Long Bird

Well this is my last painting of 2015, I hope you enjoy it. 8" x 12" on watercolor paper.

Birds

I started two new pieces. Both are still lifes from figurines.

Tulips 2

I tried hard not to overwork this piece and think I was successful at that. 8" x 12"

Tulips 1

I finished the first of the tulip paintings. I am not happy with this painting. I made the flowers too muddy.

Tulips

I started two new pieces.

Citrus

7" x 10" I was trying something a little different with my style. Got to shake it up every once in a while.

Lemon Out

8" x 12" ink and watercolor on watercolor paper.

Lemon Out Begins

Starting a new painting. I used a dip pen to start then added some heavy lines with the eye dropper from the ink bottle.

Three Oranges

The rare straight up watercolor.  5" x 8"

Face

All done. Ink and watercolor on watercolor paper. 12" x 18"

Color added

Hydrant

Faced

I started a new painting. It is from a statue in my parent's house. 12" x 18"

Train Sketches

HEre are a couple of sketches I made on the train killing time during my commute.

Orange Lily

Here it is, four of four. This one is my favorite of the group.

Orange Spikey Flower

Second of Four

I muddied the colors on the flower on this piece. I'll try to keep the next one cleaner.

Orange Flowers

The first of the four flower pieces is done. 6" x 8".

Four Flowers

I started four small flower pieces. I am painting from a bouquet my aunt gave my wife for Thanksgiving.

Happy Thanksgiving

Sweeping

I took this picture during lunch and then made the sketch during my train ride home.

Tea Bag Drop

For this I took a green tea bag and dropped on the paper. After it dried I added the ink. 9" x 7"

Fruit Plate

8" x 12" on watercolor paper. Ink and watercolors. I tell you it is a difficult life as an artist. I do the ink first and let it dry before I add the watercolors. I did the ink drawing for this piece and as I waited for it to dry my wife ate the orange and my son ate two of the bananas.

As I paint I often have a cup of tea. For the first time ever I started washing my brush in the tea! It is my own fault for having the cup of tea next to my water cup.

SketchBookX

I downloaded a sketching app to my smartphone. It is called SketchBookX. So far I am loving it. Here are some of my sketches done on the phone.

Creeping along

I added some more watercolor tonight. From here on in it will be acrylics and acrylics only.... Unless I change my mind.

Color added

Finally some progress on this piece. I am getting a feel for colors and temperature at this point.

Step 2

I did some dip pen work today. I don't know if you can see much of a difference. Next step will be watercolor.

Pods

Back to basics. No newspaper on this piece just straight up watercolor paper. This is my first step, a loose ink drawing using the eye dropper from the ink bottle top. I will be trying something new on this piece. The next step I am going to add ink with a nib pen.

Paper Iris 2 - Complete

Here is the companion piece to paper Iris 1.

Paper Iris 2 has started

I am making a companion piece to paper iris 1. Here is the start.

Paper Iris 1

All done.

Paper Iris

I made some progress on the painting. I am pretty happy with it at this point. I think the colors are working well together and I like how the texture of the paper is showing.

Paper Iris

This will be another 11" x 14" piece on canvas board. This time when I mounted the newspaper to the board I purposely bunched it up to give a lot of texture.

I tried to do a sketch in pencil first but it proved to difficult with the wrinkled paper so I went straight to ink.

 

 The next step would normally be watercolor but I have better results with watered down acrylics. This step establishes the color and feel of the piece.

Time to take a break and look at the piece with a fresh eye.

Web Site

With great joy I would like to announce my new art web site. Please go check it out at http://theartofrandy.com/

Window

Finished. 11" x 14"

The beginnings of a window

On to my next piece. 11" x 14" I adhered the newspaper to canvas board. Then I did the ink drawing. The second image is with watercolor. Acrylics up next.

Landscape - finished

I have to admit I dragged my feet on finishing this pice. I wasn't sure where I wanted to go with it. I finally forced myself to sit down and work on it. I know it is not a terrible exciting piece but I am happy with the final results.

11" x 14" newspaper mounted on canvas board. Started with an ink drawing then added watercolors and acrylics.

New Landscape

I have not done many landscapes so I thought I would give on e a try. To make it more difficult I am working on newspaper that has been mounted on a canvas board. I know the first step doesn't look like much now but the end product should be better.

Sunflower - Finished

Here is the final result of the sunflower painting. It is 11" x 14". I believe I have achieved the happy sunny day feeling I was going for.

Sunflower

After that dreary pear I wanted to do a bright happy painting. I settled on a sunflower. I am working from this picture that I took.

I am working on an 11" x 14" sheet of masonite. I had a painting teacher a number of years ago who wouldn't let me use a brush. I had to paint with a palette knife. So I decided to use that approach on this piece. The first thing I did was cover the masonite with a 50/50 mixture uf burnt sienna and lemon yellow.

I wanted a neutral complimentary background so I mixed a grayish purple for the ground area.

Yeah I know, it is not very gray. I am still trying to keep it happy and bright. Next I added some sky.

And now for the main show. Still only working with the palette knife I started to add the sunflower.

The image I took is not that great but you get the idea. So far I am really happy with the results.