Trading card merch….

 Here are the two little sample tablets from Blicks. One is yupo heavy and the other 140# coldpress, both 2.50 x3.75, 10 sheets for $2.50. I bought them at the Evanston Blicks @ Xmas time, they were in a basket near the checkout line. No, I haven’t used them yet….

I think this is finished. I did a couple blue washes over the background to fade it into the mist and add more mystery to this painting of a 23 year old 3rd grade schoolteacher in 1963, posing on Easter Sunday, somewhere near Carmel, Calif.

One final painting of a cold December night, done with just 3 colors: ultramarine blue, yellow ochre and burnt sienna.I like the top half better than the bottom…maybe I’ll move on to a cold January night…

Bean done

 

Satisfied that I have softened the background buildings, I am calling it done. The  actual painting doesn’t have that drastic variation in the sky. It is 10-3/4 x 13-3/4 which fits into a standard 16x20 mat. 

punkin 5

 Almost done here, just the stem and the far piece and then a little housekeeping.

Alan gave me a sheet of yupo and it is like having a brand new roller skates, no ice skates and a smooth sweep of ice and a pair of dagger skates.  It may be a while before I can calm down enough to do like an apple.

Elaine O. — January 28, 2023

I finished the alley scene of the trumpet vine breaking through the cracks between neighboring fences. It looks quite different today, all quiet and snow-covered. I'm looking forward to seeing the vines in bloom again.

10" x 13"

5 Minute Warmups — January 28, 2023

We're back to doing 5 minute warmups....although we did them halfway through, so I don't know if we can call them "warmups." Still, they were useful. Again, reference pages to the left and 5 minute paintings to the right. Ken's reference was sleek and minimal...

 

...while Allison's was soft and delicate.

Susan's reference photo was full of pattern.

Sara got an intricate cityscape...

...and Elaine got a whole spread.

SS: Romance among the Waters

 The painting was inspired by a photo of my husband and myself walking along the river in a rainforest area near my Philippine hometown more than 10 years ago. I started with lots of greenery, rocks and watery stones and trickles of water. I aimed also to paint some light coming thru the Bamboos and palm trees. Initially the male and female figures are standing in front of the mini waterfall. I was inspired however by the gouache effects of Allison and Brian's art works and the painting of the water now almost covered half of the paper. And the couple are now having a Date under the Water!

And the falling water took over the painting with some background wash peeking through! And then I went to bed!

I’ve always wanted to paint The Bean

 Cloudgate in Millenium Park is ever changing. It’s a reflective surface and a fabulous shape. Because it might end up hanging around with my descendants (plan to give it to a grandson), I’m trying to be discerning but not too critical lest I get carried away with corrections. 

After class, I set it up on the piano ….. viewing it first from a distance and then close up. I made notes about what to do. My left brain has to speak so I make notes and go from there. 

 Trading Cards:  Check out The Mind of Watercolor (Tom Mitchell) on You Tube. Painting Watercolor Greeting Cards and Trading Cards. 

Alan on Yupo

 Here are the next two looks at the narcissus bulb after having been sprayed with a fixative that allow you to handle the work without smudging it. 

 

This is a finished version of my mini peppers at the Jewel. I don’t know if I will be doing many more of these although each pepper is an exercise in itself. 

This is a painting of the inner harbor down the street from where we stay in Ocean Springs. It may need to be larger for me to get the details that it needs.   There are several things that I like about it though. 

I’m currently working with aquaboard.  I like the texture that it has and it’s fairly forgiving when painted.  This is just the first layer of the painting with more layers to be I added.

NOTICE

 Phone left in class. I think it belongs to Jennice. We turned it into Security- Mr. Appleberry. He was taking it to main security office at front of main building. They are open until 5 today. 

Ss: January Surprise & Art

Consul Ryan Pondoc of Philippine Consulate just recently informed me that a Watercolor painting of mine is hanging in one of the offices of the Ph Consulate. I have not seen it for 13 years! What a joy for an Artist to discover that one of her Creative output has found a Sanctuary in the Consulate, even surviving the office's  move from the 30 N. Michigan Avenue to 122 S. Michigan Avenue in the recent years. I remember that my fellow Watercolor artists ( dressed to the nines &  one in Armani!) attended the October 2010 reception of the group exhibit of 7 Pinoy Artists entitled " The Filipino Artists in Chicago". It was an exciting event, a celebration of the October Artist Month. I am thankful for the support and blessing from the Ph Consulate, fellow artists, my Watercolor class, my fellow Accountants & Walgreens, the sponsors! Sadly, some of the participants have left Chicago & some have died! On a happier note, I sold 2 smaller paintings to a lady doctor from Michigan Avenue ( my first sale!). She bought them for her bedroom. I am humbled and joyful that my  9" x 12" paintings have inspired comfort & sleep to the lady doctor and the 18" X 24" Flowers in a Vase in the Consulate 

have witnessed hard work and decision making! Life is Short and Art is Forever! 

Creating Atmosphere…

 

 

This probably has enough paint on it. While working on this, I kept thinking of a quote from Mitchell Johnson, who does large paintings of houses, chairs, boats, etc. He said, “I’m not painting a picnic table. I’m trying to turn a picnic table into a painting.” Well, I’m trying to turn my nighttime alley into a painting.I think I came close to accomplishing that aim. Still thinking about values over color and trying to create a mood over a picture. And I still have to work on creating more neutral darks.

Revisiting this view of my sister. I like the idea of creating an “iconic” portrait of each of my siblings. I did the one of my brother as a teenager carrying all the cameras on a vacation to Yellowstone. This view of my sister on the California coast has the same resonance for me. But I never really resolved the background to my liking, so I’m taking another shot.

Ken's Ten Cat Show

 

The Ten Cat had a sudden gap in their window calendar and I have tons of paintings in the plastic shelving that lines my bedroom. 

I’m planning on having an opening Thursday, February 9^th, old paintings, blabbermouth old painter, and cold weather, but if you choose to go anyway there will be Armand’s pizza.  3931 N Ashland Avenue, 5 – 7 PM.

You can see a preview of the paintings here: http://www.bckat.us/KenSchadt/2023j/index.html.

Alan and Peyronies

 Did a couple quick sketches of the paper white narcissus bulb as it grows up. Ken showing decline, me showing growth. These are two more watercolor on Yupo. This is more of a top view.

I took it out of the little bowl before transplanting it into a bigger container and painted the bottom view. I like the roots. 

After transplanting it into a bigger pot I plan to do a bigger version. Maybe Yupo and regular cold press. 

I continue to work on my Yupo version of mini peppers at the Jewel that Greeta insists reminds her of the bentcarrot.com ad.  I think that I have the basic structure and am going from pepper to pepper using different techniques to make each one interesting. 

Make a nice shirt. 

Clouds Re-Do

I (Allison) wanted to attempt a re-do on the clouds from my ice skating ribbon painting last Saturday. Trying a more wet on wet technique. I like how they turned out :)

While I like the wet on wet clouds better, I think the original clouds/sky is growing on me. It feels like it fits with the rest of the painting.

parade o punkins

 I didn't get to shoot my mouth off about Pete in the last class but it was just so jammed.  He is all different forms of blue/orange black, but I wanted to set him off from the background with my current BFF viridian/rose, and I think it makes a cool lonely counterpoint to his merry presence.

And here is the current punkin, a cropping of a former punkin.  The black is perylene green and there is some viridian and rose added on top.  We'll see how it goes.

An Announcement, A Question, and a Crooked Little Pot

 Just noticed Art Institute is free to IL residents Mon, Thu, Fri from 1/9 until 3/24. 

Can anyone suggest beginning on-line watercolor instruction?  You Tube demos?

A friend who took Truman class years ago is now out of town and in a situation where she can’t take an in-person class but would very much like to get back into it. 

Good example of what happens when there’s no drawing practice🙄

Elaine O. — January 21, 2023

It's great to be back painting in a group! Like many of us this new year, I'm trying to get back into my painting groove. Here's a view of my alley with a trumpet vine breaking through the cracks of two fences. This is basically a study to work out composition and colors. I still have a weathered wood fence, along with the aforementioned flowering vine, going into that great white void.

9" x 12"

Greeting Cards, Bubbles, Marbles, Hexagons, and a Tree.

Since our last class a few weeks ago, I kept busy with some exercises on simple shapes - playing around with color and consistency, and trying to figure out how to make use of white gouache.  

I've found I really enjoy working small like this. I'm calling these items greeting cards, and planning to give them away, which helps me not be precious about any single piece so I can move on to experimenting with the next one.

Also, someone with a sharp eye/memory may notice that the top-right one is one of our five-minute challenges, ripped in half, with a decontextualized purple-yellow marble on it. Cuz why not.

Breaking Through The Wall Part 2

 The bulb split into 3 parts. It has greenery and roots. Out of my garlic cup filled with pea gravel and into a pot. 

Breaking Through The Wall

 Alan worked on and off for 2 days trying to register us on line. Then I had the bright idea to just go on line as a complete newbie but neither of us were able to input my birth date. So off to Truman to register in person. 

Laura was not there!  The woman who helped was probably Laura’s boss….she has just heard our tale of woe and now she has no idea what to do. Another woman shows up and she can help. We fill out forms and she takes us to another office. Carlos takes our forms and goes to a computer terminal to input info we should have been able to input at home. He’s gone for awhile….we can see him moving to different terminals. Then he disappears. He is smiling when he returns. We are registered. He had a lot of trouble and had to go to his supervisor who also had trouble.  

Because we know no credit cards accepted when u pay in person, we go to cashier and write personal checks.   

We knew the drill. It took us about an hour after we got there and we knew where to go. I am just now noticing there's no pic icon to show my narcissus breaking through. 

Alan

 My paper white bulb is coming along. Not as well as Greeta’s but then I’m not a natural mother. Watercolor on Yupo.

Here’s all of them on a strip of Yupo.  They’re very small But a lot of fun. 

I may have completed my 4th hole dogleg left painting with Chicago in the background. I couldn’t get Marina City in there. I can now see the shot shape now and I like the trees better. Watercolor on 140.

Looking forward to seeing you all in class Saturday. 

Gouache Life

I started break feeling VERY ambitious. Tried to copy Harry Styles' album cover.
Harry deserves better than this!!
Bryan thinks I'm being to hard on myself, but I KNOW what I THOUGHT I could accomplish and this ... is not it!

After humbling myself I poked around YouTube and found some beginner watercolor challenges and took a crack at a few.

All of these were painted using gouache. I do get frustrated with blending and layering. For now, I'm going to assume it's not me, it's the gouache :)

Hmm, maybe I will never purchase watercolor so I can always blame the paint!!

Studying the Studies….

 I know, I shouldn’t be photographing them this way, but they’re just studies…in the top one, I’m trying to work out the light and dark shapes…I’m not really interested in details, more the values and color temperature. The bottom one is from a cute photo of my friend’s grandson…trying to figure out the color palette here & how to paint a cat….

And here’s a strange still life that was oddly satisfying to paint…there’s a lot of layers on this little sheet of paper…looking forward to class, I need to see other people painting in real time!

Elaine O. — January 14, 2023

Before judging the quantity (or quality) of my recent efforts, bear in mind that I've spent a good deal of time recovering from a case of Covid and am just starting to get my painting mojo back. Still curious to compare/contrast gouache and watercolor, I painted the same still life in each medium, gouache on the left and watercolor on the right....

Some thoughts? In no particular order....

• I'm blown away by the results Bryan and Allison were able to get as newbies, having bought gouache instead of watercolor.
• Gouache is not meant to be layered repeatedly.
• There's a learning curve to color in gouache--blending, glazing, and how the color shifts as it dries.
• After I painted the gouache still life, I thought it was awful and looked forward to trying it again in watercolor the next day. The next day, I found the gouache didn't look as bad as I remembered, and the watercolor was harder than I anticipated. Turns out I like bits of each of them.
  
• Still life is fascinating! Why don't I do more of them?
  
• In any medium, ultramarine and burnt sienna are magic!
  

Pete in his prime

 His first night out, a happy young lad.  Using my new dagger brushes,  way cool.  Experimenting with blue-orange mixtures that lead to black.  The background, balcony posts and some twining withered vines and leaves, will use the viridian/rose combo.

and a new guy

 I know I already have posted for this week, but I just began a view of him when he was just a lad.  AND I just bought a couple dagger brushes and I am very excited about using them on these two studies and I am pleased as punch.