Grudge Match Day 2

Chris

Me

Grudge Match

My friend Chris Smith has challenged me to a grudge match. Everyday we send each other a sketch. Somehow we got on a pirate theme. I guess the first image looked like a pirate to me, so I did a pirate back and so on. Anyway I will be posting our sketches here every day. Enjoy.

Chris Smith

Mine

Wilton Pizza

Here is my work hanging at Wilton Pizza.

Coming Along

About half way through the watercolor process.

News and work

The big news is I am going to hang my art at Wilton Pizza this weekend. And in December I am going to hang my work at the Sundance Cafe in Stamford.

In other news I just started this new piece.

The Crossing

All done.

Progress Report

After a little trouble I was finally able to upload an image. Here is a progress image of the Old Couple I am painting.

Woe is me

For some reason blogger won't let me add an image. Hmmm.

Ridgefield Arts Council

A few weeks ago I was asked to become a board member of the Ridgefield Arts Council. I accepted. Then I had to be approved by the board itself. Once that was okay I then had to be vetted by the town and then be interviewed by the town board of selectmen. That happened last night and I was approved. Woo hoo! Now I have to be sworn in by the town clerk and it is all official.

Commissioned Piece

I forget where I left off on the commissioned piece I did. My friend was happy with the work. The big questions was will his wife liked it. After a lot of nail biting, she loved it. Yay!  Her is the piece.

I'm back

The commissioned piece was picked up tonight and I am already into my next piece. I have a show coming up this november and I want to get this new piece done for it. Here is the inking phase.

AWOL

I know I have not posted in a while I am working on a commission piece for a surprise. I'm not sure if the person the piece is for reads my blog so I am not posting it yet.

Here is something interesting which I am going to join. It is a sketchbook project. Rather than getting into the details here , go to this link. It looks very cool and something right up my alley.

Pigeons #4

Here it is, the last of the 4 part series.

Pigeons #3

Another one down, and one more to go.

Pigeons #2

Here is the second one of the series of four. After finishing the watercolor portion of the painting, I just couldn't see how adding acrylics would make this any better so I stopped after the watercolors.

Pigeons #1

I finished the first of the pigeons series.

A new brush

 a long time ago I bought this brush that I have been dying to try. well I finally took the wrapper off and took it out for a test drive. I decided to use it for this pigeon series. They are from pictures I took in NYC. I did the brush work then did a little spritzing with a spray bottle while the ink was still wet.

Art Walk

I set up at the Ridgefield Art Walk this weekend. I sold four paintings. Woo Hoo!

No longer waiting

All done.

waiting with color

The watercolor portion of the piece is done. On deck...acrylics.

Waiting

I November I am in a group show at Rockwell Art and Framing. They liked my people paintings best but wanted pieces that I have not shown in the area yet. Men at Work I have not shown yet so that will be in the show. I am making this piece for the show.

series 6 - All Done

finally, all done. As a last step I covered each with a coat of matte gel varnish. It took away the vibrancy of the colors and it really bummed me out. Up till that point I was pretty happy with these.

Charcoaled Series Six

My next step in the Series Six series was charcoal. I was having a tough time visualizing what the addition of charcoal would look like. Then I started having second thoughts and was about to scrap the whole idea. But I stuck to my guns and charged ahead with the charcoal. Well I am glad I did. I loved the results. Next...acrylics.

Whoa, after I posted this I notice the paintings were set up exactly like the previous photo before the charcoal. Way creepy.

Cutting Board revisited

My art is now hanging at the Cutting Board. Here are a couple of picts.

Series six progress

I know I have been dragging my feet on this series. But some progress has been made. I am done with the watercolor portion of this series. Charcoal up next. And by the way, if anyone tells you that newspaper is a great watercolor surface, slap them down!

The Cutting Board

The cutting Board in Ridgefield, CT will be hanging my art. My representative is picking up my paintings today. Can't wait to see it myself. This is the first time that I don't have to hang the work myself.

Series Six

Ink, watercolor ad acrylic is not enough medium anymore so I am adding charcoal to the mix. I just can't let well enough alone. I'm not sure how it will all work, but I am willing to give it a shot. So here is my new series, Series Six. (a clever title derived from the six pieces that I am doing) These are on 11" x 14" canvas board. I glued down news paper to the boards. I did the sketches in charcoal because I couldn't see the pencil sketch on the news paper.

Mantle

Jive Turkey is home.

Jive Turkey Complete

All done.

Some Progress

Here is a picture of the mantle for which this piece is being made. I have the Belle bottoms there now, but the turkey will replace it when finished. Also here is some color added to the above said turkey painting.

Jive Turkey

My wife has my goat and duck picture on the mantel. She asked if I could do a third animal to complete the set. Here is the start of the final piece to complete the set.

Weir Barn

two weeks later and I finally got around to finishing this piece. Enjoy.

Men at Work

It was a long haul, but it is finally done. 22" x 30" on cold pressed watercolor paper.

Plein Air

I have always wanted to go out and try plein air painting. Well today weir farm was having a plein air outing, so I went. First, what to pack. I know you are suppose to scale down for plein air painting, but I had a hard time leaving any of my supplies behind. So I packed just about everything.

The outing was to be from 9am to 5pm with shuttle service from the local elementary school. Weir farm doesn't have a lot of parking. I got here around 1 o'clock figuring four hours was enough time to paint. Then at the end the artist were to get together and show their works.

I got there at one and did some walking around. I am new at this and it took me a while to find something I wanted to paint. I settled on this because I like the angles of the building and the wall. Plus I liked the swoop of the ivy growing on the side.

So I set up my easel and made a pencil drawing. Next I took out my jar of ink which had a loose cap and  spilled ink all over my hand. I cleaned up and then did the inking.

The I broke out the watercolors and started working. I love working outside. The watercolors dry fast and I can plow through the painting. All of a sudden they are calling the artists to bring their work up. What time was it? A little after two. I asked why so early, I thought this was until five. They said the shuttle stops at five. The get together is now. So I didn't get to finish my piece, but I got a good chunk done.

I'll have to work from the first photo to finish the piece. But I learned one thing, I loved painting plein air.

When I first arrived they handed out some information. When we gathered to show our art they asked if I filled the form for the raffle. I didn't. On the front, name and phone number. On the back were some questions. So and so is a pastel artist, what would you like to ask her. So and so is a print maker what would you like to ask him. I didn't have any questions so I left it blank. They put all the forms in a basket and picked one. Yup, me. then they turned it over and said Hey you didn't fill out the back. You're void. So they picked another. Hmmm, just my luck, first time I ever win something like that and I get disqualified. The prize was a basket filled with art books and chocolates.

Inch by inch

row by row I am getting there.

Color Added

First round of color added. Man, I hate working this big. Maybe it is the size or that this is more complicated than my usual pieces, but I had no joy working on this.

Inked

Got the inking done tonight.

Taking my time

For the first time I am working at a full sheet of watercolor paper. 22" x 30". This is big for me as I usually cut the sheet in half or quarters. I'm also doing a complicated piece for me. Four people in it. In the past I have had trouble making multiple people looking proportionately right with each other. So I have been taking my time with this piece.

I made the initial drawing, then let it sit over night. The next day with a fresh eye I looked it over and found a bunch of mistakes. Made the changes and let it sit over night again. And so on. It is almost there. I don't like the arm on the guy on the right so I need to change it, but I think the rest is right on now.

Green Beans Three

Done, and none too soon. The beans were worthless as reference towards the end as they had shriveled far to much.

Oops

I started my latest of the kitchen series sometime last week. I am doing snap peas. I guess I waited too long between sittings as my snap peas are shriveling up.

Big News

I finally started my own web site. Go check it out randycarboni.com

-