Painting #195 - Aug 7 - another late day

Like I said, story of my life, I probably could have had this done sooner, but got caught up watching a cute movie, so, I had it about two-thirds done and just finished it up, I don't know if these are morning glories or if they are something else, they appeared on my fence (they seem to be trying to take over, my blue morning glories didn't do as well this year, but these ones, look great, of course they want to cover the climbing rose bush, but maybe I'll try to figure out where else to put them, right now, they look good to me. The sun was shining brightly, I think I captured that, so on with this.

I sketched them in with watercolor (the flowers), and aimed the centers so I knew what was where, then I floated in the medium green, I did work on the flowers a bit then I started the negative painting in the leaf area. As I started to figure out some of the shapes, I started to fine tune them and make them buds or leaves or what ever they looked like, now when I'm painting negative, I don't follow the photo very closely, I just let the under-painting tell me where to put the darker shapes, this is the fun part for me, I love painting the negative, the stuff just appears, I forgot to mention that this is the opaque watercolors on the Ampersand Claybord. Finally, I go in on the flowers with white and soften the shadow shapes and put more blue in where the shadows don't show well, then, when those were done, I went into the bright yellow-green (I did add some white so it was lighter), and that helped to bring those buds into focus, I like this little painting and I hope you do too.

Painting #194 - Aug 6 - late again

I think being late is the story of my life, I would like to do better about getting these paintings done, I started early, then, as per, things changed and it got put on the shelf for a few hours, but, I did get this one done, all be it later than I wanted, oh well.

I really enjoyed those sheep I painted a few months ago, so, when I ran across this sheep photo, I decided to give it another try, I did get into it, once I got started, it's the getting started that is tough for me lately (well, most of the time), I can lay it all out, get the plan going, and even have it started, but for some reason that I can't fathom, I drag my butt betting at it again.

I didn't sketch these either, and I did have to make some adjustments, but the claybord is very forgiving, you can wipe it back almost to white. I laid in the shapes of the sheep and then painted the background around them, I did kind of sketch with the paint brush, so then I did my usual, I started with the farthest (sky), and then the far ground and trees and then the middle trees, and the grasses moving up to the sheep, then I just randomly moved around to finish up the sheep until it looked as close as I could get it, I wasn't going to put the fence in, but, I had trouble, some of the sheep were hidden behind it and I couldn't make it look right, so I put it in, it looks ok, I like this little painting and I hope you do too.

Painting #193 - Aug 5 - would have liked to have gotten more done

Well, don't we always think we should get more done? Well, that's been the way of my life, I always think I could get more done than I manage, that's part of the reason I'm doing this blog, I don't know what happens to the day if I'm left to my own devices. I mean that it takes me most of the morning just to get moving, and once it's past noon, the day just evaporates. I wanted to get some mats cut, and some of these paintings matted, I'm getting quite a bunch that need it. I'll use any excuse I can, my grandsons were here today, I had to run the checkbook over to my husband, I am struggling with the internet connection (had to deal with that again today), so you see, I can just find all kinds of excuses, that's why I put this blog into action, I need to paint everyday, and I do believe that I'm getting better, today's painting is from some pictures I took at the Coldwater Waterworks park a few years ago, I came across it this afternoon when I was scoping out pictures to paint. I know, it's only 4" x 4", but, I think this painting is just the right size, in the photo, the light was so bright that you can't see much detail in the feathers, so, I don't believe it would have been such a successful painting if it had been larger, but I do believe that it works, and it didn't take all that long either, and that is the other thing I'm trying to do, get much faster at this painting thing, of course, those larger paintings will take longer to paint.

I did sketch this one a bit, just a simple line where the swan is, then I jumped in with the shadows to find the swan's neck and head, then, I painted the lighter blue green water and finally they dark water, I fine tuned the swan by putting the wing shadows and the shadow close to the water in, I softened the edges and Ta Da! I like this little painting and I hope you like it too.

Painting #192 - Aug 4 - another small painting today

It was class day today, I specifically chose this small one because of that, I have been trying to keep my painting less complicated so I can help the girls (no guys, not because I wouldn't, they don't). I also forgot to take my bag with my reference material in it so, I chose to paint the butterfly that my friend Edith, had laying on her table, she found it laying in her yard, what a beauty, I have seen several of these lately, but I just didn't have an opportunity to get a close look, well, when it's laying perfectly still, you can, I laid it right in front of me, I had to move it back several times, because, it is so light, it moved off the piece of paper it was laying on just by breathing, of course I was probably breathing too hard, who knows, lol.

So, now you know why the butterfly, I did paint one once before, but that one was from a photo, this was really interesting, almost like biology, but not quite. I am certain it's a swallowtail, but unsure of the actual name of this beauty. I decided on the violet/mauve background because of the yellow, the purple is it's compliment. I really picked this one apart, I tried to make it as accurate as possible, of course, I didn't have the same velvety texture, but, this is as close as I could get, I like this little painting, and I hope you do too.

Painting #191 - Aug 3 - the days need to be 3 or 4 hours longer

I just can't get everything done in 24 hours, sleep, clean, eat, paint, visit family, boy, the last few weeks I've been running on short sleep again, the paintings are getting done, but I'm staying up way too long, hope this settles down soon. My dear friend Susan and I decided to go to Life Drawing in Battle Creek tonight, I did paint early, but not early enough to get the painting done, so, I came home at 10:00 and finished it (well, after I ate a bit salad and mac and cheese, had to re-fuel, I'm going to make this rather short.

I noticed in the painting that the cup seems misshapen, well, it's not, there is a light edge up there that doesn't show up very well, I may have to do something a bit darker behind to let that show up, right now, I'm just going to do the blog and get to bed.

I decided to paint this painting with coffee and beans, I put it on 12" x 12" watercolor canvase, but I'm thinking it might have been better on a smaller size, I don't have time to mess with it now so I'm letting it stand. I do like it, it just seems like a lot of cloth and not enough cup and stuff, maybe I'll add something else in the background behind the cup so the cup rim stands out, we'll see, right now it's time for me to get some sleep, I can evaluate it much better in the morning, if I change it, I'll re-post another picture of this to let you see what transpired, for now, I like this painting and I hope you do too.

Painting #190 - it's another two for

I decided to paint this same rose on two different surfaces, the first one is painted on the Aquabord, with the opaque watercolors, the second one is painted on watercolor paper (Arches 260, which is slightly heaver than 140#, its the size of the paper, mural), I haven't painted on regular watercolor paper in a while and I thought I would like to see what the difference is. My first impression is that the watercolor paper has more definition, well, I did make the colors stronger on the watercolor paper, technically that was the first one that I finished, but my brain put the number 2 on the watercolor paper and the number 1 on the aquabord, it really doesn't matter, they both have some lovely qualities, I like the one with the watercolor paper a bit better, but that's probably because I was more aggressive with the darker washes, oh well, they both look nice to me.

An open rose is probably the most difficult rose to paint, so many petals, and it's really hard to keep track of them, you will note that these two have similarities but they are not exact, of course that's because I'm human and I can't make that rose exactly like the first one, I started these two paintings in class, and of course I didn't get either one done, but it really wasn't too long to finish them.

I started out with the centers, then I went in with some lavender and added some cream (acually a yellow with white added to it), and let them mingle together, for the petals on the shadow side (the top half), then I changed up the color for the other shadows, to a more golden color, and added some violet to it to gray it down. I then added the hot pink on the edges and some of the petals had spots too, so it is a very unusual rose, if you ask me, but it really does look like the rose I took the photo of, the background is a very dark green, I did let some of the information show on the right side, keeping the left side less (it really was like that in the photo too, I know, I am a slave to the photo), well, that pretty much sums it up, I like these little paintings and I hope you do too.

Painting #189 - Aug 1 - late again

So, here I go again, late, tried about 3 times to get at the painting, then went swimming with my sister, oops, fixed supper, and didn't get at it until 10:30, so here it is 12:45, so I guess that means I have 2-1/4 hours into this painting, well, that would be better if it wasn't so late, so, this will be a short summation.

I bought these wonderful cherries yesterday at the grocery, thinking all the while I was drooling over them, that maybe I'd paint them, so, at 10:30, I set this up and took some photos and Ta Da, it's a painting, I didn't draw them this time either, I just jumped in with yellow and painted yellow over the whole cherry shape, then I took a gray color (mixed), and painted the shape of the crystal dish, then a bit darker and more purple gray for the cloth, then I went in with the red and kept working up the cherries until I had them the way I wanted, I didn't spend much time on the cloth this time, hope it doesn't show, but, I think it looks alright. This is painted on the Ampersand Aquabord, and probably one of the reasons that is didn't take too long, it's 5" x 7". I like this little painting and I hope you do too.