Category: Trees
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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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Glitter War: Final
I bit the bullet and just went for it today, and painted that Glitter War painting my brother asked for a while ago. He lives in North Carolina, and they are in town for Christmas, so I figured if I paint it now, I can save myself from having to mail it. This painting has…
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I Will: #1
This is my quarter sheet draft of the painting I worked on the past two days. I wrote a lot about it in the post about the studies so I wont go into much detail here on the process. But, I do want to show some of the photos from the process, and reflect a…
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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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Creek Bridge: #1
Tonight, the goal was to paint a creek, paying attention to perspective, and atmosphere. When I started, there was no bridge in my mind, but a bloom seemed to suggest one, so I went with it. I dont have a reference sketch or photo for this one, Im just kind of laying down layers and…
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Log Bridge: #1
I wanted to practice figure painting a bit more, so I invented a scene, and tried to paint it. My idea was to try to paint a picture of a guy carefully walking across a log. Its something Ive done more than a few times fishing, but Ive never photographed it, so I had to…
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Fall: #2
Before I start, I should say thank you to Liron Yankonsky for a Video he posted on YouTube recently. The study he did helped me a lot. I really focused on clean washes, and simple composition as a result of watching that video. I decided to paint another autumn tree today. This time I wanted…
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Fall: #1
I decided to put the glitter war painting aside for a week or so, because I was getting a little burned out on it. In an attempt to perform a mental software reset, I painted this today very quickly. My goal was to paint this without revisiting washes. I was successful in leaving things largely…
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Tree Sketches
I wanted to explore some ideas for how I might style the trees in this painting that Im going to do. I think I know how Ill tackle everything else (at least I have a strategy for how I plan to attack it) but I havent decided on a style for the trees yet. This…
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Cottonwood: #2
Tonight I decided I would try that cottonwood painting again after all. Once again, I wanted to focus on a limited palette, so I went with Prussian Blue, Yellow Ochre, and Ultramarine Violet. I went with Ultramarine Violet instead of Quin Purple because I figured it might give me more red… not sure if that…
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Cottonwood: #1
I wanted to paint something from my imagination tonight, and tried to focus on neutralized colors. One thing my paintings suffer from (among others) is that they often make use of very high key colors, and often dont have much color harmony as a result. So I decided to make a painting using just three…
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Flooded Park: #1-3
I was driving home from the garage a few months ago after getting new tires, and saw that the park on Middlebranch was flooded. So, I pulled into the parking lot and snapped some photos. I particularly liked this one: The first time I painted it, I was far too heavy handed on every inch…
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Sometimes, you suck.
Wow. Its hard to describe the extent of the feelings of defeat Im having right now. I drove an hour and a half down to Blackhand Gorge State Park today to try some Plein air painting. Dear God, it didnt go well. I hiked the trails and found an incredibly serene spot just off one…
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Plein Air at Salt Fork: #1
I took this photo of my easel set up for Plein Air painting when I was at Salt Fork a month or so ago. Tonight, I decided to try to paint it, and I guess I?ll try to toss myself into the picture. I don?t want to lean very heavily on the photo, which may…
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Feeling Stuck
I started doing this because I saw a video of a master penman who was working on a piece, and he said something like: People always say how talented I am. They see me write something with one stroke in a few seconds. But what they dont see are the years of practice, the mountains…
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Zbukvic Farm: 1
Today, I decided to buck up, puff out my chest, and try a painting from Joseph Zbukvics Mastering Atmosphere and Mood in Watercolor: The Critical Ingredients that Turn Paintings into Art. This book is out of print, and the only used copies available for purchase cost several hundred dollars. So, I printed the book from…
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Salt Fork: #1
I drove out to Do some Plein Air Painting today. A while back I drove home from camping along Route 21, north of Salt Fork State Park. On the drive, I passed a Mutti Dairy Farm, and I took note of it as something to paint some day. So, when I decided to go painting…
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Appalachian Sky: #2
This is my second attempt at painting a view of the valley in the Appalachian mountains from our vacation in Elk Banner, South Carolina. In this version, I expanded the field of view considerably, and it no longer matches the field of view that I have in my mind. In my mind, looking at the…
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Shade Tree: #1-3
I took a picture of this tree in the park today. I liked the way the light filtered through the leaves, and how the trunk gradually shifted from a sandy brown to near black. I tried to paint it. Though the paintings were awful, I wanted to post them anyway – because this blog is…
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Back Porch: #1-3
Joseph Zbukvic is my favorite watercolor artist right now. (I know – how original.) Because I admire his work so much, I watch a lot of videos of him painting whenever I find one on YouTube. I have heard him say a handful of times, There are no bad subjects, only bad paintings. I also…