sepia one and two

 After a couple months of wandering in the wilderness I have decided that I will be revisiting some of what I consider my greatest hits, and doing them again predominately in sepia with small touches of earth colors.

I like the contrast between the background and foreground.  I am planning on adding small touches of those background colors to Annie and that should finish it.

This will be the next one and it comes from my corn period.

The Old Master

 I finished this in class yesterday, spending a great deal of time on the buildings and the blinds ( much to Pat’s chagrin…) They were  much too dark originally and competed with the main subject. I probably removed as much paint as I left on. But this paper is amazing. It’s Stonehenge Aqua Coldpress Heavy 300lb. Very durable, no pilling or buckling after multiple soakings, blotting and brushing to remove paint.I might go in a darken a few more bricks, but otherwise I’m happy with it.

Elaine O. — January 29, 2022

2022 has seen a lot of small experiments. Mostly, I've been playing in my sketchbook, waiting for my next big inspiration. I've tried a few things from magazine articles I saved and notes I made to myself... like painting with coffee. In case you're wondering, espresso powder yields better results than either fresh or used grounds, and dark roast isn't significantly different than medium. My verdict: I love the smell, but can't get dark enough darks.

I tried some very delicate flowers, which I liked...

 ...and very dark darks. Here I followed an article about creating and applying a deep velvety black, reminiscent of old Dutch still life paintings. I also tried painting the black over other colors. The jury is still out on this, but I'm not sure if I'll be doing this anytime soon—only because it's not my typical style.

I tried some neglected supplies, like this Cretacolor ArtGraph Red pencil. It's water soluble with a reddish cast. But it never gets really dark, so it's not as useful for value studies as I'd  hoped.

I wondered if watercolor pencils would be better. I tried quick gesture sketches, with water and without. I think I prefer them more for sketching than as part of a painting, especially since they can give me a decent range of values.

Other than that, I've been giving my new paintbrush a test drive with a 30-day challenge. More next week!

New semester

 I did a watercolor on canvas of Montrose Harbor as seen from the golf course. I kind of liked the texture of it. 

This is a value drawing (and I don’t do value drawings) of a bucolic scene somewhere in the Midwest. Probably taken from my car  

And this is the beginning of a Yupo version. We’ll see what happens  

Greeta paints Laura

 She’s the sister of our neighbor in MI. I’ve known her casually for many years. Have watched her as a young mother, then an empty nester, now a widow. She is an artist. The image is her own Facebook selfie. 

Studying the Old Masters….

I wanted to paint from life yesterday in class to sort of get my mojo back. So Ken was sitting in front of me and looked relatively alive, so I painted him.  I ended up washing out the background in order to put him in focus. Not a great painting but I think it’s ok to make bad paintings — I have shelves full of them…

 So of course I took some pics and today developed this sketch from the pics. I like juxtaposition of Ken painting against the straight lines of the  bricks and buildings. 

Now I’m working on a painting from the sketch, which looks a little more promising. Working from life once or twice removed I guess.
 

Annie in sepia and white

 I picked a familiar image to continue my sepia studies.  I've probably painted from this image twenty times,  The sepia went down well, soft, silky, and sooty.  And for me it is all about the paint, not the image.

Greeta catches up on Christmas

 

Lots of Christmas decor still in place here. I like this except for that one lumpy one. It is amazing what you see when you really look. 

puddle girls 2

 I separated them to work on their body language, not too bad for me I think.  May return to them over summer break, but for now I need a new subject for my next series.  Does anybody have any ideas?

Try, try again….

 Here’s my second attempt at the tree shadow. It’s painted better but overall it’s somehow less interesting imo. Maybe it’s the composition….

Here are some of my morning sketches, which is about all I’ve been doing lately. I do one a day and spend maybe 20 minutes n it. The top ones are just gel pen, the bottom ones I also used Pitt pens. I have a set of five or six in shades of gray to black. Handy for adding value, but I’m also trying to work on my crosshatching with just the pen. The pens ones look very cartoonish to me, as in Ron Chast, Gahan Wilson, etc., as in messy cartoonish….

Elaine O. — January 15, 2022

I finished the painting of the Chihuly in the Boston MFA. While the paper handled slightly better than the first sheet, it acted up on the lower quarter... right where the reflections and shadows are. So I know this paper won't be hosting any masterpieces. Also, I used this painting to test a new sword/dagger brush; I need to get to know it better, but so far, I like it alot!

Chihuly, Boston MFA    18" x 6"

Not much lately.

 I finished the Yupo painting of the inside of my friend’s Iris. It was very difficult but I finally liked it. 

This is a quick painting of of one of my Christmas ornaments. 

I’m trying to understand why I can’t comment on your work. Maybe Greeta can help me. We’ll see if I can post this. 

Seeking inspiration…

 

At top is the inspiration-a photo of the shadow of a tree…but I kind of missed it by a mile. My painting looks more like a tree. I can’t seem to figure out how to paint shadows that look like shadows in stead of objects. Frankly I’ve been totally uninspired for many days. I have all this time and no interest in painting anything. Finally today I took the teacher’s  advice and painted from life instead of an image:  a bowl of tomatoes …

It turned out better than I expected. I guess painting from life is my assignment this week….

Fast Puddle Girls Painting - Greeta

 

Limited Palette: Yellow Ochre,Cobalt Blue, Burnt Sienna and Neutral Tint. 

Some more girls

 Well the same girls actually.  Just another shot at them, a little better I think, learning as I paint how better to handle sepia, a little more knowledge of the maps of their faces, still debating with myself which is more important having a painting that looks good or having a painting that looks like the image.  Actually I have always believed that the former was more important, but still you have to go the image to look for clues about what made you like it.

Two weeks till class and success or failure I will abandon the girls for the next series.  No idea what that will be at this time.

Elaine O. — January 8, 2022

I've been ringing in the new year with a hodgepodge of things. I've revisited the Strathmore panorama paper to see if the problem was only with the first sheet, the whole pad, or me. This is the beginning of a painting of a glass sculpture in the Boston Fine Arts Museum.

 

I've also made a tenuous resolution to declutter (and not just my art supplies!). So, I've started a sketchbook wherein I do small quick sketches of things I'm saying goodbye to. That way, I have the memories but I don't have to dust them! More next week!

e;laine t / Winter Tree

 Now that we actually have below-freezing temps and some snow on the ground, I got motivated to wrap this one up. I added some white into the background trees, and that brought a lot more interest into the scene. My younger son and I have begun to paint together (now that I cleared my dining/art table for the holidays). He's working on some miniatures and I work on my painting. We take turns at being dj for the musical accompaniment, and we're learning a lot about each other as we listen to what moves us.

some girls

This is my third of fourth attempt at the puddle girls.  My plan is to do the whole painting in sepia and then maybe add just a bit of raw or burnt sienna, or something like that,  I have realized that not only do I like the subjects of the painting, but I like the look of the old photograph which when you try to enlarge it has a lot of imperfections,  Still at the first step of this project, using sepia, which for a staining, sooty color comes off looking soft and silky.

They look grotesque at this point but there are things I like about them.  I want to keep the expressions as I perceive them, but not necessarily the details.  I certainly don't want to get into worrying about getting a nose wrong.

I don't know where this is going,  It may be that no painting ever comes out of it, just a project I am indulging in over our winter break.

And where is everybody?

 

Elaine O. — January 1, 2022

Happy New Year! Now that the holidays are over and the gifts are opened, I can finally show what I've been working on. It's Brookgreen Gardens in South Carolina. This place is beautiful, huge and one of the top 10 gardens in the US. This is a gift to a couple that frequent the gardens and volunteer there, too.

And here it is, all framed and hung in place. That background wall color really suits, doesn't it?

And of course, I received some lovely gifts, too, including watercolor paper, a new sketchbook and two new brushes I'm quite excited about. I used one here, in fact. As you can see, I've been working (mostly) in my sketchbook so I can finish up the last few pages and break out my new one.

And I'm ringing in the new year by replacing my autumn jacket. I haven't sketched the new one yet, but here's my old coat. After 25-ish years, I've worn through an elbow and developed thin and shiny spots. Goodbye old friend.