Oil painting inside when its nice out is tough !!

I got up early to put some time into this painting, although I would like to work on it all day, I find it too difficult to paint inside when its nice out, so after five hours I think I’m ready for some mountain biking. Besides the little faces fingers and feet are starting to irk me !!

Pachi's critique

Pachi .....an astute art critic and dear friend of mine stopped by this weekend to critique my painting, She said it  was coming out just fine but thought there was something missing that she just couldn’t put her paw on. 

She suggested to balance the composition and to make it more interesting, that “adding a poodle would certainly do the trick ! ”......I told her that I would have to think about it.

Bouguereau's Charity, Oil Painting Study

This started out as a loose sketch for drawing practice and I was going to let it go at that and move on but I miss painting so much I decided to go ahead and start blocking in the colors and refining the drawing a little with paint.

first step in oil painting

One step backward......this is the starting picture I forgot to post the other day. I basically started by toning the canvas with burnt umber then began pulling out the lights with a rag. Paper towel work best for the highlights because they lift out more paint. For lifting out the fine details I use all kinds of erasers . I do my blending with round and flat badger brushes.

2000 Jeep, cracked block

Here's a few pictures of me messing around with my Jeep !!

Still life shadow box

To give more depth to my still life paintings, I’ve made a simple still life shadow box.

Using a 24"x 15" cardboard box, I spray painted the inside with a medium flat gray primer. The clamp on light can be moved around to create all sorts of interesting cast shadows which I believe give a painting its depth.

Oil paintings from vacation pictures, Italy

I took a ton of pictures while on vacation it Italy with the good intention of producing some oil paintings from them, so while my other painting dries I thought it would be a good idea to get a move on in that direction.


I started this painting in a loose impressionist manner and I may break the brush strokes up even more but I think I’ll wait till it dries before I make my decision.

rendering with light, shadow and color

I started a new painting this morning. After getting the basic idea for this painting, I worked out the composition with some small thumbnail sketches.This made it easier for me to sketch it out on the 16"x 20" canvas.

I’ve been reading Dan McCaw’s book this week “A Proven Strategy for Creating Great Art”. Dan’s method for rendering with light, shadow and color have been very helpful. I’m sure I will look at the development of my future paintings with his advice in mind.

Natural directional lines

In this painting I’m trying to emphasized the natural directional lines of the photo, along with the strong contrast between dark and light colors to draw the viewers eye into the canvas.

Netherlands series of oil paintings

I forgot to mention that this series of paintings will be from photographs my sister- in-law took while on a business trip in the Netherlands. ( Thanks Jenny, great camera work ! )

I started this painting incorporating the same techniques as the last.

loose charcoal sketch directly onto the canvas

I’ve been wasting a lot of time painting directly onto the canvas while continually correcting drawing errors with paint. This just go for it attitude has not been a very productive way for me to work at this point in time.


For the next series of paintings I’m going to do a loose charcoal sketch directly onto the canvas, then paint right over it. I figure with the drawing already worked out on the canvas, I won’t have to fuss with proportions. Then I can just dive right into the painting process.

Pink flowers, oil painting in progress

Here I am three session into a still life assignment for class.

1942 Indian Motorcycle Oil Painting in Progress

Tango Oil Painting, in Progress

This is part two in my Tango Series. I’m still working on it, but I thought I’d throw it out there for the heck of it.

The color palette for this series goes with my new furniture so I may frame them and hang them in my living room. Well see.

Golden Palette of colors, no tube greens here.

This weeks class assignment was to do a landscape study from a photograph.

I used a calendar picture of a hiking trail. To liven up all that green I added the woman from another reference picture.

I mixed all the greens from the Golden Palette of colors, no tube greens here.

I wasn’t interested in rendering an exact copy of the photo, I liked the color and composition of it but I wanted to put my own twist on it. Thick and sloppy palette knife paint in the foreground, with thin washes of Liquin diluted paint added in to get a water color affect.

After it dries I’m going to try to get more detail in the woman’s face.

     

Art Class Portrait Study

We were fortunate to have a student in class bring in her brother-in-law ( Ray ) to model for the class. One long 2 hour pose, he was great...didn’t move an inch..... best model I ever had ! Lol ! Unfortunately I forgot my camera and this was all I could get down in 2 hours.

VOGUE OIL PAINTING SERIES

Vogue Series 8

I’ve been working on this painting for a few hours now trying to capture the gesture, I’ll let it dry now and move on to something else. I don’t want to over work it too soon.

Oil Painting Notes, Painting the Negative Space

VOGUE SERIES 8

I started Vogue Model number 8 tonight, again no detail at the early stage just blocking in color with big hogs hair brushes.

I’d like to mention some good advice a friend of mine gave me when I was having difficulty in class capturing the likeness of an assignment.

She said to "try painting the negative space" (Thanks Pat ! )

This little bit of advice has turned out to be a big help.

The negative space is that empty space between the arms , legs ,contours in fabric, the space between the figure and the end of the canvas ect.

When you stop to look there’s negative space all over and it’s a great guild to use in keeping your drawing on track.

Now that I’m mindful about sizing up the negative space, I wonder how I ever got through a painting or drawing without using it.

Painting the light, in oil paint

Vogue Series 5


I focused on painting the strong sun light on her hair and the shadows on her face hidden deep inside all the hair.

I still haven’t touched the hand yet, but I’ll try to work the light into that as well.

Time flies when your painting

Vogue Series 6

While working on this one I started to get the feeling that it was late, but I didn’t think it was after midnight !

Time flies when your painting ....now I got to clean up and get my 4 and half hours sleep.