Alan fixin’ stuff and practicin’

 Thanking Ken for his thoughtful hints, I worked on this Yupo some more. 

This is the starter’s house at the first tee at Marovitz golf course on the lake painted with watercolor on aquaboard covered with a layer of gesso. 

These are a series of practice sketches on hot press. 

I intensified the colors in this sketch.

This is a graphite drawing with a watercolor wash. 

I can’t think of anything else to do with this so I guess it’s done. 

PaInting Inside The Box and Sledgehammer Water Scene

 The two sided paper box is draped with a cloth and lit with a clip on booklight.  The light is moved around until u get the best shadow(s). After the object is drawn, overhead light is turned off and u paint. Kinda hard to paint in the dark, but very meditative. 

The lake scene had a wonderful delicate quality until I made a mistake. I was then free and ended up with careless mistakes. From delicate to sledgehammer. 

A Couple of Couples …

 This is done. 

Now this is no masterpiece, but compared to how it looked when I left class yesterday, it’s somewhat improved.I’m not sure what that brown streak is, maybe the shadow of my iPad when taking the pictures.this is the first time I’ve drawn little figures in the background and they’re not half bad.A learning exercise and I’ve learned this pose doesn’t quite work….

Punkin time

 Not that much different from the last time you saw it. Outlined the jellyfish a bit, separated the concentrics, put a little more paint in the feelers, and nothing came to me for about five minutes so I am calling it done.

Forgot my palette for class Saturday so had to pussyfoot around on a limited lifeboat palette, but now that I have this baby home I laid on the perylene green into the holes and now it is all making more sense to me.

Alan at practice.

These are some small quick practice pieces using a single light source inside a cardboard box. 

This is an ink contour drawing with washes. 

I spent more time with this graphite drawing. 

Here are some of my Christmas ornaments that are not as wobbly as I’ve painted them. 

I ran out of stuff to paint so I just drew and painted stuff in my art bag. 

 I deepened some shadows and added a turquoise/emerald green wash over the blouse on my portrait of Greeta. I think it works better but I still didn’t get what I was looking for.

I continue to work on this Yupo piece looking down a long driveway towards the Gulf of Mexico.  It’s getting better. 

December 3, 2022—Warmup

Once again, we did the 5 minute warmups. Sara's column of fire was spectacular... and she finished early (with seconds to spare)...

 ...while Ken successfully managed hands (using the full 5 minutes).

Even though she went small this time, Elaine O. still needed more time on the deep background.

Alan working things out

 I saw this old painting of mine displayed on a large computer screen and recognized immediately what was wrong with it. So…. I went into my archives and hauled it out. After a little while I think I made it better. Be careful using ink to do the small branches of a tree. I was trying to get the first green of spring but I lost that with the branches so prominent.  I also did some work on the foreground.

Before

After

I’m still working on Greeta.  I might have to use more pigment on the blouse but I really like it and don’t want to screw it up.

Couples Redux….

 Here’s my second attempt of this double portrait. I made a few changes to the background that improve the composition imo. I also redrew Andrew’s face and hand. I like the way I painted the background, but I’m going to darken the sky a bit more. (I redrew her face & can't seem to get rid of the previous outline.) Still debating on the blanket color. I love, love, love this 300lb Stonehenge 100% cotton paper. It absorbs the paint so well. I really like where this is going & Hope I don’t ruin it in the next few hours….

Still moving along

 I've put about fifty hours into this thing, and you know, I think I am making progress.

Happy Thanksgiving

 Two versions of a pumpkin. Street scene from a FB post on Pictures of Chicago—-photo by Martin Spicuzza. The buildings and yellow foliage went well, but I missed the boat on the red tree and that orange bush/tree made me crazy.