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Daily Painting - Butternut Glow

Butternut Glow

I have to admit I was pretty amazed when I cut this open to see the wonderful color inside. I knew when I saw it that I wanted to paint it. After struggling with the arrangement for a while I settled on this. I think I was being a little timid with cutting up the squash, which limited me to what I could do with it. After all, I couldn't put it back together if I made a mistake. When I was done painting, I gave the squash to my wife since she wanted to cook it, and then cleaned up the studio a bit. When I went out to the kitchen, I noticed how nice the arrangement was my wife had made on the cutting board. "I've got to get another one these and try this again", was the first thought to run through my head, which was then followed by my best Homer Simpson "Doh!"

Daily Painting - Meme's Chick

Meme's Chick

This little red is one of the dozen or so laying hens my wife's grandmother (Meme) is raising this year.They are very entertaining to watch. I spent about an hour in the pen photographing them. Obviously painting them from life would be a little harder than I was up for, especially for the first attempt. I think if I do a few more, I may be comfortable enough to try them from life, but for now, my photos will have to do. One of the things that really amazed me about the chickens was the wide variety of color they have. Some of them have these great red/yellow color schemes like this girl, while others are very dark with lots of blues and purples.

Daily Painting - Painted Tin - Number 100!

Painted Tin

I'm very happy to report that this is daily painting number 100 this year!  I'm now officially half way to my goal for 2010. As for tonight's painting, this tin is the other item I picked up last weekend (see yesterday's post). I painted a bit more of the detail than the one I did yesterday, mostly because I felt the painting needed it, though, honestly, these details also very hard to resist. After all, it's the patterns in it that prompted me to buy it in the first place. I also took another shot at painting the carnations since they were still fresh.  This time I added some dark red ones, which I enjoyed because it allowed me to use stronger, purer colors.  

Daily Paintings - Carnations

Carnations

 Over the weekend my wife and I went to a few garage sales to see what type of still life subjects we could find. The picking were pretty slim, but we did find this little vase. For this painting, I simplified the design since I wanted to work on the shape. I'll save a more detailed painting for another time. We had a few carnations around the house, so I added those and then got to painting. I've been keeping a very loose count of my daily paintings, and, according to that count, this is daily painting number 99. I need to double check to be sure, but I've very excited to be just about at the half way point for my goal this year.

Step by Step description of First Year Memories - Final Painting

First Year Memories

Here's the final painting. I finished up the lower left hand corner and made a few final tweaks over the rest of the picture. I feel at this point any additional work I do will not further improve my effort, so I stop. As I approach a point where I feel the painting may be done, I start to ask myself  "Will what I'm about to do improve my painting?".  If the answer is no, then I stop. If I'm not sure, then I go very slowly and step back frequently making sure all decisions are made from a few feet away.  After living the painting for a few days, I will inevitably find things that I wish I had changed or painted differently, which, I think, is something most painters do. If something really bugs me, I will go back into it and make a change, but most of the time I leave the painting as is,especially if it's something I have painted from life, like this still life. I usually break the scene down when I'm done, so any adjustments I try to do afterward would be from memory. More importantly, I feel that when I decided to stop I had captured the moment I was trying to capture. I'd rather apply what I've learned to the next painting then revisit one I've finished.

 I hope you've enjoyed this series of posts. I had a lot of fun doing this and hope it helps to show you how I approach my paintings and how they progress. I am constantly tweaking my approach and trying different things all the time. Don't be afraid to do the same. Happy Painting!

Step by Step description of First Year Memories - Day 2

  Day 2 of my painting progression. If you missed anything, check out yesterday's blog post.

Stage 5:

Step by Step description of First Year Memories

  I thought it might be fun to share the step-by-step progress of my current painting - First Year Memories. I'll post progress of this painting here over the next few days, so be sure to stop back daily and follow along. If you have any questions, please ask. I'd be happy to go into more detail.

Set Up:

 

This is a photo of what I will be painting, which took some time because I was adding and removing things until I was happy with the arrangement. My original idea was actually much simpler, with just the doll, frame, and that little yellow toy. It didn't feel like the scene was very connected, so I stood the doll up against the frame and added the books. With the doll's foot on the upper book, she feels more integrated into the scene. The next issue was the lighting, as it was too strong and uninterrupted, shining across the whole arrangement. Since there is nothing really dramatic about that, I needed something to block the light. After a lot of searching around the house, I found the mobile. With a little engineering, I was able to work the mobile in by running a piece of string across the top of my set up box and hanging it. This photo is the final set up and I'm all ready to start painting.

The canvas panel is 11x14 inches, which is larger than I normally work with. I like to first sketch the painting on the canvas using a pencil or charcoal, whichever is handier.  I make sure to erase any incorrect lines and lightly erase the final drawing lines a little so I don't have too much lead on the canvas. The reason for this is I tend to put on a thin wash of oil color when I start, and if there's too much charcoal or lead on the canvas, the mineral spirits I use the thin the paint will pick it up and really muddy the color. 

Stage 2:

Here is a picture of the completed thin wash. I'm not really worried about the brushstrokes at this point since I have a pretty accurate drawing that I can still see though it doesn't show up very well in the photograph.  The mineral spirits I used to thin the paint evaporates pretty quickly, so I let it dry a few minutes. This gives me a good chance to stand back and examine my progress from a few feet away.  I use this opportunity to check my composition and finalize my plan.

Stage 3:

 Now that the surface is more or less dry again, I begin with blocking in my center of interest. In this case, it's the doll. After all, she is what inspired this whole arrangement.  At this point, I try to get more accurate with my brushstrokes and pay careful attention to draw the shapes that I see in the still life. For the doll, I mixed up a large batch of what I think the middle value of the pink color is. From this mixture, I can lighten it for the light areas and darken it for the shadows. I don't do this for everything in the still life, just the larger items like the doll, the mobile stuff animals, and maybe a dark batch for the background. For the other areas, I'm planning on just mixing the colors I need as I get to them.

Stay tuned tomorrow for more updates and to see the progress on this painting....

Daily Painting - Sliced Apple

Sliced Apple

  One of the appeals of oil painting for me is the option to use a painting knife, which allows for a very thick application of the paint and strong edges. It also lend itself to some very interesting color blending since the knife can blend the colors as you're painting with it. I just got a new set and wanted to test them out. They looked so shiny and clean sitting next to my pallet and I knew I couldn't leave them like that! While normally I believe you should use the correct tool for the job at hand, I really wanted to practice with my new knifes. I did almost this entire painting with them. I used a few brush strokes in the end to clean up a few of the edges and correct a little drawing here and there, but that's about it.

Daily Painting - Peach Festival

Peach Festival

After trying the Saturn Peaches a few days ago, I wanted to try some regular peaches.These rather simple looking compositions are the hardest for me. I spend more time arranging and re-arranging these than some of the more complicated ones. I guess it's because I have fewer objects to place, so each objects placement becomes even more important. Of course now that the painting is done, I see a few things I wish I had changed. I wonder if that feeling ever goes away. In almost every painting I do, I can make the same statement. Being an artist doesn't have a finish line, there is always further to go and explore and learn. The next painting...it's what keeps me coming back to my easel.

Daily Painting - Hide N Seek

Hide N Seek

 
  When you look at the painting, the lemon in the bowl and the one behind it are hiding from the lemon in front.That's what I was thinking when I came up with the title for this one. I set this still life up to test myself in seeing values. The white bowl on the white piece of paper was a real challenge.  The shadows are very strong, so it could have been easy to turn this into a black and white painting if I wasn't careful. In just about every painting I do, there is always one little area or brushstroke that seems to give me great satisfaction and I suspect most artists have this feeling about their work. Sometimes, it's the highlight laid down with one swipe of a loaded brush or the crisp edge from a pallet knife stoke. In this painting, it's the peppers on the side of the bowl. I believe I used 5 brushstrokes to paint all of them. I love it when things go like that!

Daily Painting - Early Fruit

Early Fruit

 

 It seems like it's late in the summer to just be getting the first eggplants on the vine. We got our garden in a little late this year. On top of that, we had a serious shade issues until we had some trees removed. I guess that's why we are just getting some fruit, and it's looking pretty good. I think this might be our best year yet for eggplant in the 3 years we've been growing it. Now I just wish I knew what it was we did so right finally. Anyway, I had a lot of fun painting them and want to do a few more when the next batch gets a little bigger. I picked these right when I was done painting them.

Daily Paintings - Saturn Peaches

Saturn Peaches

 My wife came home from the store with these crazy fruits called Saturn peaches, which is where the title came from. They look like a regular peach except that they are very flat, almost as if someone sat on and flattened them.

 I used another book from my wife's collection in this set up. Mostly, I picked it because I liked the colors of it and thought it would work well within this set up.  As an aside, the fact that it is a copy of What to Eat When You're Expecting seems somehow fitting with the peaches. 

Unfortunately, this photo has a bit of glare to it. I'll have to see if I can get a better photograph of it. If I do manage to get one, I'll update the picture.

Daily Painting - King of the Pond

King of the Pond

 
One of the local residents at the pond down the road. This guy swam around like he owned the place. All of the other ducks followed him where ever he went., sort of like he was the king. Hence the title, King of the Pond.  He was a lot of fun to paint and a real challenge with all that white! You know I keep calling him a him, but I really don't know, my bird book doesn't tell me how to tell them apart. If anyone know, please let me know.

Daily Painting - Higher Learning

Higher Learning

 Just about the time when I was painting this, my wife walked into the studio and asked "Is that my kindergarten diploma"? "Yep". Actually, it's her book too (James Joyce). I kind of like using books in my still life paintings. The idea came to me a few days ago. I actually used one in yesterday's painting as well. It really gives me the opportunity to introduce colors and patterns into the painting very easily. The lettering on them can be a bit tricky to handle. I don't want the letters to stand out too much. I had to be careful to cheat the values and edges to make them a bit lighter and softer. When it came to name this one, the first thing that came into my mind was "Higher Learning", with a heavy dose of tongue in cheekiness.  

Daily Painting - Mary's Corn

Mary's Corn

 
Nothing too original with the title on this one. A friend of ours, Mary, brought us some of the corn she grew this year. Before we ate it I wanted to paint it. I'm not sure if that influences the way it tastes or not. I have noticed that the food I've used in the past taste better if I liked the painting and much worst if I didn't. I suspect that has more to do with my satisfaction with the painting then the quality of the food.

Daily Painting - Collecting Grapes

Collecting Grapes

 
When I was thinking about a title for this one, I came up with this whole little story in my head where the duck is going around picking up all of the grapes he can find, storing them in the little holder behind him. Then he comes across this spot and there are more grapes then can fit in his holder and he has to pick and choose which ones he wants. After looking them over, he's made his choice. If you peer into the candle holder, it's right there next to him.

 I struggled a lot with the duck and the holder it's attached to. I wiped it off twice before I got something that I was happy with. Not to sound obvious, but in the end I had to really be careful with the drawing. Ultimately, I had to squint my eyes to see the shapes clearly. I guess that really was the lesson on this one: squint and compare one shape to another, which is one of the first things Bill Parks taught us back at the American Academy of Art.