Elaine O.—September 19, 2020

I didn't get much done this week. I added a little to the portrait today but I was mostly restless and distracted by the shocking RBG news. I'm deeply saddened, grateful for all she did, and energized to continue the fight. We were truly lucky to have been touched by her presence.

No further work on the Sargent project either. I was distracted with another painting project. We are going to paint our dry, sun-grayed front door. Spent a lot of time walking around and looking at doors, sanding, wood-filling and sanding some more. Then, we chose a color in less than 10 minutes. It's pretty similar to the darker parts of the swatch at the bottom—but flatter. (Hmm.... I wonder if you can watercolor an actual door?) We'll be doing the actual painting next week.  Maybe I'll do another sketch then.

Sara Starts Fall...

 Worked on this painting most of the week. It’s a second try after I did a few more sketches.I like it and I’m learning a lot about color mixing etc. it’s on 300 lb paper, which takes a lot of water and pigment. Also lets me scrub out a bit, like her neck, which was too dark. The hardest part is the bathing suit - trying to suggest the folds in the fabric as well as the light and shadow. I know, they’re both the same ... and hard to do...not sure if she’s finished, but not sure of what to do.

Here’s another sketch I did before the painting. And two more morning sketches.

I’m thinking a lot about trees thru the window...it might be a series some day....

Bream 3

 

I had like seven different ideas for this and none of them are working out.  I think I will set it aside and work on that oddity that I posted earlier.

elaine t., Sept. 19

 (I'm posting early because I have family coming in tomorrow.)

I've taken Elaine O's example of doing quick direct studies of other artists' portrait work. I didn't want to copy her by doing Sargent, so I used Gustave Courbet for this week's studies. I hope I can bring more spontaneity to my paintings, and have the finished work show some transparency, rather than looking like gouache. 

I may not have anything to post next week--I'm going up to my sister's new home in Wisconsin for a few days! I promise to post some quick paintings of her house and the woods surrounding it.

an oddity

 I cut my old sketch papers into four pieces and use the back of them as sacrifice sheets.  I turned this one over, and I was like this is interesting.  It was for the background on the first tiger and I don't know what the purpose of the green blob was, but it suddenly looked like a monk on the edge of a forest facing out to a misty morning.  Probably just me, but I'll pass it along for what, if anything, it is worth.

another fishy in the sea

 

It looks balanced to me.  I don't know if some stranger looking at it would have any idea what it is or if that would matter.  Sorry for the lateness, had the doldrums.

Elaine O. — September 12, 2020

I'm finished with this. I was afraid to lose what I had in terms of likeness, so I kept everything else light and simple. I didn't go as dark with her hair and eyes as I normally would, and, as a result, I think this has a more typical watercolor feel. 

 

From there, I sketched and began work on this painting. I'm trying to get beyond "a pretty picture" and go for an expression or a vibe or an action. Here, she's ready to spring into action; I let her fill the frame so it feels like she's going to burst out. We'll see how that works.

 

And here are a couple more sketches in the Sargent project. I can see what he's doing far better than I can replicate it. Still, I'm hoping that way of seeing filters into my own paintings. What I like is that he seems to look carefully and then paint only the minimum necessary, laying down the fewest number of strokes and letting them be.

Sara’s Rainy Week

 

When it rains, I paint. I think this is finished, but I’m not sure. Looking at it now, I see I’ve sort of emphasized the baby and left everything sort of faded. Violet is just a weird color to work with. I expect it to be dark in value but it really isn’t. Fortunately in real life the dress is black and gold — so much more hippie chic...!

I love these 2 sketches—I feel like I’m getting more adventurous with the pen— a Coptic .03 — a little thin but it does the job. 

So here’s a project I started yesterday. I actually did the small sketch first, then the freehand value study, then the bigger sketch, then the painting. You can see in the photo below the beautiful colors in her face, but the values are very dark, much darker than I achieved. I’m going to do another one on heavier paper, so I’m open to advice for improving it. I just love the look of determination on her face that says “Can’t you see I’m working here?!”

Happy painting!

Sara’s Summer Fades....

So, I worked on this quite a bit last week, but I haven’t really looked at since Friday. I must say, that break was good - I like it a lot more than when I last worked on it! I need to darken the values of the blouse and do more work on the skirt and put in some trees in the upper right. But I like the faces and skin tones — I’m going more for mood than resemblance. FYI everyone knows when you look at images in the blog, you can enlarge them onscreen with two fingers — at least I can. It’s a helpful feature imo...
 

Relocated Farmers Houses at Yangtze River

 While cruising thru Yangtze River, I was fascinated by cute charming houses hugging the mountains guarding the river. For a brief moment, I envied the owners of these " vacation houses" as having reached the creme de la creme of housing as having a second house to spend their weekends and holidays. This illusion was shattered by the late explanation of our tour guide who told us that these houses on the mountain sides were relocated farmer houses who lost their neighborhoods, source of income & farms by the construction of the massive Three Gorges Dam. First Impression sometimes are like Pandemic Face Masks!