Happy Easter!!

The Lemke Chicken Coupe

 

 opaque watercolor on toned paper  5" x 7"

I am visiting family here in Sonora, CA.  The weather was beautiful today yet very quickly alternating between cloudy and sunlit.  It started raining as soon as I was ready to paint!  I went inside and painted looking out of the window.  This is watercolor with some white gouauche here and there.  I painted this right in the sketchbook which has beautiful warm toned paper.

Work in progress...

I started this painting a while back.  It still needs some work but since I enjoy seeing other artists works in progress - I thought I'd share.  It is oil on lined mounted on board.

The proceeds from this painting will go to aid these Dalit people in India through the Dalit Freedom Network.

Digital Background paintings from Dreamworks Sinbad

These were a blast to paint - the layouts were really beautiful.  I remember Max Boas did some beautiful layout work.

Plein air sketch - Bette Davis Park

I wasn't able to paint last weekend - here is an older sketch I did close to Disney Studios...  

8"x10" oil on canvas panel

Tangerine Still Life II

finished drawing

I've opted for a less centered composition.

As I stated in the previous post, I'm taking more time for accurate drawing.  Here, I'm using a brush to find the center lines.  You can see in the above drawing that I've drawn this vertical center line and the horizontal line as well.

Now I'm ready to start laying in color.

Here as before, I've approached this by laying largest area and then progressed to the bowl.  I go to the bowl next because it's edges are neighbors to the negative space.  I want to blend those edges before they dry.

Using this type of paint - it's very easy to get a fluid blending to happen.  Because the paint dries so quickly, it's also easy to get dry brush effects.  I'm cognisant of where I want each effect to occur.

5" x 7" opaque watercolour on cold pressed Arches

detail

still room for two more sketches there...

Tangerines in opaque watercolour

My initial setup

 Every time I pull out the watercolours I hear the voice of one of my art instructors , "Do you want to be great in one medium, or good in several?"  This was at least 15 years ago!  Back then (as now) I mostly painted in oils - but occasionally was enticed by the fluid characteristics of watercolour.  Whether what he implied was true or not - I've opted to enjoy both mediums. 

completed pencil drawing

 I recently saw a Michael Klein demo where he painted some plums in watercolour.  I suppose that is what inspired me this time around.  For many years I applied myself to painting the landscape en plein air.  My foremost goal during that time was to get better with color - trying to match the sublime color of nature.  Every plein air painting is a race against the movement of the sun.  That being the case - I saw color and composition as most important and focused less on accurate drawing.  Lately, I find myself re-dedicated to careful drawing and this is especially important with watercolour.

frisbee on an open Box M pochade

 Here - against my better judgement, I've decided to let you in on a little secret.  Yep... the ideal watercolour palette is a frisbee.  Cheap and utilitarian!  In fact, I prefer it to my $90 Holbein palette.  I don't know if all frisbees have the built in wells like this one - but that is what I like about it.  There is also plenty of room to mix color.

There are many ways to begin a painting.  Here, I've opted to cover the simplest and largest areas.

 

 One of my favorite things about the setup was the translucency of the bowl.  I've begun to tend to that here.

I've begun to block in the masses of color.  Simple to complex... I've laid in the color in patches trying to identify the differences between each piece of fruit.  Once I'm satisfied with this - I'll begin to refine.

  I'm refining here - adding the far side of the bowl - paying attention to the beautiful color effect of the bounce light, translucency, and reflection.

5" x 7" opaque watercolour on cold pressed Arches 

detail

Editing a photo for the purpose of painting. 

 and

How I approach the composition of a studio painting.

This is the original photo.  I've composed a this picture so there is a sense of balance.  The large mass on the right is balanced by the clutter on the left.  I am attracted to the soft flowing forms of nature contrasted by the rigid man-made forms.

I've begun to edit out some of the unnecessary passages using Photoshop.  Anything which I feel distracts from the basic composition I paint out.

I've edited even more of the clutter here and added some warm shapes into the foreground to break up the huge swatch of green.  Notice I'm not referring to "grass", "trees", "houses", at this point.  I find it helps to think in terms of masses, shape, value, color, pattern at this point.

I find it invaluable to have a black and white version of my composition to refer to while painting.  It's very easy to react to color while painting and forget that every color has an inherent value.  Here I can very easily see the value progression in the picture.

 

 

"Spring afternoon"  6"x8" oil on canvas panel

Even though this is a tiny painting - it is the same way I would approach a larger canvas.  With a larger canvas - I would have laid a grid over my reference and then a corresponding grid over my canvas in order to transfer the composition accurately.  I find that painting these small paintings allows a freedom of experimentation.  In this case I wanted to use more palette knife.

 

Lemons

 10" x 8" oil on linen panel

This one is all about contrasts.  Fleshy vs sharp metal, light over dark, busy vs quiet (space), whole vs segmented.

detail

Pickle Fork and Pickle

8" x 10" oil on linen panel

I enjoyed playing with the composition in this one.  

Translucency: the quality of allowing light to pass diffusely

detail

Dipped in Chocolate

8" x 10" oil on linen panel


Strawberry and square shaped cinnamon marshmallow dipped in semi-sweet... mmmmm'!


detail

Almond Roca

8" x 10" oil on linen panel


This still life was also painted in the homemade still life box as described in the previous post. I really like seeing the shadow shapes so clearly.

detail (1)


detail (2)

Still Life Demo

Panetonne e caffè
10" x 8" oil on linen panel

These are the steps I took in painting this Italian delicacy called Panettone which is basically a small fruit cake. Enjoy!

Here's the set up. It's just a cardboard box with a small 'window' cut out of the top and the front face removed. This allows for great control over the lighting - especially the shadow shapes which are so important. Thanks to David Tanner for showing me how effective this is.

You can see the shadows are well defined here. Always choose a subject that interests you. I happen to be a fan of Italian fruit cake! The coffee was fresh brewed too! Choose objects which have a good contrast - like the white plates against the black - and the rich cake color against the white of the plate. You might also choose things which have emotional contrast or things which are thematically harmonious - you get the idea.

The drawing. Don't be too hasty here get the drawing right... Try to arrange the shapes on your canvas as interestingly as possible. Composition is so important!

There are so many ways to approach a painting. I chose a method which is popular among plein air painters: Laying in the darkest shadow shapes first.

Another approach is to put down the colors which are easiest to identify. That's what I did here. I purposefully kept the brushstrokes energetic here.

I went back the addressing the shadows here. In this lighting - these shadow areas are the richest in color.

Making progress... I'm starting to evaluate edges - hard vs. soft

Finito!


Detail (1)

Detail (2)

Pomegranates

8" x 10" oil on linen panel

Happy New Year everybody! I continue with my series of still lifes. I find that painting these as opposed to plein air landscapes really works with my schedule and family life. I'm able to set up somewhere in the house instead of going off into the garage studio to paint. I'm isolated enough from my family as it is. I usually throw down a piece of black velvet which absorbs much of the light and makes for a nice value contrast.

detail (1)

I even pulled out the quinacridone red for this one. It worked nicely for some of the cooler reds.