Working on This Weekend- 7/10/16

This is the painting I spent the most time on this weekend, and it's finally cooperating. I had a lot of doubts about whether or not I could make the sand look good, and the first few tries didn't go so well. Sand hasn't been easy for me in other paintings, it has a funny texture and more colors than it should. So to try to trick myself into finishing this painting I decided to do the background first, and save the flowers for last. That seems to have worked, now it's close to done, just needs another layer or two, to detail the sand and make the flowers pop.

White Beach Flowers, oil on panel, 5x7 inches, unfinished.

This painting is coming along smoothly, it's a Celestial flower with a tiny spider. These flowers are fragile and only last for a few hours, and the spider hanging out was a lucky find. Once I got close to the flower to start taking pictures the spider put his legs up like he was trying to scare me off. I'm happy with how deep the background looks, and how the bright grasses stand out. One thing left to fix is that the values of the lights and darks are too far apart on the flower head. That makes the light looks like harsh afternoon sunlight, not the last evening light it actually was. So I'll probably try a faint blue glaze all over it, to even out the values and match the color a little better.

Celestial and Spider, oil on panel, 5x7 inches, unfinished.

Ducks! This is a silly drawing I've been slowly working on for a while. Duckies are surprisingly easy to draw.

Ducks! sketch and White Beach Flowers, both in progress.

My latest little hobby has been making wire wrapped rings. Here's one made with 20 and 26 gauge coated copper wire, and twisted strands of electrical wire in the middle, it's about a size 6. These will be for sale on my Etsy store soon.

Copper wire wrapped ring.

Working on This Weekend- 5/17/15

I finished a few little things this week, that's always fun. All three of them are now available in my Etsy store.

Winter Thistle, mixed media drawing on paper, 5x7 inches, finished.

I've been trying to finish up some of the many little drawings that I have floating around, and I started this one quite a while ago. I started the drawing by transferring the pencil outlines, tracing them with pen, and then scrubbing in shading with charcoal. Tracing with pen works nicely, because it doesn't smear or disappear when the charcoal is added over it. After that I refined the dark areas with more pen work, sharp pencils and charcoal, and added in the white highlights with white acrylic paint. 

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

This is another picture I gave up on and put away before finishing. But I tried again, and now I think it looks finished. The sand has shape and interest to it, and the shadows on the shells make sense now. 

Dam Sunset, oil on panel, 5x7 inches, finished.

I love the colors in this one, and after a few tries the grasses look good too.

AZ Aspen, oil on canvas panel, 9x12 inches, unfinished.

Still working on this one, I tried another color on the fence, and this time it looks better. The fence and sidewalk at the bottom still need a little more work, but it's close to done.