Sara’s summer so far

Here’s a nice little summer sketch of my son’s hops. I like the blue & green. By now  they have engulfed the entire side of his porch....maybe I’ll do a follow up.

I wasn’t too happy with this painting, so I totally wiped out the tree (using mr. clean magic eraser) and redid It mainly using watercolor pencils. I like it a lot more. I darkened the houses on the left too. Not sure it’s frame worthy but it is more interesting. Also I spray painted the mat white. It was a dark gray (unapproved mat color...)

And this is a watercolor sketch of my daughter-in-law, which I drew and painted this morning. I like how the face turned out, but not too crazy about the dress. Went a little too heavy with the pink...but it’s the first I’ve painted her & actually captured the expression I saw.

June 27, 2020 — Elaine O.

Another week without much to show! I've begun another portrait. I seem to be concentrating on color paths in these last few. I think I'll call it a series and see if I'm interested enough in continuing  that exploration.

Big Cat Eight

My original intent was to start from the ear and the shadow below it and work outward like the leopard's eye, but now the profile is upstaging it.  Well we'll see how that works out.

elaine t., June 27

What I saw on my camping vacation: it was a wonderful week! The geese blocked the highway for 10 minutes; the flock was about 10 adults and 20 goslings, so it took a while for the adults to get the little ones safely across the road. The lily pond was endlessly interesting. Frog politics, when there are 4 males in the same pond, are fun to observe. Pooka really wanted to get to know the garter snake that wiggled into our campsite. The snake was, "Nope nope nope nope."

June 20, 2020 — Elaine O.

I've finished the painting of the Three Steves (although one is Steve, one is Stephen and one is Stevie). Now, I have to decide if I'll be doing a larger, final version.

Sara’s Alley #2

I did a second study of the alley scene. It’s a little smaller and I simplified the sketch a bit, but now I’m wondering if I simplified too much. This one seems moodier, but I’m still working on the sky. Below is the first study. I toned down the sky contrast a lot which helped. Thx for suggestions .

Oh, look how nicely cropped the image is! This one seems a little livelier. I really enjoyed mixing the colors on the paper & working with a limited palette on both. Having fewer colors to work with makes me think more about value and less about local color.

And this is a direct sketch I did. Back trying to do one every morning, but most are too muddy to share. It’s  harder to mix colors on the paper when I don’t have a sketch to follow.

Happy Summer Solstice! Days start getting shorter tomorrow...

Big Cats Seven and Eight

The leopard is done,  I spent maybe fifteen minutes on that eye, and fifteen hours on the surrounding fur.  But another thing I did was put the eye in first and then work outward from it, so maybe that is a factor.

And this is the beginning of probably the last big cat.  In the previous lion I got lost in all that hair, so for this one I am going to separate it into distinct segments.  Also since I like the way the previous painting turned out I am going to start with the ear and work outward from that.

Nothing is nailed down right now, but very likely I will have my Ten Cat show before it gets cold: Big Cats, Alleys, and Some Girls.

June 13, 2020 - Elaine O.

Not much to show this week. I've begun a study of  the triple portrait. In this, I'm trying for their heads to stand out from a sea of different grays (and a blue or two). 

And, on a sad note, my watering can died. The spout just broke right off... and after only 30+ years of use. To be honest, it had better lines in real life, although the color was a bit more faded.

Sara’s alley

This is pretty much all I worked on this week. It’s small, only about 5 x 7. I used mostly 3 colors — ultramarine blue, alizarin crimson and quid gold. I let the colors mix on the paper for the most  part and I liked how that turned out. Composition wise, I think the sky overpowers or steals focus from the rest of the painting.  Not sure if it should be less contrasty (the sky) or not so busy... this is based on a photo I took, and the problem doesn’t seem to exist in the photo and I don’t know why. Here’s the photo for comparison . Any suggestions?

Big Cat Seven

This is a leopard.  I did a very close cropping so that I could make it more abstract.

elaine t., June 11

The Killing Eve montage ("Sorry Baby") is done. I'm pretty happy with the final product.

I'll be (finally!) off to the woods next week, so I'm not sure if I'll have anything new to show next Saturday. Have a good week, everyone!

June 8 Ellen

I'm still trying to capture the person's energy in portraits. Hope you like this one

June 6, 2020 — Elaine O.

I've been planning a multiple portrait (Thanks, Sara and Elaine T. for the inspiration) and have gotten as far as doing a study/sketch. There's not much to show, so we'll wait for next week on that. Meanwhile, I've been doing some direct watercolor portrait sketches to warm up...

...which haven't thrilled me. So I tried a view from behind...

... and an action sketch. This is on bond-weight sketch paper so the paint spreads and absorbs rather strangely. It's meant for pencil, not paint!

So much for the direct watercolor. Other than that, I've been eating watermelon,

 ... and making custom painted masks for a school graduation (and for next year). They have a Bengal mascot. There is a fiercer one for the higher grades and a kinder, gentler version for the kindergarteners. They are quite funny looking in action and I'm hoping to get photos of that. (Update: I only made two--not enough for the whole class!)

 More sketches out my windows, concentrating on the people across the alley. There's a very active 6-flat (shades of Rear Window!) and a neighbor with a lovely garden featuring the most brilliantly colored clematis.

 

elaine t, June 6

I started a Killing Eve montage. I'm having a lot of fun with it; maybe I'll follow up with some action shots of Villanelle for the next project. 

(for those not familiar with the show: "Eve Polastri is a British intelligence investigator tasked with capturing the creatively psychopathic assassin Villanelle." They become increasingly fascinated and attracted to one another. Oh, there is SO much more to it...)

Here we have (clockwise from top) Eve Polastri, Carolyn Martens (Eve's boss at MI6), Konstantin Vasiliev (Villanelle's handler and Carolyn's former lover), and Villanelle.

Big Cat Six - kind of a rasta look

Wore the paper down to the bone on this one, putting paint down. letting it dry, coming back in with a wet brush, letting that dry, putting down more paint, repeat, repeat, repeat.  Maybe I'll go back in and work out some details.  Not sure what difference they will make in the overall painting, so maybe I won't.

Sara’s summer so far...

I know I’m going to spend today in the garden, so I’ll just post a few things from this week.

These are direct watercolor sketches done from life, not photos. I’m trying to increase my intensity of color (ie, using more paint) & also think more about composition. I’m impressed by Ken’s cat compositions, so I’m trying to paint less detail, more shapes.

Here’s a couple of sketches done from photos. I like how they turned out. 

And let me introduce you to a new artist & her latest work titled, “My Mom’s Tummy.”