Granite - WIP

Just started a new 8x10 oil.  This is based on a picture my good friend Greg took on one of his High Sierra hikes.  He's an amazing photographer and this little study will surely not do his photo justice!  I forgot to snap a picture of the underpainting, but remembered to get a shot of the next layer.

Sorry, lighting is horrible on this one.  Still lots to do!

Old Barn - Finished

So I've been painting for almost 2 years now (off and on) and realized I really haven't completed any of the oil paintings I've started.  I've completed a few oil pastels, but no oil paintings.  So today I finished up a little one I'd been working on...the Old Barn.  I received some great critique up on WetCanvas.com and heeded that advice, removing part of the fence that passed in front of the barn.  My final struggle was how to paint grass.  I'm pretty happy with how the grass ended up, but certainly much more to learn there.  One take away in doing the foreground grasses...it really helps to paint the grass in the foreground with a loaded brush!  So I'm calling this one done...hope you like it!  Canvas board 8"x10"

More work on the Old Barn - WIP

Worked on the Old Barn painting some more today.  I figured it would be nice to actually finish a painting so I think I'll push and get this one done.  Worked on the foreground and bit, added a little more detail to the barn and fence.  Right now I'm trying to decide whether to leave the fence leading off to the left there or not.  Feels like it divides the painting too much and it might be nice to just continue that pasture on up to the forest line. Hmmmm....

Back to Painting - Old Barn WIP

Done with the color exercises for now...back to the painting!  I've got a bunch of paintings I've started, but not finished so I thought I'd start finishing some of those paintings up starting with this old barn.  Worked on the forested ridge in the background, did some more work on the barn itself and laid in the initial fence posts. 

At glance it looks as though I've painted the barn crooked, but in fact there was nothing square about this old barn :-)

800 Colors from a palette of 12

Whew!  So this was an interesting and time consuming exercise.  I took my palette of 12 colors (plus white & black) and mixed every color with every other color and then tinted each combination giving me 10 values for each color.  Some take aways from this exercise....

•  800 colors is a lot, but you realize that variations are truly infinite.  What happens if mixed two colors unevenly and tinted or shaded that?  What happens if I add in the complement to grey the color down? It goes on and on!
• Got a good feel for which colors are stronger or weaker than other colors.  Thalo green, thalo blue - way strong.  Raw sienna, alizarin crimson - not so much!
• This kind of exercise really sped up my color mixing to the values I wanted.
• ...and....I should've done this a long time ago :-)

Well, certainly gained a better understanding of color mixing.  I had a lot of "ah ha, so that's how you get that color" moments!  Now back to the paintings.  Anxious to see how this exercise helps my painting!

Color Notes over Musical Notes!!!

Been working on building up some color charts for one of the palettes I've been experimenting with.  It's a bit tedious, but rewarding when you can stand back see see the infinite variety of colors at your fingertips (or brush tips I guess).  This palette includes thalo green, thalo blue, ultramarine blue, burnt sienna, raw sienna, burnt umber, yellow ochre, lemon yellow, cadmium yellow medium, cadmium red hue, permanent rose, alizarin crimson and then I just include a grey scale using ivory black and titanium white.

Drawing from my sketchbook

Was just going through my sketchbook and realized I hadn't posted this drawing I did awhile back.  Did this while passing the time at a garage sale.  Twas' a fun little sketch!!

Started New Oil - Klamath House

Started a new oil painting tonight.  It's a picture of an old dilapidated house down on the north end of Klamath Lake.  Been wanting to tackle this one for a while. Decided to go back to my other palette of colors (not the Kevin MacPhearson palette) and I'm I can say I like them much better.  So here's the underpainting and first rough sketch. 

And just for fun here's my palette.  My grandpa made this palette out of thick piece of sheet metal.  It's very sturdy, fits my hand nicely and is a breeze to clean up.  You can scrap the heck out of this palette!  The colors I'm using now include:  pthalo green, pthalo blue, ultramarine blue, burnt sienna, raw sienna, burnt umber, yellow ochre, lemon yellow, cadmium yellow light, cadmium red medium, permanant rose, alizarin crimson, and titanium white.  

Brad Teare Blog

Stumbled across an artist who's work I really like, Brad Teare.  Turns out he has an amazing blog packed full of really good information.  Much of it is revolves around painting with Thick Paint, but there's much more information than that.  One of the things I really like is that his blog is a good mix of textual information as well as video shorts demoing various techniques that he's teaching. Only problem I see with painting as thick as he does...I'm not sure I can afford it - that's ALOT of paint!

Turns out his wife, Debra Teare, is also an amazing artist.  Her thing is Trompe L'Oeil...never heard of it before stumbling across her site, but it absolutely blew me away.  You have to check out the painting she calls "Textures in Tin".  Amazing what people can capture with a brush!

I'll definitely be spending some pouring over Brad's blog and pulling out things to try in my own 'fledgling' work ;-)

Tonight's effort

Got a couple hours painting in tonight.  Did a lot of work on the treeline and highlights in the trees.  Also, more work on the sky...I like the way that's turning out.  I'm finding the sunlit sandstone cliff a challenge and soon will be diving (forgive the pun) into the water soon ;-)

Old House - WIP update

Had a chance to do some more on this old abandoned house.  So far I like where it's going.  I really enjoy doing the sky, such freedom in pushing the paint around!  Can't wait to begin putting details into the house and of course the fine branches on those sparse trees will be a challenge.  I know not to try and paint every single little branch, but how to get the equivalent affect...I'm not quite sure.

New Painting Started

Been trying to up my brush time so I squeezed in 45 minutes on a new 6x8 oil.  Still using Kevin MacPherson's palette: cadmium yellow pale, alizarin crimson, ultramarine blue, pthalo green and titanium white. Will be interesting to see where this one ends up.

I love painting outside!!

Had a great Sunday...did some paintin' outside, a little dip in the pool, watched "Cloudy with a Chance of Meatballs" one more time.  Here's a shot of my little painting setup outside under our big maple tree.

These are still works in progress trying a different color palette than I'm used to.

This one here is based on a photo I took on a hike up the Clackamas River in Oregon.  Also work in progress.  You'll have to ignore the sunlight hitting the canvas on this shot.

Study based on Kevin MacPherson

This start is based on a demo in Kevin MacPherson's Fill Your Oil Paintings with Light & Color.  Great book as far as I can tell!  I like is loose style which is something very hard for me to do...must be the engineer in me...gotta' make those paintings precise ;-)  Anyhow, this one is just a rough start focusing on shapes and colors.

Country Scene based on Elizabeth Tolley Demo

Started this one a while back and picked it up again last night.  Just adding more color and various touches.  Just a 6x8 canvas board.  I got a whole stack of these small canvas boards to practice various paint sketches.  With the weather finally getting nice I think I'm gonna' take my painting outside and try my first plein aire soon!

WIP - Carmel by the Sea

Came back to a painting I started over a year ago based on a picture a friend of mine took on a vacation.  Still much to do, but added in the beginnings for the flowers and foliage. Wiped out some detail on the stairs to redo later.  Man, stairs are tough to get right. 

Been awhile...

Been awhile since I posted any new paintings.  Finally, finished this one I've been working on for awhile...or maybe it's not finished yet...I'm not happy with the upper left corner and the paper's not taking much more OP.   Not sure about the top part of the leaf on the left side either...it has sunlight coming across it, but I don't I conveyed that very well.  Well, all part of learning!!

Joined Three Rivers Artist Guild - TRAG

Well, went to my second TRAG meeting last night and decided to join.  Pretty exciting to see such an active artist community right here in my own backyard.  Looks like they have some cool stuff coming up this year with lot's of opportunity to get my work out in front of some people.  Ahhh, now I just need more pieces...need to learn about framing my OPs...need to paint, paint, paint. 

You can learn more about TRAG by going to there website - Three Rivers Artist Guild.

Been working on another OP from a photo I took in our garden.  A nice bright shot of a pumpkin bloom with a honeybee workin' it.  Still to early to show, but I'll get something up here soon.

Small landscape - WIP

Made a little a time for painting tonight, yea!  Just a little 6x8 oil based on a demo out of Elizabeth Tolley's Oil Painter's Solutions Book Landscapes.  What a great little book loaded with all kinds of great information and tips.

I think I'm gonna' try a number of these little 6x8's just to get in the practice sketching the paintings out quicker.