This is a big one for me. I mean 20x24 inch.
Another one of those ones I thought would be easy, which turned out to be a bear. Hey, the hats all one color, right. Or is it a series of shapes and colors that add up to a hat? I kept painting, scraping off, starting again. Ugh!
I wish I had stopped at many other points, because when it was loose and sketchy, and wound up turning out kinda blah. Oh, well. Another one under the bridge.
I was trying to keep this fairly abstract, but got a little more involved with the details as it developed. This is a 12x12 inch square. I think I'll try a more abstract version manana. The most distant hills should be lighter, bluer and softer. This has so much energy up front that the various planes don't seem to relate to one another very well.
I don't know that this part of a mission structure is called a "veranda" but I'm too lazy to look it up. I don't even remember which mission this is. I think it's the one near Solvang. I was inspired by one of Kevin McPhearson's demos on getting into the different cool and warm areas in a shadow composition like this, so I thought I'd give it a whirl.
OK, I admit it. I DO like photographing old barns. I just don't like painting 'em all that much. This one had been kicking around in the "pics to paint" folder for a long time, so I thought I'd give it a whirl. It's just that my mind sees it as simple shapes, but once I get going I start to obsess about all the little shapes and shadows. At least the sky and distant hills are nice and soft.
I'm doing a few more mission painting in preparation for a show. I know it's kinda premature to even be thinking about a show, but I think it would be a good experience to have one when I'm not even ready, just to get it over and done with and learn from the experience. It always worked when I was in bands.
This is from a shot at Open Studios at Hunter's Point from last year. The symbolic part of the image is the reflections of myself and Foo Dan Wayla Caven, from the Art League Now. I know the sharp horizon dividing the canvas in the middle is a no-no, but this is how it looked to me.
Oil Pastels on Postcard
Just didn't feel like setting up the paints today, but still gotta keep at it, so I tried these oil pastels I had lying around. It was fun, but you really can't layer light on dark with these or blend terribly well. Well, at least I can't. Maybe I'll try these again for the next Different Strokes assignment.
A tighter crop on the sushi photo (yes, I cropped it in Photoshop before painting) and bigger (12 inch square). I used a big fat brush and a lot of paint, but I really should have used a bigger brush and more paint. This is the one I'm posting to the Different Strokes blog, 'cause I really don't feel like doing it again.
Sick of this composition yet? I sure am. Decided to give it another go small (2 x 2 inches) since this seems to produce interesting results. I am kinda liking it better than the big ones. Guess I'm gonna have to get some bigger brushes if I want to achieve this on a larger scale.
Last whiskey glass for a while. I promise. Maybe.
Back at that glass, this time on a postcard, primed with a pink/red wash in advance. It's a little looser and has more activity, but it still sits kinda flat. Maybe I'm struggling to add dimension and level to a subject that was relatively flat to begin with. I tend to gravitate towards linear, high contrast subjects in my photography, after all. I may do one more. I may not.
The same reference photo as yesterday's post, but square this time and a lot larger. It's a bit looser, but still reminds me of the type of watercolors I did years ago, and not the kinda of painting I want to be doing. I'm also being too stingy with the paint at this size. I may try again with a bigger brush.
Back to glasses. I couldn't find anything else I wanted to paint and this photo reminded me of Summer. Can't wait. I don't think it's actually whiskey. I think it's a version of a shandy – half beer half lemonade – and the melting ice lets you know just how hot Sonoma is in August.
I tried to keep this loose, but it's kinda hard when all the shapes are hard edged. As a result, it winds up looking more like illustration, and not at all where I want to go with my painting. I may need to try some more versions of this.
From a photo I took last Fall. I had painted this for an hour or so and put down my brushes and walked away. I came back after a while and realized that the beach didn't really read right. The colors were too pale on the sand making it look like water. So I mixed up some more and added that over the white. I lightened the shadows on the beach too, making them a little more blue.
I know it's a common practice to do quick studies beforehand, but I felt like doing one afterwards today. Same subject as yesterday, same size (9 x 12 inches) but this time I used one of those 2-inch wide foam brushes and really kept it loose. I just wanted to see if I could get the colors and mood right without working on too much detail. I like it, but I'm not sure you'd know what it was without seeing the reference photo. Hmmm.
Not really a sunset in the traditional sense of the word, but when the sun dip behind one of SF's larger hills the light is just great. More like an eclipse really. This is from a photo I took last fall which I'd intended to paint, but forgot about. It's medium sized (9 x 12 inches).
I couldn't wait to do another painting for the Different Strokes gang! I got the image from the DSFDF site and quickly whipped this up. For, again, I did this one upside down, just cropping in to a bunch of the mannequin heads to try and make things simpler. In hindsight I think I should have cropped in closer. In any case, go check out the other entries. There's quite a range of styles and interpretations. Really opened my eyes to seeing differently.
