Red Shawl 2, WIP continured

After 2 days of painting, here's where she is now. 

How many colors in a face

I hate to have to leave her when she's just starting to emerge from the canvas..... spent all day getting the drawing right, and had about 2 hours to paint before I had to leave to teach for the evening. This is the next in the Red Shawl series.

I look at my palette and I love how many different subtle colors are in a face--I have 9 mixed colors & of course use blends of them to create more on the fly. Yet we look at a face and never imagine how much is going on there to make it look right.

Sheep May Safely Graze

Church this morning is at my easel, with Josh Groban and the bright morning sunshine. "Sheep May Safely Graze."

The Red Shawl

The first in a series.

The Red Shawl, WIP

This is the new piece I'm working on-- a large portrait of a young woman with a red scarf over her head. I've learned so much about portrait painting over the last year, this one is going faster & easier as I make less mistakes! It still has a long way to go. I need to warm up her skin tones & there are still a few rendering tweaks that need to be made.

Goodbye 2013

Last day of the year, and starting a new painting. Another portrait, but not a commission. Just something I want to do. I did the photo shoot w/ the model yesterday, & got several shots that I like. I don't typically do series, but I can see possibly doing a few of these.

Happy New Year everyone! Get out your brushes and paint! :)

http://www.youtube.com/watch?v=YLO7tCdBVrA

A New painting on the etsy shop

The plein air from the Green Lake is finally available on the etsy shop! Here's the link:

https://www.etsy.com/listing/167364246/outdoor-cafe-original-oil-painting-plein?

Watercolor Wisconsin -- Accepted!

I'm so happy to announce, my painting of the wild swans was accepted into the Watercolor Wisconsin show at the Racine Art Museum! The show opening is December 15, at the Wustum Museum building.

Wild Swans at Coole

A new swan painting, in watercolors. I must admit, I love this one & will be sad to send it out to its new home! I'm thinking of entering it into Watercolor Wisconsin.....

Dream Clouds

It's complete! 18"x24", oil on canvas.

Dream Clouds, WIP continued

I'm still working on this large portrait. It's getting more filled in, still lots to do though. I'm going to continue with the background, and then maybe tackle her hair later. I still like how it's going, & love working this large!

Skater Portrait

I had a vendor table at a local skating competition this week. While there, I worked on this new portrait (nothing like people watching over your shoulder!). It's almost finished; I particularly like the way the skates turned out. Now will turn back to the other one I've been working on, a big one & it's so fun! I love to paint!!

  

Dream Clouds, WIP

I'm working on a new portrait. Enjoying it very much, but currently struggling w/ mixing shadowed skin tones. I keep going back & forth between too warm/ too cool, and it never looks quite right. Watching tutorials tonight on mixing skin tones to see if I can get a better handle on it! Here's the WIP.

And after another couple hours of work, it's definitely improved. Happy to keep it moving in the right direction. :)

Cihckens On A Rail 2

The second "Chickens On A Rail", completed. This was my customer's 25th wedding anniversary gift to his wife. I was so honored to create this for them! Here's to another happy 25 years--many congratulations, Peter & Carol!

Cedarburg Plein Air

I spent the day in Cedarburg painting today. It was my third day there, & the first time I put together a painting I really like, and plan to put in the show (we can submit 2). This is the entrance & sign to one of the businesses (what a charming town!!). I enjoyed painting it, and feel like I'm making some progress on rendering architectural structures. Not a fan of painting straight lines & angles, but I think it's getting better. I need to get a better photo, but here it is for now.

 

Here it is framed for the show.

Artst Retreat Day

I had a really relaxed, focused day yesterday at another artists house. We spent the entire day painting, and both accomplished a lot! I did this new chicken piece. It was the third attempt, after 2 tries on a still life which did NOT work! I scraped it down twice & decided it was time to change subjects. So viola, a new chicken! I like him quite a bit, I think.

Available on Etsy, click here

Plein Air Day in Green Lake

A one-day plein air event yesterday--went to it kind of spur of the moment & it was the perfect way to ease into this new world of painting outdoors, fast, and with a time limit! I had about 5 hours yesterday, but when I do the Cedarburg event in a few weeks I'll have about 10 days. Most useful tool yesterday, which I fortunately had with me, was a very fine tweezers. Why? Because I painted this on a dock, and there was a hatch of some tiny winged insect that kept landing on, and getting stuck to, the wet paint! Never have that problem in the studio. Also got quite a sunburn because it never occurred to me that even though it was 60 degrees the sun will still get you! Overall a great day, great experience, and confidence builder for the next one.

 This painting is available to purchase at Arts of Daycholah Gallery in Green Lake, WI.

 

First plein air of spring

I finished my first plein air of the season today. Started yesterday morning & went back out today to finish it. My backyard--The Unkept Forsythia.

Painting progression, continued

Here's today's update. It's getting there! Lots more to do yet, but they're starting to come to life.

Progression of a new painting

I'm working on another version of the "Chickens on a Rail" painting--this one was commissioned, a little larger than the first one. I started on it last weekend. Here are some photos showing the progression. Still very early stage, & I'll work some more on it this coming weekend. It's sitting there on the easel, calling to me, but I have TONS of graphic design work this week with tight deadlines, so I must turn away from it....for now. :)

The dreaded blank canvas:

The background is put in with acrylics (dries faster):

Then I sketch out the shapes with charcoal:

Then start blocking in the shapes/colors (now switched to oils)

And finally pick up the palette knife & start working on the bodies, to start to bring them to life! Just got started at this point, a long ways to go! I also see some issues w/ the rendering that I will fix as I go along. Stay tuned....