Madrona Cottage

Acrylic on Panel - 8 x 10 inches  Ω

Still day one of the workshop, and another building at the Madrona Manor, from another vantage since the sun had moved. Actually I tried to be too clever with this one. The side of the building facing me was in total shade, but I knew it would eventually be in full sun. The problem was I underestimated how long it would take. I was already packing up when the sun did hit and I quickly rendered the shadow areas (I had already cheated in the sunlight facade, because I knew what color it was going to be).

Madrona Manor

Acrylic on Panel - 8 x10 inches  Ω

This is my first painting from the workshop. I was lucky enough to join my dad for a few days of instruction and demos with Brent Jensen.  He's a great plein air painter and has a nice, relaxed style. I learned a lot about mixing colors, especially the use of complimentary colors in toning down bright color. I think I'm finally able to banish black from my palette. Well, at least my plein air palette.

This is one of the many out buildings at the Madrona Manor, in Healdsburg, CA. It was quite hot the entire week, so I painted this from the refuge of the shady patio.

Casa Blanca

Acrylic on Panel - 8 x 10 inches - NFS

I just got back from my latest trip to Sonoma, and started off with a warm-up sketch of the house I was staying at. I'd gotten a bit rusty and wanted to make sure I didn't head off to the workshop completely cold. 

Kinley Drive

Acrylic on Panel - 8 x 10 inches - NFS

This seemed fairly accurate, color-wise while on location, but it just seems dull and flat now. Maybe it's because I'm back in fog town, but I don't think that's it. I've been painting indoors so much this Spring, that I haven't adjusted to painting outdoors. I'm gonna give this another pass and see if I can fix it before I list it for sale. The paint's pretty thin too, so I'll see if I can lay it on a bit thicker while I'm at it.

Princetown Farm

Acrylic on Panel - 9 x 12 inches - Click Here to Bid

I snapped the reference photo on the highway back from Half Moon Bay. I see this house every time, but I rarely have my camera at the ready. Just got lucky this time.

I just love that so many palm trees dot the landscape in California. They're not native, they have nothing to do with farming or wine making. But they do make me smile. 

Zebras

Cut Paper - 7 x 7 inches

Carol Marine post quite a photo for this week's Daily Paintworks "Crazy Making Challenge." (to see her source photo, follow the link).

Before getting into the paint, I took her advice and did a few quick sketches and then a detailed one the size I wanted to paint. The final sketch looked so much like stencil art to me that I decided not to paint the scene at all, and just construct it with paper. The blue sky is from a photo detail of another painting.

If I have time this week, I'll do a painting as well. We'll see.

Red Truck Revisited

Original (top image)

Update (bottom image)

Acrylic on Panel - 8 x 10 inches - sold

Here's another before/after post. I found this in the discard pile and thought I'd warm up the sunlight areas and fix a few other things. Again, like the last time I did something like this, I thought I was making big changes, and in the end it really didn't wind up looking all that different, but it is an improvement nonetheless.

Dairy Princesses

Acrylic on Panel - 8 x 10 inches - SOLD

I snapped this photo last year at the end of the 4th of July Parade in Sonoma. The dairy princesses vehicle had pulled off the road to cool off a bit. Damsels in distress for sure.

I dug up this reference photo to use for my submission to this week's Paint It White Challenge at Daily Paintworks. There's really a great crop of submission for this one, so be sure to check 'em out.

I rushed this one on purpose, to keep the paint a little wet and to try to not get bogged down in little details. Only the princess face gave me a bit of trouble and had to be touched up this morning.

In case it's not obvious, the red on their dresses is their official parade ribbons.

Corner Market

Acrylic on Cardstock - 4 x 6 inches - SOLD

This is a quick rendering of a building in the neighborhood. I started with a completely black background and tried to let it peek through in places. 

Sachi

Acrylic on Panel - 9 x 12 inches - NFS

This is a friend of mine from the neighborhood, though this picture was taken in the park a while ago. I thought it would be an easy loose one to do for the Daily Paintorks' Paint Your Friend Challenge.

Well, the initial blocking in was easy enough, but I wasn't getting the face right. It was a nice loose image of "a girl" but it wasn't looking like Sachi. I could have left it at that, but I really wanted to figure out why it wasn't working.

You see, if been going to figure drawing classes lately, and I'm learning so much about the figure that I really should know better.

In any case I kept at it. I took pictures in progress, brought them into Photoshop and compared them and kept reworking the face. The really weird part was, if I made an adjustment to the lips, it wound up looking more like her sister. If I changed the eye, it would look like her mother.

Finally, after much hair pulling (mine, obviously) I got as close as I'm gonna get, and it looks like her. I really didn't mind all the tricks I had to pull out to make this work, because I learned A LOT in the process.

Landscapes are so much easier than portraiture, but then you knew that.