Trying to get back into the habit...

...of taking a sketchbook out with me.  Here are some sketches I did a week or so ago.  I'm going to try and do a painting of the hotdog stand from downtown.  Right now I'm working on the layout of the painting and hope to have it drawn on watercolor paper today.  Then time to a draft 1 painting.

Downtown Hotdog Stand

Doctor Office Waiting Room

Aussie Outback Shed - Take 2

Here is my second time working on this subject.  I'm posting four steps along the way.  Again mixed feelings on the final outcome but I do like it better than "Take 1" (see previous post).  I feel like I captured the shadows on the shed better this time and again I like the inside of the shed.  Not too thrilled about my tree and I have mixed feelings about the foreground objects (wheel, barrel, ?) - I tried to match the colors to the actual photo but in a painting they don't pop.  All in all a good learning process and this painting is my current style...

The Undercoat

Adding in darker  values...

Even darker values inside the shed...

Final Version!

On My Own...Aussie Outback Shed

Working on a painting of my own of a shed I photographed when traveling in the Australia Outback a few years ago.  First the photo, then a value study/color study plan in my sketchbook, and then a painting.  I call it "Take 1" because I'm painting it again.  I hated it when I first finished it.  But when I looked at it later, I didn't hate it so much.  I even found parts I liked such as the inside of the shed.  I really feel like I captured depth here.  The rest is okay but the part I like the least is my attempt at capturing the shadows on the shed.  Mine is too splotchy...I want to paint the shadows softer.  So today I'm working on "Take 2" and probably after that a "Take 3"...

Aussie Shed - Take 1

Getting Back into the Swing of Things...

Took a class from Ron Stocke right after school was out.  I love his impressionistic style and while it was a challenge to mimic, I'm pleased with what I produced.  But, how do I integrate this into my own style?  What is my style?  I'm a great mimicker... if you spend time looking at this blog, you will see my style varies according to the artist I take a class from or the book I study from.  The only style that seems to be truly my own is my pen and ink watercolors.  My challenge is to just get over myself and to paint, paint, paint in order to let my style come through!

Round 2: Time for this Dry Spell to End...

...actually, I just haven't been posting.  I took another intermediate watercolor class with Joyce Anderson this past winter and am signed up for her Spring Class.  Also took a three day workshop with Deanne Lemley a few weeks ago and came away extremely challenged.  Now I just want to start focusing back on journaling so I'm getting ready to take another Jane Lafazio class through Joggles.com

Heading to Arizona next week for Spring Break and hope to find some fun (hopefully cactus) flowers to sketch and paint!!!!

Time for this Dry Spell to End!!!!!

Been dry for a month and a half...lost interest in the Laure Ferlita class...Thought I would get back into the swing of things over Winter Break but foot surgery and crutches kept me from hobbling out to my outdoor studio in the back of the yard.  I know...not an excuse...I've just been in a rut.  Time to get out this rut!

Laure Ferlita's Artful Journaling - Week 2 Lesson 4: Combining Design Elements

This week's assignment..., "...let's slow down a bit and make sure we're really getting the concepts of Positive Space, Negative Space and Values as well as remembering to "design" our pages to incorporate titles and/or word art, borders, and backgrounds.

I tried this with a bowl of curry chicken...it's okay...I do question my values. Also not so sure about purple for the background color.  Should I have used green since it's the complement of red?

Original Photo

Laure Ferlita's Artful Journaling - Week 2 Lesson 3: Value Study

This lesson was to focus on a value study.  Create a monotone picture first, then apply what I learned about value to the color picture.  I chose a scene of shored up long boats on the island of Koh Phi Phi in southern Thailand.  The original photo itself isn't that great, but it did lend itself to value study.  My one piece of self-criticism is I think I may have gone too dark on the leaves of the tree.

Original Photograph

Laure Ferlita's Artful Journaling - Week 1 Lesson 2: Negative Space

Paint the negative space around an image using our signature color (mine is perylene red)...  I really wanted to do the Golden Buddha from the Golden Buddhist Temple in Bangkok but didn't like the idea of the Buddha being white with shades of red to give it shape, so I decided to paint a background that was a mixture of quinacridone gold, quin. deep gold, raw sienna, and Holbein antique gold (metallic).  For texture I placed a crumpled up piece of plastic wrap on this and let it dry.  I love the background!  The golden Buddha in my original photograph is covered in thousands of small squares of gold sheets that people buy and rub onto the Buddha when they visit the temple.  The picture below doesn't capture the metallic gold sheen of many of the sections.  It was a perfect background color for the Buddha.

Original Photo

Another online class...

I'm taking another on-line art class, "Artful Journaling:  Explorations" with Laure Ferlita.  We are to pick a theme and a signature color.  My theme is "Travel Memories" and my signature color is perylene red.  This color is suppose to be on each of our pages.  I chose travel memories because I have all these great photos from previous travels and would love to reminisce while creating art in a journal.

This week's challenge was to draw small and leave a lot of white space.  I was inspired to do this with a close-up photo of dragon statue I took in Thailand in 2004.  It's not a black and white photo, and I was thrilled to see a small patch of red on one of the eyes!  I decided to make this assignment my journal cover page.  My only critique is the lower half of the dragon face isn't as light as it is in the original picture, but I think it still works.

My Dragonfly page...

...while researching dragonflies in Washington State I discovered the dragonfly I was sketching was our state insect, the "Green Darner Dragonfly" and it's one of the largest and fastest-flying dragonflies. It had a gorgeous emerald green body!

Here's my final page...

Work in Progress...

This weeks theme for Jane's class is to get inspired by something from nature and to draw and paint it from many different perspectives.  A student in my science class brought me a dead and dried out dragonfly and this is my inspiration.  I also plan to use a dissecting scope to look at it close up and to draw images inspired by what I see.  Right now I've just drawn the dragonfly and decided to stop because I'm afraid I will get too carried away with detail in the wings.  I can do a wing close-up (it's like stained glass!) from my dissecting scope view.  We will see where this goes...

First page for Jane LaFazio's online "Sketching & Watercolor in a Mixed Media Journal" class...

This week's theme is "Everyday Objects" and when I saw my cat, Ollie, nosing around in his toy basket, I found my inspiration...

September Work - More practice from the "Ready To Paint Series"

More practice work from the "Ready To Paint Series - Watercolour Landscapes" by Terry Harrison.

These are a good practice for learning techniques.

Where has the time gone?

Can't believe I haven't posted since August!  School started 8/23 and it has consumed me.  Though I've done some watercolor painting exercises from a "Ready to Paint" book (I post copies later...) and my weekly intermediate watercolor class with Joyce Anderson just started back up two weeks ago.  Plus, I've signed up for another on-line class with Jane Lafazio through Joggles.com - "Sketching & Watercolor In A Mixed Media Journal"

I'm really looking forward to the online interacting with fellow students.  Images will soon follow this post!

I Love My Backyard!

Day 2 in Don Gray's Class...

...this was a class where we brought subject matter we were interested in pursuing.  After some demonstrations by Don, we then went to work and he would walk around and advise.  I decided to work on a painting of a farm building I took a photograph of on Hwy 125 just north of Walla Walla on the way to Prescott.  I didn't like the background in the picture (or the color of the gray corrugated siding against the blue sky) say I made some additions and changes in color to my painting.  I have a photo taken by my co-worker"s (Yvon Barber) son, Jason, of the Blue Mountains with wheat fields in the foreground, so I used that image for my painting's background.  Below are the photos that inspired the painting followed by the painting.  There's a tiny bit of work left for me to do on the painting and I will probably crop it some when I mat it.  Other than my clouds (a paint and learn process), I'm pleased with my day's work!

The farm building photo...

Jason Barber's photo of wheat fields and the Blue Mountains...

The inspired painting...

Revision of the Sycamore done in the studio...

...while taking a class from Don Gray at the Pendleton Center for the Arts.  I decided to go dark to contrast with the sunlit background foliage.  Maybe I will do another where I do the tree lighter with a darker foliage background.

 

Every Day Objects...

...August's Sketchbook Challenge.  I liked what I saw people posting on FLICKR so I thought I'd go for it.

Getting out on my own...

...to do Plein Air.  I went to a nearby park and painted one of the sycamores that surrounds the gazebo there.  I love the patterns on their trunks.  This is okay.  Maybe it will be one I focus on painting in the studio when I take a class with Don Gray at the Pendleton Center for the Arts this weekend.