The Chicken Birds have started

I finally got started on the chicken birds. I have put down the tones at this point. The background color is pastel dust I have collected at the bottom of my easel. At this point I like to step back and make sure I am happy with the composition and structure. So far I have spent 10 to 15 minutes on the piece. Phew...I need a break :-)

Finally

It's done. First we lost our power for a few days. Then my allergies kicked in. I take a medicine that knocks me out so I didn't get much work done at night. But I finally got it done. It is on 1/4 sheet of 140lbs Kilimanjaro paper. I used four colors of Winsor & Newton tube watercolors. Cadmium Lemon, Permanent Mauve, Viridian and Alizarin Crimson. The black is india ink.

Next up, some drawings of chicken birds I took at the Beardsley Zoo.

Candles Part 3

Third sitting done. The hard part about t he splats is getting them to land where I want them to. I have the board tilted so the paint runs down. So I stand over the board holding a paintbrush over the area where I want the paint to land. Then with a different brush I scoop up paint and add it to the brush I am holding and keep adding until the paint drips off. So far so good,no misses.

Candles Stage two

Here is the results of my second sitting. It's getting fun.

New candles

The previous candle watercolor left me feeling blah. So I am doing a new exciting one. This should be fun. I already had fun dripping some ink and watching it splat. Color next. Here is stage one.

Homeless

I have been sketching during lunch. I got these images from the wetcanvas site.

This one is conte crayon and charcoal.




This one is straight up charcoal.



And this one is black paint and charcoal. I wanted to use ink but I couldn't find any at work. I guess I brought it home.

"Fixed" Candles

I posted the Candles Five over at wetcanvas. They gave me some helpful hints so I fixed this piece. Enjoy the new and improved painting.

Candles Five

Finally finished. I think this took about 3 weeks, maybe more. It is hard to get back into a painting with such a big break in between. I certainly couldn't get back into this piece. But I finished it none the less. It's on a 1/4 sheet of Winsor & Newton 140lbs paper. I'm not that thrilled by it. I'm planning a little more exciting piece next.

Slow candle progress

I know it has been a while. I was getting together with the band this past friday so I was practicing guitar every night to get ready. After a week or so of hard work I still played a rotten guitar so now I am back devoting my time to art. I even finished off a sketch book over the weekend. The biggest problem was not having it out and available. Eve though it was only upstairs, it was enough for me not to go and get it. I left it out downstairs and ...wah-la...I started sketching. I'm in the middle of building a computer cabinet. When it is complete I'll have a permanent spot for my scanner so I will been scanning some pages from my sketch book.

Anyway. I started working on the candles again tonight. Here is the progress.

Candles

The still life thief is at it again. I wanted to do a few candle paintings so I went through the house gathering candles. My wife was right on to me. This morning she asked me if I knew where the candle in the kitchen was. But with out a pause she said, you're painting it aren't you?

Here is a photo of the set up and the first wash of colors.

Finished

Three weeks later and it's done. My wife saw me scanning it and immediately claimed it for the living room. This is 1/4 sheet Kilimanjaro paper with W&N tube paints.

Update

I know it has been a while since my last post. Work has been busy to a point of exhaustion for me. Most nights last week I just vegged out at night and have not been working on the Cow/Ram watercolor. I have worked a little bit so here is the work in progress.

Cow and Ram

I'm jumping right into my next still life. Once again the still life thief strikes. Off the tv cabinet I took the cow. And off a dresser in our office I took the ram. I keep calling it a sheep, but my daughter keeps correcting me. It's a ram!

Here they are...




and here is step one. I have to wait for the paint to completely dry for the next step.

All Done

Here it is in all it's glory. I came out pretty good I guess. I'm not that crazy about it, but they all can't be the greatest. I'm still loving watercolor and can't wait to start the next one.

RATS!!!

I was trying out this new blogger feature where it sets up a web photo album from your blog. In the album a deleted a couple of pictures and I see it deleted them here too. RATS!!!

Here is my still life so far.

Started

Finally started the watercolor last night. I have this with every painting I start and I think most artists too. Looking at a blank white paper and wondering where to start. I have gotten better about it and just kind of jump in. But watercolor is new to me so when I start painting the results dictate my direction. With oils, I could always scrape off the paint and start again. Watercolor I can't do that.

Set up

After some more feed back from the wetcanvas site, I have decided to leave the oranges alone and start a new watercolor. The still life thief was hard at work last night. My wife laughs when she sees things missing around the house. She knows right away what happened to them. Here is my new set up.

Done...for now

Finished the oranges last night. I was pretty happy with the results. I posted it over at wet canvass and had a couple of good suggestions on how to improve it. My the shadow on the back orange a little warmer and to soften the edges on the orange so it doesn't have such a cut out and paste look. I will probably give those ideas a try tonight. I'll post this version incase I ruin it tonight.

Lumpy Oranges

My wife bought a bag of oranges. Perfect fodder for a still life. So I grabbed three and started this. It is not what I had in mind before I started, but it is okay so far.

incomplete

I hate not finishing a piece that I have started, but I am doing so now. The charcoal/pastel piece was not coming out like I planned. I was working in a style that does not really work for me. So what did I expect?

I got the watercolor paper sample pack and was too excited to check out the paper. I did a color sample swatch sheet. I'm not that familiar with all my watercolors and how they mix so I thought I would give this a try. I'm done with that. Now on to a still life.

Fordham Start

Taking a break from watercolors, here is the beginning of a charcoal/pastel piece. It is on canson Mi-Teintes paper, 18" x 22". This is from a picture I took when I was visiting the Botanical Gardens which is across the street.

More Daffodils

Sorry it has been a while. My wife took the kids to visit her parents and took the camera with her.

Here is another daffodil watercolor. 13.75" x 20.25" on strathmore 400 series watercolor paper. This is the second piece for the upcoming garden show at the Ridgefield Guild of Artists.

I ordered a pack of watercolor sample papers. They come in 1/4 sheet size so that is pretty big for a sampler. It has different paper brands and surfaces. I can't wait to try them out.

A splatter of Daffodils

Here is my latest watercolor. 14" x 20" on strathmore 400 series paper. I was very happy with this piece as I was working on it. But what is typical for me is a big let down when I finish. I'm not sure what the emotion is derived from but this often happens to me. I'll have to take a fresh look in a couple of days. Meanwhile on to the next piece.

xrooms #5 all done

Here it is all done. I'm pretty happy with it. Came out pretty cool. I'm tired of the mushrooms so it is time to move on. The Ridgefield Guild of Artists is having the annual garden show. The theme this year is spring so I am going to do some daffodils for the show.

Xrooms #5

Alright, here is the beginning of xrooms #5. This one is watercolor too. This is just the start, more to come.

xrooms #4 all done

I noodled it a little and called it done. I think it came out pretty good. I can't wait o start the next watercolor xroom.

xrooms #4 almost done

I'm very close to finishing this. So far so good. This time I scanned it in so it looks more like the original.

At this point I am happy with the piece. I'm thinking the mushroom caps need a little something to give them some interest.

xrooms #4 the beginning

I've been working on a watercolor xroom but it is slow going. I do a wash, sprinkle salt on it, then have to wait for it to dry. So I only get one wash a night. Here is a photo of my progress so far. The color is way off, but you get the idea where this is going.

So far I am pretty happy with it. I've not been very happy with previous watercolors. But this time I am taking my time and getting the colors right and planning my next move.

Super Sunday

Well here it is Sunday night. I went to a friends to watch the superbowl. Congrats to the Colts. I didn't go ice fishing this morning. I took my son sledding yesterday and he ran into a fence. He was howling in pain. He jammed his knee. It wasn't swollen too bad and he could move the leg, just not put pressure on it. The next morning he still couldn't put pressure on the leg so we took him to the emergency room. Seems we were about the 50th sledding accident. After x-rays and all he has a very bad sprain and will be back to normal in 5 or so days.

#3 complete

Thats right. I ended up liking the color and plowed ahead. I think it came out pretty good.

xroom #3 - the start

I've taken to calling this project xrooms because I am considering them experiments. Here is the start of xroom #3

In this first picture I show my technique. First was the ink drawing. Next I scrape some pastel with an xacto knife and get the powder on the paper. Then I rub the powder in with a rag.



And that is about it. The difficult part is getting the color right. I don't have much room for error. I'm trying to keep this light and airy so if the color doesn't work It will be difficult to change it. Like now, I am happy with the background color, but I am not sure the terra cotta is working with it. I stopped and want to wait a day to see if it grows on me.



On another front, we finally have some decent ice here in Connecticut. I'm planning on some ice fishing this Sunday. I will post a report and pictures. (depending if I take any)

Improved mushrooms #2

I posted the second mushroom piece at wetcanvas.com and got some good feed back. So I pulled out the piece and worked on it some more. I am much happier with the piece now. I extended the middle mushroom stalk and worked on the background. I also added some drop shadows.

Mushrooms #2

Here is the second of my experimental mushroom series. This one is done in ink and pastels. 13" x 9" on strathmoore charcoal paper.

I'm not as happy with this one. I don't think the background color is working with the mushrooms. But this one has given my ideas for the next.

Class number 4

After the ten minute pose our teacher told us we could bring up our pieces. I was the only one to do so. My piece did not go well. My proportions were off and my highlights were all over the place.

The next pose was for 20 minutes. While working I could hear the teacher say a couple of times for people to bring up their work. No one went up. When the 20 minute pose ended I brought up my piece to a yawning teacher. I said something about him falling asleep. He said no one was coming up.

My 20 minute piece was a big improvement. Proportions were good and my highlights were right on. He gave me some fine tuning hints. I'm not sure why people are taking this class and not taking advantage of the teacher. There were 20 of us and I think only 2 other students went up.

The image below is my 20 minute drawing. I used conte crayons.

On a side note...I had to have my car towed today. I guess I'll find out what is wrong tomorrow. Saturday I will be car shopping, time to get a new one.

Cosmic Mushrooms

First one done. I am pretty happy with it. This one is ink and charcoal.

Project Mushroom

I started a new project last night. My idea was to make a whole bunch of loose ink mushrooms. Then later complete each piece as I thought best, like in pen & ink, charcoal, pastel, water color, or what a combo of any of them.

When I started the results were not what I had envisioned and I got bummed, but kept with it. But then I shook one of the pieces and bingo... the look I wanted. So I shook and bounced the pieces and had a good old time. I can't wait for the next steps.

The first picture is my set up. The second is a close up of some of the cooler results.

Spider Plant

I was dragging my feet on this one, but I finally got it done.

Figure Drawing

Here is my latest work from my class. My teacher liked the conte drawing enough to call up the whole class to look at it. He talked about it's strong points and weal points. The highlights were too even and made it look flat. So I toned down some of them to make the figure appear to recede.

The modeled posed for another 20 minutes in the same pose so I made a quick brush and ink drawing and a graphite drawing too.

Fooling myself

I guess I have been fooling myself thinking I could easily work in pastel. The more I use them the tougher it gets. Maybe I'll feel different about this piece tomorrow, but I don't see much hope with it.

I'm finding it difficult to get colors I like and tones I'm happy with. I may scrap this and move on to my next project.

Start of a pastel

My blogging will get a little sporadic. I play guitar and I'm in the starts of a band now. So the band will start taking over some of my art time. I did start a new pastel thought.

I have been reading about people starting a pastel with a charcoal drawing. That idea appealed to me so I am trying it. I'm concerned about the charcoal mixing with the pastel and making the colors muddy. I'll have to find out about that.

I did the charcoal drawing. I like to let the initial drawing sit for a day so I can look at it fresh and see if I want to make any changes. Sometimes I get so caught up in the piece that I miss some mistakes out of the gate. It has been my experience to make the changes from the beginning. You'll never be able to work the mistakes out of the piece.

Here is the plant I am drawing and the charcoal sketch.

Class Begins

I had my first class at the Art Students League last night. It was okay. We did some figure drawing and the teacher gave an anatomy lecture and did a demonstration. The anatomy stuff I pretty much knew already. It was fun to take a class though. We were able to bring the figure piece we were working on to the teacher for a critique. He only had minor adjustments for mine. I worked in charcoal. Next week I'll try conte crayons.

I stayed over night in the city. Attached are two sketches I made. The smoke stack was outside the coffee shop I had breakfast. Then I wondered down to the East River and drew the sunrise.