I could not wait to post this new colorful painting I’m working on. This is taking no time at all. I haven’t even washed my brush out, that’s how fast I’m going through this painting.
My palette consists of Ultramarine Blue, Red Oxide, Naples Yellow, Burnt Umber, and Titanium White. This is a fun experiment with value and color. I think it’s a bit more fresh than my last piece and will try to incorporate what I’ve learned so far in the next painting.
Real quick post cause I’m going out to dinner. Here is the final painting. Thanks for following. Oh yeah, I’ve already started another one so I’ll be posting soon.
I decided that I wanted to paint a “traditional” portrait. A bust of a woman with a strong profile. I chose a book of portraits by Rembrandt as my reference. Mostly for ideas for background colors and composition. I am using a limited palette of Naples Yellow, Yellow Ochre, Burnt Sienna, Burnt Umber, Ultramarine Blue, and Titanium White. I used this palette with my first Morphing painting and I had a lot of positive feedback, so I’m trying it again.
I’m posting my final value thumbnail, the layout, and a detail of it now. Hopefully, I’ll be posting the final painting in the next few days.
I took a photo of the Color Garden at Cheekwood last summer with the soul intention of using it for reference in a painting one day. Well, that day, entire week actually, has finally arrived. I think I’m almost finished. I’m on the fence on whether to call it done or work in a few mid-ground details. I feel that it could benefit from a bit more depth. What do you think?
I love when an opportunity arises where I’m able to grab my painting kit and canvas and spend a couple hours en plein aire. Janelle has been volunteering several hours a week working in the garden of the historic Croft plantation home at the Nashville Zoo so I decided to tag along yesterday. This small painting was the outcome of an hour and half standing outside in the gorgeous surroundings and beautiful weather. I had a great time and can’t wait to go back and paint another scene.
Janelle and I went to the Frist Museum yesterday. Fairy Tales, Monsters, and the Genetic Imagination Exhibit was absolutely fascinating. It definitely inspired me to take another look and even make slight changes in the conceptual direction of my latest painting.
I’m 99.9% sure I just finished this piece. I had a lot of fun working on it and can’t wait to start the third in the series.
I love it. I hate it. That area is nice. What were you thinking? Cool. Yikes! Are you going to paint over that? Don’t give up.
Those are just a few thoughts that went through my head early this week while working on this new painting. That feeling of uncertainty happens when I don’t have a solid game plan.
However, I do see some good qualities in the painting. Perhaps I need to turn it around, go back and do some thumbnails, and maybe I’ll find a solution sooner rather than later.
I started the owl painting some time ago(7months) with the help of Janelle and we lost interest in it pretty quickly. I think it might have been because I started working on the detail way to early. I didn’t see a way it could be resolved at that stage of the game, so naturally I got bored, turned the painting around, and moved on to something else.
Well, lately I’ve been creatively amped up. I’m drawing and painting all of the time, throwing acrylic on canvas even working on more than one piece at a time. At some point this past week, I pulled the canvas out from behind the easel and decided to finish the owl painting. All I needed to do was wash out all of the detail and add a few minimal touches here and there and voilà.
Stopped noodling it.
Tweaked it here and there.
Now its complete and I’ll touch it no more.
I started a larger painting this weekend. The concept has been floating around in my head and on a few pages in my sketchbooks, but has yet to evolve into a painting until now. Several people have encouraged me to continue and develop this idea of morphing bird heads with figures for some time.
I’m attaching the sketch, the canvas drawing, and the start of the under-painting. I’m excited to work through this piece.
Here’s an update of the progress on this painting. I look forward to hearing your feedback. Thanks.
