Working on This Weekend- 5/10/15

 I finished a few things this weekend, trying to clean up a bit so I can start new pictures.

Dry Wash, charcoal drawing on paper, 10x14 inches, finished.

This drawing came from a photo my mom took in the desert a few years ago, of the patterns in a dry creek bed after a rain. It's charcoal on soft paper, with highlights in white pastel and white acrylic paint.

Beach Shells, oil on panel, 5x7 in, finished.

 I started this little painting about a year ago, and then didn't like how it turned out. But I reconsidered abandoning it and worked on the background a little more. Now it's more finished looking, the sand is interesting to look at and has a sense of distance and shape.

Dam on West, oil on canvas panel, 5x7 in, maybe finished.

 This is a little sunset painting I started a few months ago and then didn't know how to finish. I added detail to the grasses in front and worked on the road today, and maybe it might be done now.

AZ Aspen, oil on panel, 9x12 in, unfinished.

 Still tinkering with this one, the clouds were easy, but the tree and the fence in the front have been trickier. And for some reason the colors are hard to photograph, they come out looking strange no matter the settings. 

Winter Deer Skull, oil on panel, 16x20 in, unfinished.

Working on the grasses in the background of this painting now, but there's still a lot to do, just because of the size.

Working on This Weekend-12/21/2014

Mainly worked on two paintings this weekend, Three Pink Roses and the Winter Deer Skull.

Winter Deer Skull, oil paint on panel, 16x20 inches, unfinished.

 I went back to the shadow areas of the skull and
 added a light blue layer, with some texture. Then I redrew the fence wires and the cracks in the skull with Raw Umber, too.

I originally wanted to do only glazes of pure colors on this painting, but that isn't giving me the results I want, so today I tried working wet in wet on the background grasses. It worked really well, but it will be tedious to get all the background area covered. Galkyd tends to get sticky and messy very quickly, within an hour, so that means I can only cover small areas at a time, with small batches of mixed colors.

Three Pink Roses, oil paint on panel, 8x10 inches, unfinished.
 Mostly got the background out of the way here, now I can work on the fun part, the flowers! I swear painting backgrounds is like eating your veggies before the good parts of dinner. The first layer had already been done on the background, so this layer was easier to apply and adjust. I made three shades of grey, using a dark Torrit Grey from a few years ago, plus pure white and the grey for the darks; and added color all over, working from lightest to darkest with the same little filbert brush, and then blended it all with a soft brush. After the blending I cleaned up the stems and flowers with a clean brush dipped in mineral spirits.

Working on This Weekend-Thanksgiving 2014

  A painting that I started a few months ago and then forgot about got most of my attention this weekend. This is the first layer, on top of a pencil drawing. The photo is of roses at the San Antonio Botanical Garden, in front of the Auld House, a beautiful historic Texas farmhouse that was donated and relocated to the gardens. I think it already looks pretty great, should only take a few more layers to get right.

Three Pink Roses, 8x10, oil on panel, unfinished.

Three Pink Roses, 8x10, oil on panel, unfinished.

Color Sketch for Winter Deer Skull, 5x7, finished.

This was a little color sketch I  did to check the colors I picked out for the big winter deer skull painting.

Stormy Clouds, 5x7, oil on canvas panel, unfinished.

A little landscape I've had in mind for a while, storm clouds from a few weeks ago. I love the colors of storm clouds, this is my first try at painting them. This will need at least one more layer, once it's dry in a few days.

Working on This Weekend-11/23/14

I was stuck working on some little pencil drawing for the last week, because it was too cold outside to spray them with fixative. But Sunday was nice and warm, so I was able to fix them and work on the next layers.

Hall House Deer Skull, pencil drawing with white acrylic highlights,  5x7 on bristol paper, finished.

This drawing is mostly pencil, with a little white acrylic paint to bring out the highlights, and that white paint made a huge difference, the drawing looked pretty flat before the whites were brightened.  

Thistle Seed, pen and charcoal, 5x7 on bristol paper, unfinished. 

 I did the underdrawing for this with copic pen, so the sharp spines wouldn't be blurred by blending the charcoal. Making this look 3D will be my goal, because even the photo looks pretty flat.

Torrit Grey Lady, oil painting, 11x14 on a canvas panel, unfinished.

I've been wanting to paint a figure for awhile now, so I picked a vintage erotica picture to work from. These pictures are old enough that the copyrights have expired, and there are tons that would make beautiful paintings. Also I prefer these "real" figures over the oddly photoshopped anatomy you see in most modern photos. She needs a good name too, but there's time to find the right one.

Deer Skull, oil painting on Gessobord, 16x20, unfinished.  

This is the big picture I'm working on now, and it's slowly progressing. I wasted some time drawing in grass in the background and then losing the drawing when I tried painting over it, but I was trying to figure out how to deal with the grass and I think I'm closer now.  With a mid-tone background I can draw in the light colored stems of grass and add in the darks around that.

Working on This Weekend-11/2/2014

The main project I have going now is a big painting of a deer skull hanging on a fence. The light was great that day, sharp and wintry, the shadows on the skull were bright blue and the grasses were grey and gold.

Deer Skull, 16x20, preliminary drawing for a painting. 

Laying out the drawing and doing the transfer to the painting board was tedious, but it's finally done. I also decided to leave out the fence post and the tag on the right antler.

Deer Skull testing color schemes for a painting. 

Picking the colors is the next part, I want to do glazes of pure color over most parts of the painting. Glazes will glow and be intense, but that means all the colors have to be right from the beginning. First I tried Pthalo Blue, Indian Red, Yellow Ochre, Titanium White, and Vandyke Brown (the bigger sheet on the left). But the problem with Vandyke Brown is that it tends to look dead and gross when it mixes with white or yellow, and is hard to get dark enough because it's so transparent. So I tried again with Raw Umber, which is about the same color as Vandyke Brown, but plays nicely with other colors and is nice and dark. And I switched the Indian Red for Permanent Rose, because that makes a nice pretty purple with the blue and it will work on the parts of the shadows that look pink too. Currently I'm thinking Pthalo Blue, Permanent Rose, Raw Umber, Yellow Ochre and Titanium White will be the way to go.

Hall House Deer Skull, pencil on Bristol paper, 5x7, unfinished.

I also have a few small pencil and pen drawings floating around. This is another whitetail deer skull, from the tree in the backyard at my grandma's house.

Thistle, pencil on Bristol paper, 5x7.
Another small drawing, of a thistle seed pod in the winter. I haven't decided whether to use copic pen or pencil yet, maybe both. 

Beach Shells,  oil on Gessoboard,  5x7, unfinished.

Still working on the little sea shell picture, mostly frustrated with it though. I haven't figured out how to get the sand to look right, and the orange shell is a mess. Some areas are too dark and opaque, it looks blotchy, and I think I might need to repaint most of it to fix it. I used Neo Megilp on Gessoboard and ran into an issue with previous layers wiping off when I tried to scrub in the next color. Maybe sealing the layers with Galkyd Lite might be the way to go. Gamblin used to say not to mix their mediums, but now they say everything can be used together, so maybe I'll ask what they think before I try that.

AZ Blue Sky, 5x7, oil on a canvas panel, probably finished.

A little painting from a picture my mom took somewhere out near Big Lake, Arizona. I keep messing with it, but it's probably done now.

Working on This Weekend-9/8/2013

Spent most of the weekend varnishing completed paintings and getting ready for a show. I did spend Sunday morning painting though, and got one small painting finished and another one started.

Port Aransas Dunes, 5x7 oil painting, finished.