Category: Year 2
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Ravenna Road: #2
Tonight, I painted and failed oh so miserably on a self portrait. I would show you, just for laughs… but its already put away. Trust me – its awful. After bombing on it, I decided to try to paint the barn I found on Ravenna Road once more. I wrote about my first attempt here.…
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Stippled Tree: #1
Today, instead of painting, I sat down and tapped dots on a piece of paper for five hours. I started by wondering if I reduced a cloud to spheres, and then shaded them if it would help me to paint them better. But then I got carried away with the stippling, and five hours later,…
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Ravenna Road: #1
Rachel, my wife, is a social worker at Aultman Hospitals cancer center here in Canton, Ohio. She was recently exposed to two people who have the Corona Virus at work, so she was mandated to self-quarantine for 14 days in our bedroom. She toughed it out, and thankfully did not show any symptoms. Now, Im…
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Master Study: Eyvind Earle
I have had this draft of a master study saved for a long time now, and tonight I decided I would finally get around to writing it out. I have wanted to do a series of Master Studies for a long time, so I decided to start with an artist that I think is under-appreciated.…
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Cloud Practice
I decided that the clouds needed shine hard edges, because they were almost entirely soft edged. So, I went in with some more shadow work, not sure if it was a good idea or a bad idea… let me know what you think. I watched a video Liron Yankosky posted about Sergei Temerev, yet another…
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Just Keep Swimming
Im feeling fairly pessimistic about my ability to paint these days. I know, its a journey… if it were easy everyone would do it… you have come so far so fast… you are so much better than my friends cousins dogs roommates nephew… other platitudes. Save it. My mind keeps saying youre not good enough.…
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Backrun Exercises
I wanted to explore some exercises to learn more about how I might be able to control and use backruns. What is a Backrun? Call them what you want: blooms, blossoms, backruns, cauliflowers, it doesnt matter, we are all talking about the same thing. (You could argue that a back run is different. Fine. Be…
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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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Waterfall at Blackhand Gorge: #1
I took Norah, and Winnie out to Blackhand Gorge last weekend because I couldnt work in the bathroom (the tile was setting.) I told them about the history of the Gorge, as I got it from Wikipedia. Before Europeans came to Ohio, there was a system of cliff ridges near the Licking River in Ohio…
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Close Enough
Today, I got the bathroom close enough to finished to end my self-inflicted hiatus from painting and fishing. Tomorrow, Im gonna paint something… I have no idea what it will be, but Im going to paint. Heres the final: I would go into a big description of what I did, but honestly Im so sick…
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The Never-Ending Bathroom Remodel
I am so sick of working in our bathroom. Ive been working in there three nights/week and the weekends for the past three or four weeks, Ive lost count. But, rather than complain, I should be thankful that Im able to do this work on my own. If I would have hired this out, Im…
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DIY Plein Air Easel
So, I finished my Plein Air easel today. I am proud of it, so I figured Id share it here – I think the idea of using a bar is pretty inventive, and I think its going to be useful when its warm enough for me to get outside. Inspiration I should start by saying…
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Whered you go?
I know, the four people who check this thing wasnt to know why I havent posted a painting in a while. Well, a few weeks ago, our bathroom started raining into the basement whenever someone took a shower, so I had to rip it down to the studs. Working full time, and remodeling in the…
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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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Old Oak Tree: #1
My goal tonight was to try a composition I havent tried before. I have been looking through paintings by Eyvind Earle, and saw several compositions of his that struck me as interesting. I realized that they all were very much singular in their scope. Even his most complex compositions are still all about one thing.…
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Self Portrait: #2
I spent sine time working on sketching the self portrait photo to learn more about my own face. So… yeah. Thats about how that went. Halfway through drawing, I decided that I had the perspective wrong. Rather than start over, apparently I just decided to change angles, and now my face is all deformed. This…
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Self Portrait: #1
I love the work of Eudes Correia. Check him out if you dont know about him. The way he manages to capture expression and sincerity in his subjects is just mesmerizing. His portraits are punchy and full of gesture, but even with all the busy colors and expressive brush work, he never seems to take…