Daily Painting - Enjoying the Breeze
Enjoying The Breeze
I often wonder what the seagulls think about when they are standing on the beach. Is it, "Fish again, yuk..." or "Is that a hot dog floating in the water?" you just can't ever tell for sure. I think Pixar might have got it right in "Finding Nemo" when all the seagulls could say was "Mine!", I really think they think all of the food they see is theirs.
This one sure was fun to paint. I tried a slightly different method with this one; I kept my paint thin for as long as possible. Slowly building up to opaque thinker paint. In fact there are a lot of areas when the paint never became opaque, like in the lights and mid tones on the seagulls body and in the foreground. I also tried to keep the darks transparent by thinning them out with a little mineral spirits. I really like this approach and want to explore it more this week.
Painting Details:
Larger Version available here
Size: 5 inch x 7 inch canvas panel.
Medium: Original Oil Painting
Frame: none
Availability: Click here to buy it now on ebay.
Initialed on front. Signed and dated on back.
Daily Painting - Afternoon Break
Afternoon Break
While out collecting reference, I came across a group of brown pelicans sitting on top of some pylons. Most of them where sleeping with their heads resting on their backs. I don't find that a very attractive way to paint them; they look like a ball of feathers. There was this one guy just sitting on his pylon watching the world go by, or maybe he was just waiting for the boats to come back. It's so hard to tell, pelican expressions are subtle at best. Either way, I snapped a few photos of him. I had hoped the sun would come out before he flew off, but it never did. I kind of glad it didn't now because I had a lot fun painting the subtle light in the scene.
Painting Details:
Larger Version available here
Size: 5 inch x 7 inch canvas panel.
Medium: Original Oil Painting
Frame: none
Availability: Click here to buy it now on ebay.
Initialed on front. Signed and dated on back.
Daily Painting - Fishing Derby
Fishing Derby
Seagulls are constantly looking for food it seems like. No wonder why they are so hungry, all the searching is bound to work up an appetite! I photographed these guys over Memorial Day weekend in Corpus Christi. The beaches were very crowded and the seagulls spent most of there time flying overhead, occasionally diving into the gulf to snag a fish swimming too close the top of the water. They would only land when they needed a break or when they saw some food they could snap up. I remember being a little disappointed since I really wanted to get some good reference of seagulls on the beach for a few paintings I want to do. Looking back over my reference now I think have what I need.
Painting Details:
Larger Version available here
Size: 3 inch x 5 inch canvas panel.
Medium: Original Oil Painting
Frame: none
Availability: SOLD
Initialed on front. Signed and dated on back.
Five O'Clock Shadow
Five O'Clock Shadow
This is a larger watercolor that I've been working on. I've been experimenting a lot the last 2 days with different ways to photograph my artwork. I'm not totally happy with the results just yet. The first 2 methods I've tried are basically the same. Both involve using an 18% grey card for correcting the image later in photoshop. Both have the same set of problems:
-It takes too long to set up everything that's needed (the lights, the easel for the artwork, tripod for the camera)
-It takes way too long to process the images and get them ready to post.
-The results of the images are not satisfactory so far.
I can address some of these things right away. I know I can make it faster to set everything up by working on a more permanent set up in the studio. I'm going to try to mount a panel to the wall that will hold the artwork and ensure that it's flat. I'm going to work on that over the weekend. I also need to clean some of the clutter out of my studio since the lights require so much space to get them set up. I'm also thinking about getting a light meter and using that instead of the grey card, but I'm still thinking about that one. As far as the results go, I'm hoping that by making these adjustments I'll get better results.
I really enjoy watercolor like this, lots of shadows to fill in with color! I used a lot of masking fluid to retain the white of the paper. I did this so I could lay in large washes of color for all of the shadow areas and let the color run through all of them. Without the masking fluid this would not be possible.
Painting Details:
Larger Version available here
Size: 21 3/4 inches x 21 3/4 inches.
Medium: Original watercolor painting on paper
Frame: none
Availability: Available
Signed on front.
Daily Paintings - Cucumber Slices
Cucumber Slices
A few days ago my wife made salad with dinner and when I walked by where she was cutting up the cucumber this idea popped into my head. Today I thought I would try to paint it. Paintings like this are fun since I can really be expressive with my brushstrokes. I always enjoy it when I can load up my brush with some color and lay it down on the canvas without touching it again. There's something about that that makes me happy and with an arrangement like this I'm afforded that opportunity often.
I did find one limitation with my current set up box for my still life paintings, I can't get a good top down view with it right now. I think I need to be able to tilt it front to back as well as rotating from side to side in order to get the views I want sometimes. I've got some ideas on how I can do this that I need to experiment with. If anyone is interested in what I come up with let me know and I'll post some pictures.
Painting Details:
Larger Version available here
Size: 5 inch x 7 inch canvas panel.
Medium: Original Oil Painting
Frame: none
Availability: Click here to buy it now on ebay.
Initialed on front. Signed and dated on back.
Daily Painting - Feeding Time
Feeding Time
Another arrangement of my fishing lures. I had such a good time with the last one, I just had to do one more. As I was setting this one up and trying out different arrangements I was thinking, boy wouldn't it be a funny story to tell about how I hooked my own finger while doing this...well...that was a funny thought right up to the time I hooked my own finger. Luckily it wasn't that bad, just barely got the finger tip. I did, however, take that lure out of the set up. I figured if it wasn't going to be nice to me, I wasn't going to paint it.
The photograph really shows a lot of the canvas texture, much more then in real life. I'll have to see if I can get better picture of this one when the sun's back out and update the one here. [Updated photo 6/23]
I painted this very early in the morning. Not something I normally do, but my daughter woke up at 4AM needing a bottle and I woke up to get her. My wife looked like she needed a break. By the time I got her feed and back to sleep I was wide awake, so I thought what the heck and painted all morning. It was a nice change since I normally paint later in the day.
Painting Details:
Larger Version available here
Size: 3 inch x 5 inch canvas panel.
Medium: Original Oil Painting
Frame: none
Availability: Click here to buy it now on ebay.
Initialed on front. Signed and dated on back.
Daily Painting - Bobbers and Lures
Bobbers and Lures
I've always enjoyed fishing, but can't seem to find the time to go much these days. I can't wait to introduce my little girl (8 months) to fishing one day. Hopefully she'll enjoy it and we can go together. In the mean time, I thought it might be fun to paint some of the gear in my tackle box. It's got such great color and shapes. I had a lot of fun setting this up and trying out different lures in my set up. Some of them brought back great memories of the fish I caught with them ( let me tell you about the one that got away...) and some of them I haven't had the chance to try out yet.
I think I'm really hitting a grove with my set ups lately. The last few have come together pretty quickly and I couldn't wait to get started painting them. I also altered the way I start an oil painting with the last couple. Instead of coloring the canvas with a ground and then drawing out the composition with a brush, I've been drawing the composition onto the canvas with a pencil and premixing all of the major colors that I think I'll need, in this case the tan color that all of the lures are against, the dark gray blue foreground color and the common dark color in the lures. I then block in all of my shapes using these premixed colors or altering them as I go. I really like this approach because it get's me to finished brush strokes much faster then any other method I've tried. It also gives me an easy way to mix my colors since they are all based on the ones I premixed.
Painting Details:
Larger Version available here
Size: 5 inch x 7 inch canvas panel.
Medium: Original Oil Painting
Frame: none
Availability: SOLD
Initialed on front. Signed and dated on back.
Daily Painting - Ceramic Memories
Ceramic Memories
This one is full of things with memories attached to them. The ribbons are from my wife's Jr. high school scrape book. They are for track, the red one in the background is for first place and the very faded purple one in the foreground is for second. The little ceramic love doves in the foreground was a gift from my mother to my wife and I when we got engaged. It's very fragile and has had it bumps over the years. I've had to glue it back together twice now and I'm not sure how many bumps it can take.
I really started thinking about how I wanted to arrange my still life when setting this one up. I don't mean to sound like I didn't give this any thought in the past, but with this one I was thinking more in terms of how I compose some of my landscapes. With this one I thought a lot about a small waterfall and the flow of the water and tried to capture some of that into these static objects. It really made it fun to set things up with this in mind and I also noticed that I was able to come to an arrangement that I liked a lot quicker. It's something I'm going to try to do more of when I set up tomorrows still life.
[Updated photo 6/23]
Painting Details:
Larger Version available here
Size: 5 inch x 7 inch canvas panel.
Medium: Original Oil Painting
Frame: none
Availability: Click here to buy it now on ebay.
Initialed on front. Signed and dated on back.
Daily Paintings - Leftovers
Leftovers
My wife came home from Sam's Club with this giant container of cherries, real it's more cherries then 2 people can eat before they go bad so I used a few for this painting. While setting up this still life I realized if you are not careful you can spend hours looking for just the right cherries to use. In the end I went with a more random approach and just grabbed the top few and tossed them into the bowl. I tried to let them fall naturally and really only had to adjust the ones on the outside of the bowl.
I didn't think about using a primary color scheme when I set this up. It just sort of happened, mostly from being lazy about cleaning up my still life set up box. I left the background paper in it from yesterday and I like painting this little blue bowl so I wanted to use it. Throw in a few cherries and bam, the primary color scheme is complete.
Painting Details:
Larger Version available here
Size: 3 inch x 5 inch canvas panel.
Medium: Original Oil Painting
Frame: none
Availability: SOLD
Signed on front. Signed and dated on back.
Daily Painting - Correspondence With Tea
Corresponence With Tea
I can't recall where I got this creamer, but I've had it forever. I know I packed it and moved it at least 5 times over the years and never actually used it. I can count on one hand how many times a year I have coffee and I prefer my tea cold with lemon. But, by golly I just couldn't get rid of it. I guess I kept it around all these year so I could paint it one day and today was that day.
I (actually my wife and I) came up with the name because the creamer is sitting on top of a stack of thank you cards. Not sure if you can really tell that from my composition since it's cropped in so tight.
Painting Details:
Larger Version available here
Size: 5 inch x 7 inch canvas panel.
Medium: Original Oil Painting
Frame: none
Availability: Click here to buy it now on ebay.
Signed on front. Signed and dated on back.
Daily Painting - Peaking Out
Peaking Out
I had actually set up a few other lemons for this arrangement but once I looked through my view finder settled on this view pretty quickly. It gave a great opportunity to play with my colors in the shadows. It's always tempting to paint the shadows rather dark and life less, especially if I work from photos a lot. Paintings from life like this reminds me how much is going on in there and how much color there is to see.
Still working on those oil painting muscles. There still a bit rusty but they are starting to loosen up. I had one that I wiped off before painting this. I'm glad I wiped it, I was really struggling with it and kept fighting it. This one came a lot easier after that. I had a pretty clear idea of what I wanted to do and just needed a clean start to do it.
Painting Details:
Larger Version available here
Size: 3 inch x 5 inch canvas panel.
Medium: Original Oil Painting
Frame: none
Availability: SOLD
Signed on front. Signed and dated on back.
Daily Painting - Jelly Jar
Jelly Jar
This painting was a challenge from my wife when she held up this jar of jelly to the light and asked "Can you paint light?!?" Isn't this what painting is all about ;) But it did get me thinking about it and so I set up this little still life. I'm not sure I captured what she was asking, but it sure was fun to paint. The jelly, which is made by my wife's aunt and uncle, really refracts light in an amazing way. The shadows get these intense hits of red in them as the light bounces through the jar. It was very tempting to "push" this effect and while I might have a little, I tried to stay true to what was in front of me and not over do it.
Painting Details:
Larger Version available here
Size: 10 inches x 8 inches on (approximately) 11inch x 9 inch paper.
Medium: original watercolor
Matte: none
Availability: Click here to go to ebay auction (Till Jun 16, 201019:00:37 PDT)
Signed on front. Signed and dated on back.
Daily Painting - Solo Act
Solo Act
Wow, it seems like forever since I've been able to paint. My wife and I where away on vacation for a few days celebrating our anniversary. We went to Corpus Christi this year and had a blast. I took lots of reference for some paintings that I still need to sort through. When it was all said and done I used both my 8 gig card and my 2 gig card, plus I took a few photos on my camcorder. Needless to say I've got more then a few ideas for paintings. When we got back I was pretty rusty after just a few days. My first few paintings since we got back didn't make it to the finished stage, but they seem to be coming along again.
Overall I'm pretty happy with this one. As soon as I put the light on this set up and saw that shadow go across the plate I knew this was going to be a fun painting. I really thought a lot about local color while painting this, especially on the ground.
Painting Details:
Larger Version available here
Size: 4 inches x 6 inches on (approximately) 5inch x 7 inch paper.
Medium: original watercolor
Matte: none
Availability: Click here to go to ebay auction (Till May 26, 201018:18:57 PDT)
Signed on front. Signed and dated on back.
