Forked Path - Final....I think

Well, tonight I added some highlights, grass detail, and introduced some sky into the trees.  I think I'm going to call this one done and move on.  Learned alot and fun so this was success!

Carmel by the Sea...

This picture was taken by a friend on one of her vacations.  I started this painting even before my still life, but then set it aside for while. Came back, did a little more, and now I'm trying to figure out how to move forward with it.  The stairs have me a bit perplexed!

Here's an early version of the painting...

Here's a later version...added some of the roof tiles, refined some of the doorways and texture on the walls...

Practicing with Glazes...

So I met a professional artist named Doug Miller at his studio in Leavenworth, WA. He recommended I check out SmartFlix.com for teaching videos.  So I did. My first rental was a DVD - Johnnie Liliedahl's The Forked Path. It was a study in glazes.

So here's my first glaze layer.

And here's after another glaze layer and some opaques.

Apples anyone?

So here's my first still life in Oils.  I thought I was done with this one, but then decided it was too "orangey". So I came back later and deepened the red using a glaze.

Here's a couple of drawings of some rocks for an exercise on WetCanvas.com, using OPs.

Wood Duck

Then I got rather adventurous and decided to try and draw an animal…

My "studio"...

So here’s what my makeshift “studio” looked like when I started.

First crack at oil pastels (OPs)

Started playin’ with oil pastels in December ‘08.  I liked them enough that I bought a great 92 color OP set called ArtAspirer by Erengi.  Here’s the first painting I did with those.  I did this based on a monthly challenge on WetCanvas.com.

Paintin' Shapes

Here are my first two oil paintings.  These were done as exercises from a book by Kathleen Lochen Staiger called “The Oil Painting Course You’ve Always Wanted”.  When I saw that book, I thought, “Hey, that books for me.  How did she know I always wanted an oil painting class!”

Found some old soft pastels...

I found a box of old soft pastels that I just had to try…

Did ya’ notice the sheep…yeah, those little white smudges…uh huh…those are sheep!

First Drawings...

Here are some of the first drawing I did back in October ‘08.

Gotta' love that nice fingerprint and Cheetoh stain on the landscape drawing....doh!

Half the fun of art is sharin’ the experience…

I used to enjoy drawing as a kid.  My mom even bought me a little oil paint set and some canvas boards.  I’m sure somewhere in her garage are some little paintings of mountains, trees…oh and for some reason I painted a little red outhouse.  I remember that one because I think that was my “masterpiece” at the time.
Somewhere along the way though, I just stopped drawing and painting.  I was 13 or 14.  I dunno…maybe girls and cars became more interesting to me at the time, but for whatever reason I just stopped drawing and painting.  That’s the way it was for 25+ years.   Funny thing is though…in the back of my mind I kept reminding myself how much I would really like to learn to oil paint.

Here about a year ago, I had a real “DUH!” kind of moment.  I’m grown up, I’ve got my own money, why not just buy some painting supplies and go for it?!  Well, that’s what did and I’ve been havin’ a ball ever since.   I bought a little pencil set first and started drawing.  I found some old Guitar oil pastels that my mom hardly used.  I thought those were fun so I bought a 90 color Art Aspire oil pastel set.  Then I found a great book on oil painting so I picked up some paints based on the pallet this author used.  Oh and even picked up nice plein aire easel using a gift certificate from my work.  Along the way I’ve also played with a few water colors and some soft pastels, too.

So as the title of this posts says, half the fun of art is sharin’ the experience and that’s what this blog is all about…right from the start.  I hope folks will enjoy my art and get a kick out of my mistakes.  I still have a hard time considering myself an artist…maybe that’ll change after I frame my first painting…who knows!  But in the meantime, feel free to look, comment, and even criteque what you see.
Thanks for lookin’!