Day 3#

Painting #3

July 1, 2012

For my third painting I wanted to do a still life, which is not something I have done since college. With the exception of a pencil drawing with a teacher. Funny enough the drawing has the same pitcher in it. 

I chose this pitcher because they have sentimental value and I love them. I say them because there are actually three of them in varying sizes. This is the mid size - not that any one would know that by looking at this. The challenge was finding fabric to use as a back drop, I don't have any! This fabric is actually an old hair cutting cape from years ago when I was a hairdresser. It is a nylon fabric and it is iridescent purple, with tones of pink and blue. I didn't want to throw all those colors in it in the painting because I thought it would detract from the pitcher. The grapes on the pitcher and the cape are not really so similar in color but I wanted to keep the colors similar in the painting. 

Over all I am fairly pleased with the outcome the pitcher is a little distorted and I do think the fabric could have been a little softer looking but I think the shadows and highlights are fairly good.

Oil on canvas board
8"x10"

Day #2

Painting #2

June 29, 2012

I really enjoy this little painting. This is again oil on canvas board and is 8"x10" in dimension. I believe this one also took approximately 3 hours.

This again comes from a photograph taken by a friend and used with permission (check out the photo below).

I just loved the sharp contrast of the water and the color of the lily on this one and knew as soon as I saw it that I wanted to paint it. I am actually going to use this small painting as a study to do a larger version of it, I like it that much. I started this one with a black canvas to give it depth, although I am not sure I used the black to it's full advantage. The water is paynes grey and white, a little sap green in the murky area also black in the shadows on the water under the pads. I also added a little naples yellow in the highlights. The lily pads are sap green, raw sienna, naples yellow, white, black an a little toned paynes. The flower has alazarin crimson, white, paynes, naples, and peony. I did not attempt to keep the pads in the same place as the photo and kind of just went with the flow on that. Nor did I try to copy them, but really was just using them as a reference. The flower I also used more as a reference than to try and copy it exactly. The only preliminary work I did on this piece was to paint the canvas black the night before and to draw some chalk outlines for the pads, other wise it was another off the cuff painting.

Day #1

Painting #1 

June 28, 2012

My first painting pictured left is on an 8"x10" canvas board using oils. My goal on this was to challenge myself in the area of trying to not over think the image. To keep it simple and imply the image more than copy it. The image is taken from a friends photograph, which I first obtained permission to copy. With the promise that I would publish the painted image on FaceBook so that he could see it. I am fortunate enough to have him as a friend because he is such a wonderful photographer and takes a lot of what I refer to as micro's. His original photo is pictured below to show what I was working from. My first task was to create background that implied the foliage background of the original image without trying to paint actual foliage and then blur it out. I used mainly sap green, naples yellow and some white for the back ground. The leaf itself is also those colors with the addition of burnt sienna and a little ultra marine blue. The water droplets were a first for me and again I didn't want to over think them, just get them in and not be as nit picky as I can be. They are a blend of white, black, ultra marine and sap green. The original also had many more droplets than I put in place and of course the size variance is obvious. In hindsight I could have put more water in but I don't think it subtracts from the over all effect. I didn't want to try and put all the veins in, which I would have previously tried to do. I chose to just imply that they exist by throwing in a couple of lines here and there. Over all I am pleased with this project and think it was a great starting point. I did not come close to finishing this painting in an hour however, I estimate it was more like three.