Outreach Peru

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

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

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

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

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

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

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.