Cowboys 4

Acrylic on Canvas

I thought I'd give this another go. I've been reading a lot of back issues of the various art magazines I subscribe to, and my head in now full of more guidance than I can possibly put into practice in any short manner. However, it is helping me pinpoint the things that annoy me about my failures (and it's good to have failures – and insights).

This is starting to look less like a cartoon, and more like a painting. I consider that a good thing, for what that's worth. It's still far from what I was hoping for, but I am discovering why, which is actually a lot of fun. Did I mention that painting was fun before? I sure hope so.

Prince Edward Farm II

Acrylic on Canvas Panel - 18 x 14 inches - (destroyed)

I decided to crop in a little tighter and make the overall composition a little stronger. If you compare with the first version you can see what I moved around. Also, having worked out a lot of issues this was a lot easier to do, and it was easier to keep it fluid.

I looked at a few of my favorite sources and noticed that a lot of painters leave the background loose and unfinished looking to increase the sense of depth and focus. Though I tried decreasing it's saturation and tried pushing it towards bluer tones, it didn't really work out that way. Something in my is fighting this concept.

I think I could do a dozen more of these, but I think part of the problem I'm having is that this is from a Google photo, and not from a scene I've seen firsthand and photographed myself. I really should get outside. It's just that it's the coldest summer in San Francisco in at least 20 years. Excuses, excuses.

Prince Edward Farm

Acrylic on Canvas Panel - 18 x 14 inches - (destroyed)

This is for the August Virtual Paintout, on Prince Edward Island in Nova Scotia. Be sure to check out the other submissions. There's some great ones.

I seem to have fallen into all my usual traps. Almost all of the trees are the same value, even though some are far away, and all are in the same level of focus and detail. I'm going to try this one again, incorporating some of the things I should have learned by now about distance and focus. The we'll see if I've really grasped the concept. Stay tuned.