Out of sorts…

 Here are the two paintings I was working on in class.i added some dark hair to the portrait and I actually think it looks pretty good as a painting and as a hand drawn likeness. On the bottom one those  Chinese lanterns are still floating a bit but I like how they are painted.i like the bowl too, i just wish the whole thing was on a bigger piece of paper with a more interesting background…

I can’t seem to insert the link to the video about using guided access to lock your screen for tracing. Search google for how to lock your iPad screen for tracing and watch thevideo from Technomtry. 

Darken this, Define That, More Color Here, What Happened There…..This Could Go On Forever

 Composition not to my liking but fun with color especially Daniel Smith Perylene Maroon and Quinacridone Coral. 

Four more cone flower heads.

This is 9x12, a quick take with background and sky.

This is a cute postcard.  

This is on half of an old Arches rough paper block.  Works a lot differently from my regular Strathmore.

 Another postcard. Experimenting with Prussian blue which has been mouldering on my palette for several years.

Alan Fall 3 adding value

 I needed to add darker values to my cabin interior painting. Greeta gave me a set of watercolor brush pens for my birthday and I thought that it would be good to use them to add value as they have strong values out of the box. Then you use a clear water brush to blend them in the painting. It’s       8 1/2 X 11 on cold press  

Before:

After:

Got some more to do but happy with the direction I’m going. 

Another look at adding value to my painting of me sitting with a sculpture in front of an art museum in Sarasota Fla.  it’s 8 X 6 on Arches cold press  

Still have work to do but it’s a start.  Need to remove the maskit to see what needs to be done.

The beginning of an autumnal landscape of the lake outside my cabin in Michigan.  It’s basically the first wash layer with some positional shapes.  11 X 14 on Yupo.

SS Nalvany Blue 102624

 Sixty Minutes, a Weekly feature show by TV network Channel 2, recently featured the late Alexis Navalny and his wife Julya. Alexis passed away in February 2024 in a Siberian prison where he was jailed when he returned to his homeland, after he recovered in a German hospital from poisoning. He passed away at 47 years old. After Sunday 60 minutes,  I felt I have a painting inside my head! My first round of watercolor painting done at home showed him as an older guy. This is the finished painting after 2  hours erasing,  blending, adjusting,the watercolor on my portrait project, the dissident young man, inside the Truman watercolor class. During my painting session, I felt a strong wave of sadness: too young! too brave! too soon. I will paint the background later!

Cone heads

 

Actually cone flowers shorn of their petals and glory but still standing up proudly in the Lurie Gardens.  Looks like kind of a series, but well, you never know.

All postcards.

I paint therefore I am?

 

Here’s a little warmup direct painting: The Last Roses of Summer. I like it.

Another warmup painting. It needs less house, more sky and tree.

Another Brittany painting. I like this one.

This is finished. The girls are a little overworked, but I think I’ll send it to my sister. I like this bigger type. I can read it! It reverts back after I load an image, but I just reset each time. Looking forward to seeing everyone next week!

October 19, 2024 — Elaine O.

I'm intrigued by glass lately, so I decided to try some more. Here are some marbles on a carpet. I liked the way the light hit them in the reference photo.

9" x 12"

Do you notice that I'm back to trying new things—subjects, techniques, materials—until my next inspiration strikes? I figure if/when it does, at least I'll be working near some paint! 

Class Photo — Fall I 2024

We tried a new technique for our timed photo. We weren't quite sure when the camera was going to go off, so you can see us in various stages of smiling. Rest assured, though, that we were all happy to be painting together!

Alan Fall 2

 Inspired by Sara’s in-to-out paintings I tried to paint this interior of my cottage living room. 

I’m not thrilled with it although everything is in the right place. I think that it lacks value. Greeta bought me a set of watercolor brush pens that I’ll use to update this painting. It’s 8 1/2 X 11 on cold press. 

This is our bountiful heirloom tomato crop. It’s in my 5 X 5 sketchbook on hot press. 

A little bit of everything….

 

Here’s my ode to fall. It’s almost exactly the way I wanted it! That doesn’t happen very often!

Last of the summer produce, beets and turnips. I actually like this one too! I really enjoyed painting both of these, maybe because I didn’t have expectations about how they would turn out. I just went with the process.

 

A triple portrait— am I crazy or what? I just liked the reference photo because my sister and Nora illustrate my family’s sense of fashion—bright colors! — and Quinn is dressed by her mother in muted grays and blues! I also like the difference in Nora and Quinn’s poses: Nora is in classic school picture pose- stand up straight and smile! Whereas Quinn is her natural beautiful self. I like how my sister is painted, but Quinn needs a little color to her shirt and maybe Nora needs a little more face definition. Maybe a darker background to make them pop? 

Here’s a little less irritated Brittany…I think I need a better reference photo…does anyone know how to make this font bigger while typing? I am going blind trying to correct my mistakes. I can’t tell a comma from a period…

Pretending There’s Fall Color

 Attended a workshop at Bill Bartelt’s studio. The plan was to walk around and take photos, then work in the studio. No color, so we worked from his photo collection.. I love Bill’s work and his method of doing short demos and roaming around with advice and then displaying and discussing the work was effective.  Google him. However his studio is small and there were 10 students!  Had been to his studio during art walks, so I was thinking his limit must be 5 tops.   

Maybe I’ll devote this fall  to painting trees.   Looking at this photo I can see some branch work to be done….and leaves ….where are the leaves. 

Order and chaos

 This is postcard size. It was originally just an abstract of green, yellows, and darks, but as I finished it the Florida hurricanes hit CNN and I thought it looked a bit like palms flailing in the wind so I added those dark shapes that could be seagulls or debris caught in the deadly winds.

I like the contrast of order and chaos (broken patterns).  In this one I started out with those vertical, horizontal, and diagonal lines and at one point it had a nice chaotic look, but as I kept on (Everytime you paint over you lose what is beneath) the order was just too strong.  I still like the rusty crusty center though.

Here I started with a less symmetric set of lines and chaos was able to hold its own.  Out of control I thought this morning as I was finishing it up, but then that yellow explosion held everything together I thought.

This are croppings from that last painting.  See this is what I like where stuff is painted over and over the whole thing looks scraggly and dirty, but I don't know if anybody else likes that stuff. 

October 12, 2024 — Elaine O.

There are paintings and there are "learning opportunities." This is the latter, and it's been a good one. The reference was a pale flower in clear glass against a pale background. I missed some contrast, so I put in a deep dark background. That did not work, so I scrubbed it out to this, which is also not quite right. I do like the vase and stem, though.

12" x 9"

Working Small at the Cottage

 Had big plans to work on exercises in Portrait Painting in Watercolor by Charles Reid. Instead, did two little 3x5s in moleskin book. Little cottage on our road for sale. 

Low energy paintin I

 These are small, about 4x6. I like how I painted the vase in the top one.And the composition is somewhat interesting. The bottom one just didn’t turn out as well. These sort of satisfy my need to go in with a lot of paint, but they end up looking heavy, but sometimes I kind of like that look. I think I’m trying to paint like Greeta. Her colors always look so vivid and luminous but solid.

I’m working on a portrait of Brit, my daughter in law. I finally found a photo where she is not smiling, altho she doesn’t look particularly happy either. I drew the top one freehand just to get a feel for her features and the bottom I ttraced the photo off my iPad I like how I painted he eyes but her face is a little ruddy.That shadow on the top one is just me taking the photo. I can’t decide if the pose is worth pursuing…is she just going to say I look so sad?

Nice to see everyone on Saturday— several dedicated newbies!

October 5, 2024 — Elaine O.

Finished! I had some serious doubts when I sat down to do the fine straight lines of the wrought iron. Did I want to attempt this? Do I even need it? But I pushed through and I really do think I needed them. That fence adds a real sense of space and weight (and I really don't care if the lines are a bit wobbly!).

14" x 11"

The finishing touches took much less time than I allotted, so I had time to kill. I zoomed in on a group of tourists to do this direct watercolor. 

12" x 9"

Working at home

 Did quite a bit of work on this over the week, chiefly working on those dense patches in the upper right and lower left so they wouldn't dominate so much.  Strangely those thin stripes seems to have made them look not so dominating and oppressive.  

This is my favorite postcard from few weeks ago.

This is a 9x12 version I did today, not quite finished need to lighten up the shell of Chicxulub, which I am calling this.  Chicxulub (Chick-shoo-lube) is the meteor that smashed into Yucatan and wiped out the dinosaurs.  I may do a little series on this, or maybe not.

Then and Now

 Before I joined the watercolor class in the fall of 1989 I was doing things like these.  They were markers on typing paper  9x9"

So this is the same thing only it is watercolors and 18x24" and the triangles and rectangles are studies in how different paints mix. but also I hope that they are attractive little designs in themselves and that the whole thing is pleasing to the eye.  There is a little more work to be done on in but this is substantially what it will look like when I am done.