Category: Studies
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Catching Up
Its been a while since I posted, because I havent been able to get the WordPress app to work. Today, I finally figured it out, so Im just going to toss up photos of the paintings I have made in the down time, so I have them to look back at later.
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Cloudy Sky: #4
I decided to try that painting again. I was going to try some exercises with back runs, and water, but before I knew it I was painting. So… here it is. There are some things that I really like here, and some things I definitely want to do differently. But, I think Im done with…
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Cloudy Sky: #3
I think I might need to rename this painting. Now at the third iteration, I think its more about the rocks and vegetation than it is about the sky. At any rate, I have volunteered to work part-time during the COVID-19 pandemic. Its a very strange time in the world right now, and I dont…
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Cloudy Sky: #2
Today I tried painting that barn thats in my memory again. There are some things that worked better here than in the first one, and some that didnt work out. I feel better prepared now for number 3. Here is the sketch I made before painting this one. I really tried to increase the visual…
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Cloudy Sky: #1
On my drive last week to Lutz Lock, where I failed at painting the old lock from the Erie Canal, I saw a barn on the side of the road that I remember thinking looked like a nice one to paint. I didnt stop though, and only have the scene and in my memory. Today,…
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Barn in Walhonding: Studies
I think Ive learned my lesson by now… before I paint, I need to study my subject. And, whats the point of doing all these studies if I dont take the time to reflect on them to better evaluate what Ive learned by doing them? Thats the purpose of this post – I want to…
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Tree Study
I wanted to paint something from my imagination the other day, and this is what I came up with. Its an attempt to mimic a style that I saw in a painting by Joseph Zbukvic, and now that I look at it again, I feel like its close enough to his composition to say that…
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Its all part of the journey
in Achitecture, Animal, Failed Paintings, Figure, Landscape, Sky, Studies, Trees, Water Color, Year 2I have to remind myself over and over… you are only a year and a half into this. Im a sophomore in high school… I should expect to paint like Im sixteen. I have been running into a slew Of failed painting again. Im not sure why exactly. For some reason Im no where near…
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I Will
My last post was a pretty big downer. Im glad I wrote it because its honest. But it also highlighted how inadequate I have been feeling lately. That post was titled I cant. Today, I decided to paint and post again, and I wanted to title this one, I can. But thats not honest. I…
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Glitter War Studies: Pegacorn
My brother asked me to paint a picture for his daughter, with two princess castles caught in a glitter war with flying unicorns and rainbows. I did a few studies on it last week, and over the weekend I painted the Pegacorn as a draft. I want to experiment with how to paint that because…
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Glitter War: Studies
My Brother asked me to paint a picture for his daughter like the illustrations I did recently. Im pretty intimidated to paint something for him to be honest, because he is such a talented and accomplished artist. (Did I mention hes the lead VFX artist for Epics Fortnite?) Anyway, I took him up on it…
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Dairy Farm: #1.1-3.4
Ok, Im interested in painting the Dairy Farm that I found yesterday. The problem is, I hate the paintings I did yesterday, and the photo I took for future reference is pretty awful – because the fence cuts right through the subject. I try to take photos quickly when I start because I want to…
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Saturation Notation, Tree Technique, Atmosphere, and Perspective
There are two big things Im consistently disappointed in when I look at my landscapes: trees and atmosphere. Today, I set out to practice these. I grabbed some scrap paper (A.K.A. the back of a failed painting). I painted a very simple horizon and sky. The goal here was two-fold: practice painting atmosphere, and give…
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Nimisilla Sunset Recipe
I think a good idea is to think of a painting in terms of a recipe. You need to add the right ingredients at the right time with the right motions in order to get the right end result. With that in mind, I took the lessons I learned from my practice sessions, and tried…
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Nimisilla Sunset Practice
I played with the Nimisilla painting a lot today. I took a bunch of failed paintings, and quartered them on the back with masking tape. In each quadrant I tried a study of the painting to solve the problems as Rick Surowicz puts it. But you cant solve problems until you identify them. Here are…
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Nimisilla Sunset: #2
This is a pre-test for a painting I want to do of a scene in my memory from last week when I went fishing with my friend Babs. Babs and I have been good friends for over 20 years now. Thats a weird thing for me to say because in my mind, Im not much…
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WAL Hand Plane: #1
I wanted some more practice with glazing and realistic painting. This hand plane seemed like a good subject because its a simple shape and allows an opportunity to practice getting a bit of the luminescence that comes with glazing, but its still an interesting subject. (And, I love hand planes.) I started by putting three…
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Pigment Tests: #1
Ron Hazell’s book recommended a pretty simple pigment test, which I have created here. I used the majority of the pigments I own, but did not use Lapis Lazuli Genuine, Titanium White, or Neutral Tint. The idea is to draw one big black vertical line with a marker, then paint horizontal lines of each pigment…
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Study – Water: #4
Tonight I tried to get a bit closer to the water to try to define the shapes of the ripples a little more. I see a lot here that I like. Primarily the dip in the third wave up on the left. Compositionally, that wave should be more to the right and I should have…
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Study – Water: #3
Still doing too much on the water. There is something about the composition that I like on this one. I really wanted to try to paint perspective in the clouds, but the shadows arent flat enough at the horizon. I think on the next go round, Ill simplify the shapes and paint them almost like…