For the last week's Daily Paintworks Challenge, (yes, I'm running a little behind in my work) Cathleen Rehfeld had us consider balance, both literally and figuratively. I thought I'd create a precariously balanced stack while keeping the colors in a related family.
18 inches squared is pretty big for me, but managed to lay out twice as much paint, use bigger brushes and work very quickly so that things stayed wet and manageable. I think I got it all in in under and hour, but I did go back this morning and add a bit more warmth to the top of the bottommost box's top surface. It just looked washed out and dull.
This is a portrait of some dude who's lived in my neighborhood for ages. I couldn't get him to sit for it, so I used a photo from one of those coin-operated photo booths. That's why the cropping is a bit unusual and why the lighting is pretty harsh and flat. It was kind of a sepia tone type photo, so I chose to paint it in that range. I might try a full color version, but I just don't have enough color memory to be able to guess at cool vs. warm areas.
A secluded corner of a property I toured last fall. I've been meaning to paint it, but wasn't sure I could make a successful composition of the thing. Every time I tried to map it out, that turret wound up dead center. I rearrange a few items and finally it fell into place.
This is a quick study to see if it works out. I may do a larger version soon. Maybe.
A return to one of my favorite subjects and once again, I've managed to crop it poorly and failed to capture the warmth of the afternoon in Sonoma. It's also fussier than I'd intended. Oh, well.
I found myself at the Madrone one night, and this jazz band just showed up and started kicking it out. I did a bunch of quick sketches and took a few snap shots. I knew I'd have to try and "remember" a lot more than my sketches and snaps would reveal.
This was a quick stab at rendering a scene, but I can easily tell I'm missing a lot of the warmth that was there. Though an OK study, it just feels too cool and monochromatic. (which is nice if that's what one is going for). Guess I'll have to give this one another go. Bigger next time.
This one really didn't take much longer than the first two. I'd already worked out some of the issues (and had mixed up a bunch of paint puddles) so things went fairly smoothly.
I also didn't really go over strokes that much, since I was getting better results, and I noticed that with the paint so wet, going over strokes really just wound up removing paint. (I know, "fat over lean" but I didn't really want to get into that with this one).
