songwind

Another week, another layer of paint.

This week the focus was on the background. My original thought was to use a looser style with more visible brush calligraphy in the back. It would evoke the complex texture of the background (a sort of shiny, embossed fabric) and add visual interest.

Unfortunately, in practice it ended up passing "interesting" and moving into "busy and overwhelming" so I had to smooth out the transitions.

However, it wasn't a total waste. I think I managed to turn a lot of the sharp crease-like value changes into a more gentle roll feel. I also fixed my darks so they were more in line with the rest of the background.

I also got some very nice glow in at the edges of the picture (not that visible in this photo) using Daniel Green "golden ochre" painted thinly wet-into-wet into the green.

Obligatory school pride/socialization plug - if you are interested in art, you should come take classes along with me at Brushworks. :)

Patty also hates me and wants me to be poor - she told me about a sale on that same Daniel Green paint for up to 85% off. That's $10 for a tube of Cadmium Red, instead of close to $50. I should probably scoot out there this weekend and see if they have any Ultramarine left - I'm getting really low. Not to mention that the more I use my M. Graham and Winsor-Newton paints, the less patience I have for the stiffness and lack of staying power from my Winton tubes. :)

This is my first WIP photo taken using my new phone. It works well. It's nice to have a camera that's worth a darn in my pocket. I might be able to start taking more snaps. :)

Current Mood: artistic

~~I have 2 Google Voice invitations. Does anyone want them?~~

Gone already. That was quick!

Last night I read Spud a bedtime story.

This is not remarkable, in and of itself. He gets a story every night unless he has goofed off or otherwise caused himself to be late for bed and we don't have time. What makes last night fun and noteworthy is that we read "The White Seal" from The Jungle Book. So far, we have read that one, and "Rikki-Tikki Tavi," which happen to be my favorite stories from JB. We've also read "How the Rhinoceros Got His Skin" and "The Elephant's Child" from Just So Stories.

Not that I and the boy's grandpa like Kipling or anything.

Today at art class, I finished my first oil painting.

It's kind of hard to get my mind around it.

Check out my other journal for my description of the Lakeville Art Festival. Good stuff.

Friday after work, we went out for

mnfiddledragon's birthday dinner. It was really nice. We went to a new little bistro near our house called Giuseppe's. The food was incredible. Their appetizer bread was crusty and soft and warm, with what tasted like sea salt and garlic baked on top. The dipping oil was very flavorful. I had a baked spaghetti bolognese. When the waiter found out it was Liz's birthday, he gave her a (delicious!) serving of tiramisu for free.

Afterward, we went back to the house and I got to work on finishing up my entry into the GIMPTalk art competition. The Dungeon Master didn't come out quite as nice as I might have liked, but for a fairly quick piece, I am happy. (Click to go to the dA page, then click the image for the larger size.)

Today was pretty quiet. I slept until 10am, when Spud asked me very politely, "Daddy, can we get up and have breakfast now?" He normally doesn't go past 9, so I was really surprised that he and I slept so late. Eventually, he, Beana and

ladysea went out to the Ren Fest to meet up with MFD and the other girls.

That left me on my own. I watched a brainless movie, and went to Wet Paint. I picked up some Payne's Gray in the M. Graham line. That's an artist grade of paint that gets great reviews online and from my teacher. Wet Paint's prices make it just as economical as the student grade Winton paints I have been using. Yes, if I knew far enough in advance to always make a sizable order online, I could get the Winton's cheaper - but that doesn't happen very often. I even left after only buying my gray - I think that's a first for me at Wet Paint.

I didn't do any drawing today - last night's big drawing extravaganza kind of overloaded my brain. Tomorrow I hope to get some painting and/or drawing done.

Current Mood: happy

My attention was grabbed last week by a garden in my neighborhood. So, I stopped and took some reference pictures and started thinking about how to go about painting it. I ended up picking a shot yesterday, and I have started painting it at home. My original idea was to paint it wet-in-wet, alla prima if possible. That didn't work out because I am not sure how to do that when you have light colored elements surrounded by darks (like plants in a garden). So, I put in the farthest back elements (grass and soil) using paint w/ Liquin, and today I will start to put in the plants wet-on-dry.

My grass color was a mixture of viridian and cadmium yellow pale, with a hint of cad. red to knock down the brightness. It may still be too warm for a background element. The soil was a mix of burnt umber and pthalo blue.

When last we checked in, I had forgotten to take my reference picture with me and had spent a class doing less fun but important value and color mixing exercises. Since then I have remembered to take my picture with me (in fact, I have just been leaving it there stuck to the back of my panel), and have gotten a fair amount of stuff accomplished. The first skins of paint are down for the whole canvas, and it's time to start fiddling with details.

Current Mood: creative

Inspiration can strike at any random moment, I guess. For this reason, I check out the Daily Deviations on deviantArt every day.

It is in this way that I ran into an artist who goes by <a href="http://litka.deviantart.com/>litka</a>. He paints with acrylics in a spontaneous, Impressionist style, with thick paint and brush strokes. Makes me want to head out and do some plein air painting.

Current Mood: impressed

I left my reference photo at home yesterday, so I didn't work on my butterfly painting. One of the things I am working on right now is the skill of color mixing, so not having the actual color in front of me to match makes it sort of hard to practice mixing a color to spec.

So instead, we did a value scale exercise. I was not particularly shocked to find that I detect a lot of variations in tone, and that I tend to overestimate the darkness and lightness of the middle tones. It's been a consistent issue for me. Hopefully more systematic work like this will help me get around it.

Homework this week - value scales for red and yellow (already did black and blue.)

I'm gonna need more white, I can already tell.

It has felt like All Oil Painting, All the Time around here, but that's not quite true. I have been working on some digital stuff as well.
I have a detailed piece in process, a painting of a california poppy:

I finished a simple little line-art piece, that I may turn into a Vector drawing:

So, that's pretty much been my free time. I have watched a little Wolf's Rain, and done some reading.

Current Mood: happy

It's been pretty busy around here. Both in meatspace and in my brain.

To a certain extent, I have been in "work and art" mode. I have been doing a fair amount of painting and drawing, or reading about painting and drawing. I'm still really enjoying it.

More later. I may never get this stupid thing done.

I have been meaning to make posts about a few different things, but I keep getting busy or sidetracked.

Just pretend I made them. They were witty and informative. You loved them.

Really.

This is my first complete picture painted wholly in MyPaint. I liked it. I can definitely imagine doing more work completely in that program.

It's too bad about the image size, though. It's much smaller than I might have wished.

Current Mood: happy

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Recent Entries

It was a good week for painting

Do you want Google Voice?

Passing on the Tradition

I can't believe it's done.

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The weekend has started off pretty well so far.

Started my first at-home painting yesterday.

I think I have an art-crush.

Take your reference materials to class

Been a while

Take my word for it.

Stargazer

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April 2010

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