger. Maybe the size of a silver dollar rather than a loonie. None the less, I like the sketch so far because the likeness seems to be there.

One thing I'm trying with this sketch is working from a b&w reference photo. I'm hoping it will help get the tones relatively correct with more ease and not being fooled by changes in colour.

I did a crosshatch with the watercolour pencils to add colour to the background. Then I tried to take that texture out with a wet paintbrush and just have a solid colour background. I didn't bother to scrub all lines out.  I figure when I add the grass in with the pencils after the paper dries, it won't be too noticeable 

After the paper dried I added more lines for hair and grass and emphasized the dark part of the eyes, nose, and mouth. 

I'm pretty happy with the end result. There wasn't as much magic if paint is applied on wet paper with a brush. But I'll stick with this technique for a few more paintings and see if it keeps improving. 

Barefoot on Grass

I'm living away from home so I can work now. I anticipate there will be lots more time available to paint. Of course there is my full time job and I'll keep looking for a job back home. But after that there should be lots of time to paint.

I've been really inspired by Ali Cavanaugh's work. It's figurative paintings of her children. Her results are really remarkable. Of course she has a really skilled and well practiced hand. I'm sure it will take me 10,000 hours to reach her level.

I tried a little portrait of my son. I enjoyed working on it especially because it was my son and my family is so far away right now.

It is an 9x12 inch painting. I started with a sketch using Reeves watercolor pencils. Then I brushed it with water. I kept reworking it to try and get the likeness correct. But I think it looks way overworked  and still the likeness is not correct. Double whammy. Part of the issue was the face was only the size of a loonie and I was trying to do too much in such a small space. My brush is not small enough to maneuver in that tiny area.  Just getting the basics and broad strokes of his face might have been enough. At least not looking overworked.

I'll try it again with a bigger space, maybe the size of a tennis ball to paint the face.

Moose

I painted this one pretty quick, three hours, one sitting. It's about 18x24 inches, watercolour on paper.

The difference between the first photo and second is the back of the moose around his hind. I thought it was too ambiguous about how it stood apart from the background, and bigger than intended. So I used an almost dry bristle brush and pushed the background down.

I've taken a bit of grief about painting a realist moose. I chose the subject because I'm going to be showing some paintings at the central library and I'm hoping to sell a couple. All the downtown galleries are stocked with Canadiana. So I picked something there seems to be a market for. Thus the grief.

Anyway, I've been thinking if I did this painting again, I would add something in the foreground to frame the moose and give it more depth. Maybe trees around the edges as a dark frame.

I'm mostly happy with this. I especially like the way the antlers turned out which was truthfully more luck than planned.

Rorschach Card

I like this one. It's interesting. But I have no idea what it is? A Rorschack question I suppose.

Plastic Wrap Abstract

I wasn't painting anything in particular. Hardly a plan. Abstract expressionism. This is the result.

11x17" watercolour

It looks rather cold. My wife sees a person. I asked who, but she must have known I was teasing and didn't answer. It wasn't my intention to paint a figure.

The technique was to paint the entire sheet yellow, then lay wrinkled plastic wrap on top the yellow paint. The painting was stood upright and very wet runny grey and blue paint was made to run down the wrinkles under the wrap. This was allowed to set for 30 minutes or so, and then the wrap was taken off, washed under a faucet and layed on the painting again.  Then violet paint was run under the wrinkles. This set for another 30 minutes and then wrap removed to let the paper dry.

Update 21-Sep-12:
So I said I was happy with the painting. But not over the moon. And I'd taken a picture of it. So why not give it another treatment. So I wet the paper again and let some runny cad yellow run under the wrinkles. When that dried, some spots were wet and lifted. Many of the edges look softer from the additional washes.

I'm still not over the moon about it. But I like it. I don't think it's going to be improved with any more similar treatments. It would take a major renovation to blow my hair back

Abstract Landscape

11x17" watercolour

At first I wasn't sure, but the finished painting is growing on me. I've flipped it upside down, looked at it in the mirror, close, far way. It seems pretty done.

Work in progress

First did a sketch so I would remember perspective and keep the far away things narrow and the closer parts fat and juicy.

I started painting the far away bits of the tree, the backside of the trunk and the bushy leaf area. Then I painted the closer parts. I realized I should have painted the background first. So next time I'll do that. This is supposed to be a study for a larger project, so in that sense i've learned what to do differently on the big sheet.

Then I put the plastic wrap on the wet part and stood it up against a wall. I loaded my brush with water and applied the water above the painting so it would run down the wrinkles in the plastic wrap. Fingers are crossed, but will probably see something in need of a touch-up.

Certainly thinking about painting more...

Yes, at least been thinking about painting more. Trying to sneak in a few brush strokes during nap time.

This one was "inspired" by another painting. But not to worry they don't even look remotely similar.

I really like the textures that were achieved on this one. I've been asked to do a big one of a tree, and I think the technique used here is what I'll use for that piece.

The commissioned piece will be less abstract, so I'll do a study to make sure the technique is applicable before using the big sheet of paper.

Geez I forget what that sheet cost. I think it was over $100 for one piece of paper?

Outreach Peru

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

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

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 Portrait

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.

Peru study

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.

Moab

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.

Moab

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.

Fire Abstract

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.

Portrait Attempt

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

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!

Work Still in progress

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

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.