Still on the road

 This has been sitting on the table taunting me since Christmas and I have been avoiding it because I am in a bit of a funk, but the deadline of showtime forced me to do something. a little on the burnt sienna on the road, a little yellow in the trees and some work on the clouds.  Trying to break up that big one near the horizon by segmenting it a little, and just fooling around with the blues.  That phthalo blue looks nice going down but once it dries it leaves a sooty residue that I can't do anything with.

December 30, 2023 — Elaine O.

Well, what with the holidays and all, I've finally returned to Monet's chickens. I'm intrigued enough by chickens to do this again, taking all the lessons I learned here. I think I need more "chicken sketching" before I'm confident enough to really get their shape and movement. Also, I tried some new texturing techniques on the ground and I both overdid it and stopped too soon. Next year!

Monet's Chickens    14" x 11"

Have a wonderful New Years Day and a wonderful new year. 

Yes, we have no bananas….

 In fact we have floating bananas in the quick sketch. I took a little more time with the second one.i like the bananas and the plate but not crazy about the shadows.I painted both from life. I’m just not getting the shadow thing tho. I guess I’m painting the edges of the shadow too hard, but shadows do have hard edges, don’t they?

Here’s another still life from life. I like the second one, but there’s not enough contrast between the shadow of the bowl and the plate. but the lime turned out well imo. Maybe I’ll do one more version of this on better paper. And that will be a wrap for 2023! Happy new year!

Alan Winter 1

 All right!  I added some darker values to the trees. I don’t know if it’s enough for you but I can add more. On Yupo. 8 1/2 by 11  

A little something for Christmas. I followed a YouTube lesson about negative painting. I’ll do better next year. Cold press 6 X 8.

I finished the Columbus Park lagoon sketch. It’s a little more subtle in real life. The camera really picked up the yellow-green. If you look close you can see Geoffrey Baer in the background. On hot press 5 X 10.

I was looking down my street towards Clark last night and I did this urban sketch of the Citgo gas station on the corner. I’m determined to do more cars. 

Looking at it further, I think I’ll try to make the sky darker and do some more work with the trees. On hot press 5 X 5. 

Goin down the road feeling bad.

 Was going down ok, but then I got like a random vertical line in the road in the lower left corner and I could not get it out.  Wet it, pulled it out.  Put more paint over it and it still shone through, more water, more paper towels, more paint, more water, etc.  Mostly got it out but too much shows through. Basically gave up on it and that freed me up to be very loose on the sky.  Too loose, because that lower cloud is way too thick.  While I'm in my orange, yellow green palette I can put stuff down and pick it up.  But blue does not pick up well and leaves that dirty blue residue.

Still I think it has some promise.  Well not this one, but I think I will start something from scratch and use what I have learned.

Kind of like this break.  Having to work on a true work of art every week was getting too stressful for me.  I need time to  experiment. 

Classmate Collection #6

 Lost the profile because of the stupid bricks. Resorted once again to my magic brush. And then white gouache.  Then to white acrylic. Finally the white gel pen came into play. Lesson learned…..when the face is small,  not really necessary (or possible in my case) to worry about the nuance of color on skin. Now looking at it here, it appears the table is floating. Maybe it is!!  You never know what will happen when Ken is painting. Happy New Year one and

all. 

on the road again

 To a corn field I believe, if it does not get crushed by what appears to be maybe a toe of the jolly green giant, but this painting is being quite the Chatty Kathy, so I don't anticipate any problems here.

Alan Fall15

 I think I’m finished with this view of the pods in Biloxi. I increased the value in parts of the foliage of the live oaks. 

Some more urban sketching of alleys. I call this one “Transformer Alley” because of all the transformers outside Illinois Masonic Hospital. This is a 5 X 5 on hot press in my sketchbook. I like how Waterlogue highlighted the turquoise and Cobalt Blues. 

One of the things I like about the accordion style sketchbook is the ability to paint on multiple pages. So this is 5 X 10. It’s a view of the Columbus Park lagoon that was on a PBS show. I just took a pic of the tv screen and am having to remember what it was. But I know what it is. 

Classmate Collection #5 and 6

 Overworked Sara. Fussed with it a little bit more.  Without Pat’s help and my magic brush it would have been a total loss. My eye needs more measurement training. 

Unfinished Ken. Committed to the 8x8 format, I’ll have to do something to finish the lower right area. 

December 16, 2023 — Elaine O.

It's the last session of the year, so I thought I'd take things easy. Here, then, are some chickens. They are French chickens...specifically from Monet's chicken coop in Giverny. This was originally intended as a rough practice sketch as I don't know much about chickens...except that they are delicious. I'm not finished yet, but there are enough things I like to make it worth continuing. 

Monet's Chickens    14" x 11"

Tune in again to see more. Meanwhile, have a wonderful holiday and best wishes for a magical new year.