Saturday, June 16, 2007 - Sketches

I intended to work more on the Cool Gators - but didn't. Got my Michael R. Britton (http://www.artacademy.com/) printouts and worked on some of his lessons on sketching portraits.

1 = foreshorted and lying down

2 = model with a long face and leaning in towards us (I obviously need to work on the eyes!)

3 = scowling and hand on head

All of these done with graphite on heavy Strathmore drawing paper. But I need to expand a bit and use something other than graphite, I think - maybe try out my new pastel pencils and other things for fun and some color.

Friday, June 15, 2007 - Peony Completed?

Dulled the pretty colors in the bottom leaves - they just took my eye there and kept it there and it shouldn't be that way - it sure was pretty, though :( Oh, well. Then someone in my online group said it wasn't really showing the stem correctly - and she was right (thanks, Doris!). So will tweak that a bit and then it's done.

I intended to work more on the Cool Gators painting but didn't get to it today. I think I had an allergic reaction from something I ate or drank and had to get an antihistimine tab in me and then I was useless (sleeeeeepy) for the afternoon.

Thursday, June 14, 2007 - Finishing Some Watercolors

Had the pouring rain paintings (2) to finish. I hate things being left undone. Although I often go on to something else, I do try to go back and finish things I have set aside.

Sometimes, setting things aside helps you gather your momentum again for the next step. I hoped that would have happened - but that big tree in the second one looks horrid. I definitely need more tree study :)

But I do like how the peony is coming along - does it need the pale green to be more muted? I think I've fallen in love with the greens rather than the petals - so time to break the relationship and just go in and darken and dull it down! It is so much fun working on Arches hotpress paper with a bit of oxgall liquid in my water bucket to make the surface tension of the paper release - the paint just explodes over the surface of the paper with this stuff. And no hard edges where you don't want them. I think the sky needs to be more blue - IRL, it is more blue but it could be even more so against those pinks and purples, I think.

Wednesday, June 13, 2007 - Figure Session Tuesday Night

Well, I got there early Tuesday night and thought no one else was going to show up - finally we had about 5 people but no model. The model never showed up so...we asked for volunteers and some of the guys posed - just 20 minutes each.

All of the guys - 20-somethings who are art students - just sat in the same chair and posed - nothing special and lots of teeshirts and shorts.

The only interesting view I got was the unnamed student (quiet guy and I don't know his name) who had great curly hair and glasses and the light made interesting shadows on his face but I blurred them too much so may go back and redo this one just for fun.

Tuesday, June 12, 2007 - Class Work

Wanted to finish some unfinished paintings I'd started, either just a sketch on the paper or a started painting that I put aside. Have the gators to return to - in class, a student suggested I do this one in cool colors because the first was all warms. Good idea! So I did it. Not finished - but about 3/4 of the way there...1/2 sheet Arches hotpress paper 140# with Daniel Smith granulating colors.

Also, I got some tips about the rain paintings and what to do to make both of them better - will work on those, too.

Monday, June 11, 2007 - Here Comes the Rain Again...

Now, didn't Annie Lennox have a song that began with those words? Yes, I think she did.

And here it comes again - not happy with the previous one because the rain doesn't look like rain. So...how to describe the wind blowing the rain at the umbrella and the man's pantlegs, etc. and the trees bending, etc.? Thinking and working...it needs some darks and work on the figure's head area and the umbrella. But I like the foreground better and the smaller size of the figure in this one although he looks a bit hump-backed in this one!

Saturday, June 9, 2007 - Pounding Rain Painting in Watercolor

My painting friends and I (Hi, Ann, Deb, Paulette, and Teresa!) have decided to do this one in watercolor and in acrylic. Now I know next to nothing about acrylic plus I only have a few colors so...I started the watercolor first and may not do an acrylic painting at all - maybe am opaque watercolor painting instead...will think about it.

Here is my first try - I hope I've worked out that the man (or have I turned him into a female in this painting?) is not centered, and there is a dominance in the painting - perhaps vertical? I know one thing - I don't like the green at all and the traffic signal needs to be paler to be pushed back a bit. I think all the concrete parts do look wet, though - and no one so far likes the walkway and wants it changed so will think about that with the second try.

Friday, June 8, 2007 - Pounding Rain

I asked Sandy (my wc teacher) how she would do the rain in this one and she came up with a complete value study/sketch! Since I have to do one of my own with my own composition (can't just copy her sketch because it's not mine), I worked on it last evening. I've posted Sandy's version (at the right side).

And I'm posting my version after I tweaked it a bit more - I wanted the walkway to lead our eye into the painting and I wanted the signals to be on the right side and I got rid of the post (I had drawn it in but Jerry said he didn't like it and since I wasn't attached to it - out it went).

The brown at the upper left is a coffee stain - sorry!

Now I need to get painting!

And again - the photographer is DZZ at MorgueFile and his name is Dmitry (all there is in the info) from Russia - he calls the photo Rainstorm (http://www.morguefile.com).

Thursday, June 7, 2007 - Figure Studies from Tuesday Night

We had a new model tonight, Angela. I didn't get any good gesture drawings (the model does ten 1-minute poses) but I liked the 2 long pose drawings I did. I tried working with charcoal this time. Now I always end up with black all over my hands and up my arms with charcoal but it does make a nice line. The first one was with a harder stick of charcoal and the second was a softer vine charcoal that didn't make darks well but blended nicely on the lights - I think using both would work well with the vine for the mid-tones and the stick for the darks. We had another student pose the model tonight and he did a nice job - it's a good pose, nothing strange or unusual, and shows nice curves. The second drawing is after she took a short break and returned - her hair was different and she was turned a bit differently so the shadows were different on her left side. Next time I can try using my new pastel pencils :) The student who posed the model tonight was working on a dark green gessoed paper with pastel pencils and it looked good - of course, he (Emil or Amil) is a fine artist.

Wednesday, June 6, 2007 - GCWS Meeting

The Greater Cincinnati Watercolor Society meeting was this morning. We had a short business meeting and then an art sale. People brought in their slightly used brushes, paints, and art books for sale to other members. Everything was very reasonably priced (meaning garage sale cheap) and I got a set of pastel pencils and 12 sheets of Fabriano Artistico hotpress for $10 total! Plus I sold everything I took to sell.

The Evergreen Show ended Sunday and we only sold 8 paintings - a disappointing number since the show ran for 4 full weeks, including Mother's Day weekend and Memorial Day weekend. Oh, well...

After the sale, Sandy Maudlin gave a demo/lesson on her taping technique in watercolor.

She won the Ohio Watercolor Society Gold Award this past year with a taped painting (painting at left) and she enjoys working this way but all that taping on masking tape in small bits here and there just is soooo time consuming that I don't have the patience for it.

Today's outcome (with 16 participants - a good turnout) was this painting (see below).

Tuesday, June 5, 2007 - Class Today

Sandy's critique of my Towne landscape was it had no color harmony - d'uh! I knew that so why did I paint it that way?


So...worked on a new one and even reworked the first one, cropping it and making the ice mountains just rocks and putting some browns in with the greens, some greens in with the browns, etc.


I like it better small and cropped but I really like the second new version - I just took the misket off so the whites aren't touched yet and I may leave them that way. But no time now - have to get ready for figure study group tonight.

Monday, June 4, 2007 - Francis Towne Pastiche First Try

Well, I just can't seem to get the ice mountains right so this is definitely a re-do! I did them with a sketch and wash pencil and then wet it to get the greys, then added some violets and beige colors in - but it looks ugly to me. So - another one coming up maybe tomorrow using just pale blue and the white of the paper for the ice mountains.

Sunday, June 3, 2007 - 12th Anniversary

Today Jerry and I celebrate our 12th anniversary. It seems like we've known each other forever and yet it seems like we've just been married a few years. So no painting today - I may have other things to do :)

Saturday, June 2, 2007 - Next Pastiche + Summer Fair

The landscape group I belong to has started another pastiche/study of a past master, Francis Towne (1740 - 1816). Here is his painting we will be working from. I haven't started yet - it's been a busy day doing other things. There are two versions of this watercolor painting around - one more greyed and one more colorful. Of course, I like the more colorful one.

SummerFair (http://www.summerfair.org/), the annual arts event, started last night and continues through Sunday evening at Coney Island in Cincinnati. Paintings, photographs, wood and metal sculpture, glasswork, jewelry, fabric work, etc. all available for sale in the booths. Plus lots of food and music.

Friday, June 1, 2007 - Happy June Bug!

Does it feel like June already? We've had some hot weather and less than an inch of rain during the month of May so the grass is beginning to feel crunchy underfoot. Another hot day - almost 90F! and maybe some rain tonight.

So for June, how about a trio of Junebugs (just being silly since I don't feel like painting today at all).

And for some really interesting bugs and other critters, check out Naquaiya's art blog:

http://naquaiya.blogspot.com/

In class Tuesday, Sandy had us do more trees but all I got done was trying to do the technique she showed us for pines with snow. First, using Phthalo Blue (a staining colors works best for this technique), put down a block of color. When the shine is just off but it hasn't dried, take a piece of a card (credit card, id card, library card, whatever) and scrape the color off back to white (almost white) by pushing and squeegee-ing the color off in triangular shapes. Then, paint the greens of the tree around it, remembering that snow is rounded on top. Then you have a winter pine with snow covered branches - if you do it right. I tried several times and these are the best I could do.

This last one is Sandy's - she let me bring it home to study and try again - she felt sorry for me because I was ill and had to leave class early - plus she thought I was getting close and was almost there (such an optimist!). You see how you have to think triangular in the places you scrape out the "snow" and in the shapes of the scrapes, too. I have a hard time with the right side of the tree because I scrape better on the left side. Also I didn't leave any air holes for the branches to show like Sandy did - which makes this much more interesting. But this technique means you never touch the "snow" again - the card makes the shape and the shadows are made when the staining color is pushed down to the bottom and sides of the scraped area.

Pretty cool, eh?

Thursday, May 31, 2007 - Happy Saga Dawa Duchen!

Well, I promised some good stuff on Wednesdays since I wouldn't have time to post anything on Tuesdays - then was ill on Tuesday so didn't even finish wc class and didn't attend the figure drawing session, either! Also feeling punky on Wednesday. Sorry about that!

Today, May 31st, is a Tibetan Buddhist "holy" day called Saga Dawa Duchen (in the Pali/Indian language it is known as Vesak). It commemorates the birth and the death of the Buddha, the man born as Prince Siddhartha 2,558 year's ago (not in the same year, of course - Buddha lived 81 years). It is even more auspicious because it is a full moon - not only a full moon, but a blue moon (the second full moon in a month).

The above picture is not mine - I copied it from another Buddhist site - but isn't it interesting that the moon is blue?

Tuesday, May 29, 2007 - Busy Busy Day

Sandy changed our watercolor class to Tuesday 10am - 2pm plus I have the figure study group from 7pm - 9pm so probably won't be posting anything on Tuesdays anymore for a while. But should have good stuff for Wednesdays!

I did get some good critiques of the iris - there were lots of things still to tweak to get it right that I didn't see until it was put under Sandy's "Magic Mirror" = the large mirror above her table that shows you everything from a distance.

Monday, May 28, 2007 - Happy Memorial Day + Flowers

Today is Memorial Day here in the US - a day for cookouts/barbeques and family get-togethers of all kinds. The weekend the local pools open up for the neighborhoods. The start of summer! I will be going to Mom's for an early dinner/get-together this afternoon but before that I painted a bit more on the Peony and the Iris (after some good critiques from online friends).

The Iris is as done as it's going to get now. I pushed back the green and yellow sides with quinacridone gold and a touch of cobalt violet deep over the green and yellow and then added a touch of that same color inside the flower so it wouldn't be just there. I also cropped the bottom a bit after darkening the bottom and trying to get more of a curved shape there. At this point there are some places that are beginning to look overworked so no more on this one.

But the Peony still has a ways to go before being finished - I liked putting the greens in there: Undersea Green and Green Gold for the warmest ones + Sap Green and Indanthrone Blue for the coolest ones.

Sunday, May 27, 2007 - I've Been Tagged!!!

Well, my watercolor friend, Michelle Himes has tagged me - I know this has been going around for a while because other blogs have mentioned it but never thought it would happen to me. So now I have to tell 7 things about myself that no one knows (well, someone will know, I'm sure) and also tag 7 people who haven't been tagged (is that possible??).


1. I have been a practicing Buddhist for 3 years.


2. I will be married to my wonderful, adorable, sensitive, happy, smart, cute, Marine Biologist husband for 12 years this June.


3. The best trip I've ever taken = Hawaii (Oahu, Big Island/Kona Coast, and Kauai/Waimea Canyon)


4. The worst trip I've ever taken = Belize (Blue Creek and South Water Caye)


5. I have a younger brother and a younger sister and we repeated the same series as my father and his 2 sisters (oldest sister, middle brother, youngest sister).


6. I try to paint every day but belong to so many online groups and local (real life) groups, it's getting hard to get anything done!


7. Currently in my home there is one cat, one turtle, 2 salamanders, a green tree frog, a dozen crickets and today my husband rescued and released an injured (or stunned) baby cardinal (but not before taking numerous photos of him - or her - everything is fair game for photographic material around here).


And the people I am going to tag are:

1. Ann Buckner http://annbucknerpaintings.blogspot.com Ann has been a painter friend for years and she does great landscape and still life works in watercolor and acrylics (but she's way too hard on herself).

2. Steve Sorrell http://crocoite.blogspot.com Steve has a wicked sense of humor and has a great hobby of finding and collecting minerals that can be as beautiful as any abstract painting you'll see.

3. Shanti Marie http://shantimarie.wordpress.com Shanti Marie does some beautiful work and has a daily blog and a weekly blog (for larger pieces) - she is also a DailyPainter artist.

4. Molly Brose http://mollybrose.com/mollyblog.html I don't really "know" Molly but I check her blog almost daily to see what she's done lately. She has a unique style and I love her work! I just checked and I can't email her - so hope she doesn't mind that I love her work and want others to love it, too :)

5. Jan Smiley http://jsmileystudio.blogspot.com I don't know Jan, either, but love her canyon works - the colors are intense and beautiful and make me drool - she is also a DailyPainter artist.

6. Carol Gillot http://parisbreakfasts.blogspot.com Well, I got hooked on parisbreakfasts and now I have to have a daily dose!! Carol's work is light, lovely, interesting and always makes me want to see more - plus she shares great photos of Paris cafes and desserts!! YUM!

7. Belinda Del Pesco http://belindadelpesco.blogspot.com I first found Belinda at eBay when I saw her Frida and Diego paintings and got hooked then. Her work encompasses watercolor and various printing techniques that I don't understand but love the look. She is a fine artist in every sense of the words!

I hope I didn't break the rules by tagging artists I don't really know but I did share the ones I check on almost daily - so I kinda know them, right? And I think this is a way for viewers to check out some artists they've never seen and maybe fall in love with, too.

Saturday, May 26, 2007 - More Work on the Iris WIP

I think the Iris is finished unless I see something else that needs tweaking a bit later. It was fun working wet in wet on hotpress - I even used some ox gall liquid in a bit of water to prewet the paper - which I think helped with the flow of the paint. Thanks, again, to Marsha Gray for her great photo and permission to use it for this painting!

Friday, May 25, 2007 - Iris and Peony WIPs

Worked a bit more on the Iris - and started putting paint on the Peony. Both on Arches hotpress 140# paper and 1/4 sheet size. Will take my time and continue to work on both of these over the weekend.

Thursday, May 24 - And Now For Something Entirely Different....

When I'm in a bit of a rut with my painting, I just start 2-3 new things at once. So that's what I'm doing:

1. A macro view of an iris - photo taken by Marsha Gray in my WatercolorWorkshop yahoo group - thank you, Marsha, for giving us this great view! I'm doing this on hotpress and prewetting the petals and dropping the color in and letting it mingle by tilting the paper.

2. A very interesting view of a peony - also by Marsha Gray - doesn't she take great photos?? So far, I just have a pencil sketch on hotpress paper. In order to try to see the shapes better, I put the photo and the paper upside down and drew it (I see a few changes I'll make before putting paint to paper).

3. Finished the RoseDesigned by adding some to the rose to give it more dimension, shading, depth (I hope) and then the bg in a mix of cobalt blue and cobalt violet deep which helped a lot.

4. Will start this old rusty truck next - photo by Marilyn Fuerstenberg also in my WatercolorWorkshop and SWAP yahoo groups - she says this is Bill's Truck.

Wednesday, May 23 - Tuesday Night Figure Studies

Well, we had our figure study group at the new studio in the Essex in Walnut Hills. Although the photos sent looked great, the room got darker and darker with no lights on your working surface after about 8 pm, 1 hour into the session.

And the long position the model was put in was so awkward and strange I had a hard time working at all and getting anything resembling the female shape.

Yes, the model is actually that thin!

Also, we were to have AC (the temps were 86F yesterday) but with the room closed it didn't feel like there was AC until we left, walked into the hallway where there was plenty of light and cool air flowing. I'm wondering if they are still working on the space and will have better lighting and AC next time - I hope.

Okay, enough whining! It's only a 20 minute drive for me and I'm sure it will get better. I guess I was just disappointed that we had the female model again - who is a real pro and comes up with some truly elegant and lovely poses in the short 10-minute poses she chooses herself - and I felt she wasn't utilized in the best way to show off her grace in the long pose (although if she is thinner next time, I'm going to have to make her eat a sandwich!)

Tuesday, May 22, 2007 - RoseDesigned Background Ruined?

I did a baaad thing - the background is too mottled and splotchy now - I'm thinking about taking cobalt blue and doing a wash over the whole dark bg before doing anything else - but will that work or make it worse?

I hate losing this one to the trash because I was really liking it...

Monday, May 21, 2007 - In Class Today

After I finish the blue landscape study - what do I paint next? So far, nothing has called to me...I even printed out a lot of photos Jerry has taken - mostly flowers. Maybe one of them will be next? Fortunately, Sandy had a lesson plan for us - trees! Something a lot of painters have problems with - the shapes, the colors, the skyholes, everything about trees and how to make them look right. So we practiced and the time just flew by! And you can tell I need a lot of practice on trees :) ha-ha The last one doesn't even have a trunk - just practicing getting some autumn colors in without being so garish - needs darks but I was having such a time with this one - seeing negative shapes and leaving skyholes, and making the shape not a round or square shape...lots of things to think about when just painting a tree - how do landscape painters do it??

If you see me out somewhere just staring at a tree, don't worry about me - I'm just trying to SEE them better :)

Saturday, May 19, 2007 - Cozens Landscape Finished

Finished the Cozens landscape pastiche for the landscape group and haven't found anything that I want to paint now - am in a wait and see mode. It's unusual for me not to paint everyday but I don't stress about it if I don't. So went ahead and started the Cozens again in a strict one color palette - Daniel Smith's Indanthrone Blue this time.

Jerry has to photograph something rusty for his next TriStatePhotography competition. So many things he could photograph including garden ornaments left out to rust, old cars and trucks and trains, old fences and gates...I like painting rust so he may come up with something I'll want to paint later.