Category: Year 1
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The Ravine: #3
I tried to paint that picture i have in my head of the Ravine where we used to play as kids. It seems each time I paint this, I get farther from the image in my mind. To start, I sketched this composition in pencil, following a neat little trick I learned in Ron Hazel’s…
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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…
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Study – Water: #2
This is only half of the exercise for this painting. I started adding objects into the water just to test how to paint the reflections. (I should also note, this is painted on the reverse of Study-Water: 1. I like to use both sides of the paper when I’m experimenting/learning in order to save paper.)…
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Rocks in Stream: #1
For this painting, I wanted to try to capture the shine that can be seen on wet rocks, and the glare on ripples of water. I found a photo online that captured these elements, and tried to paint that photo. I didnt end up capturing the photo as well as I would have liked, and this…
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Study – Water: #1
I watched a video by Ron Hazel on how to paint rippled water, and wanted to try it out. I have also wanted to experiment with a cloud technique I saw in a video by Umberto Rossini. The two styles dont mesh well together, but thats ok, this is a lesson. (I have already started…
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Facebook: #2
I used packing tape as a frisket on this version. I was surprised by how well it worked, but cutting through one layer of tape without cutting the paper beneath is hard. The trick seems to be a sharp blade (super sharp) and take it slow. I started with the sky. I wasnt happy with…
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Facebook: #1
For this painting I wanted to practice lighting planes on a geometrical shape and working with perspective and atmosphere. I havent been happy with how my shapes have been defined in terms of their lit/shadowed sides lately, and I thought working with big angular shapes on manmade surfaces would help me learn more about light and…
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Rolloff Trees: #2
This is the second attempt at the photo Rick sent. I knew I wanted to be careful about getting too dark too quickly, I was going to have to plan on a number of glazes for this to work. As I glazed, I realized that having used non- staining pigment (Bloodstone Genuine) on the second…
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Rolloff Trees: #1
My friend Rick asked me to paint a picture for his parents anniversary. The photo he sent was really interesting because of the depth of textures, the snarled trunks and the feathery leaves and sharp dried palm leaves. I wanted to try to communicate those textures, and the light coming from almost behind the leaning…
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Study – Rocks & Trees: #1
I think I learned more tonight doing these little studies than I have in a long time. First, I wanted to test blooms. I found that I need the pigment to be much more dry than I previously thought to get the effect Im after with blooms. I want the pigment to lift from the…
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Bonsai: #3
This one turned out more of an illustration than a painting – maybe somewhere in between? I wanted to try the Bonsai painting in a landscape orientation, and I think it worked ok. I dont like the trees in the midground, I wanted them to be more washed out than they are, but I ended…
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Bonsai: #2
I decided to try this painting again, hoping the cat wouldnt walk on it this time. I tried a lot of wet in wet, hoping to get some dynamic movement from the pigment settling and blending in the water. I like how it came out for the most part. If anything this is a really…
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Walborn: #1
I was going stir crazy with a bit of cabin fever, so I decided to go out and do some plein air painting today. It was cold, but not all that bad. I drove around for a while wanting to stop and ask permission to paint someones barn, but I couldnt work up the gumption,…
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Bonsai: #1
I admit, I pretty much gave up on this when the cat walked across it. But there are a number of things I like here: 1) I like the way the wash wandered. I finally opened up a bit and decided to let the water move the pigment in a number of places. Maybe I…
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The Ravine: #2
Hork! Hnnnnnnorrrrrgchhh! Bleargh. Wow, this didnt work at all. I started by really trying to focus on creating planes in the image to capture light coming from different angles. I managed to define those planes – and then some. My sketch was very angular because I wanted to set a scaffold for my painting so…
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The Ravine: #1
When I was a kid, I spent countless days with my Brothers and Sister playing in a ravine down in the woods. Some of my favorite times as a kid were spent down there trying to catch snakes in a sock, or building dams to try to make a swimming pool (which never worked). I…
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Rachel Flowers: #1
Rachel wanted me to paint her a picture of purple wildflowers. She sent me a bunch of photos from the Internet with pictures she liked, and we discussed what she liked about them. Then, I made a few very quick sketches of this in my sketchbook before painting. From that initial discussion I gathered that…
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Big Sky: #1
I wanted to do two things here: 1) Paint a huge amount of sky. 2) Try out some white pigment. Until now I have steered clear of white pigment because I have heard it can become a crutch, and because I have heard it can counteract the highlights of the paper. I really enjoyed using it,…