Flamenco Dancing

This painting for sale.  Watercolor 9x12. $30

This was painted in response to a challenge on one of the artists sites that I belong to.  I decided to focus a little less on the features, (eyes, mouth,  nose, fingers, feet) and a bit more on the form. I am extremely excited that I was able to get such a good look from the pleats (or whatever they are called) that surround the bottom of her dress.

You look at her and you can just see her dancing around a room.  I really doesn't matter that there is nothing other than her in the picture.  Your mind fills in everything else.

I had a great time painting this.  Hope you all enjoy looking at it.

A Couple of Extras

This painting for sale.  Watercolor 5 1/2 x 8 1/2.  $8

 Here are a couple of paintings that I have had kicking around for a while. I don't think that either are particularly great, but I don't think that they are that bad either.

This painting for sale.  Watercolor 5 1/2 x 8 1/2.  $8

I was thinking that these would turn out is kind of a pin-up kind of way.  The first one I think does a pretty good job of that,  the bottom one, not quite so much.  Once again, on these, I think the hair was the hardest part.  I really like the shadowing on the top one, and actually like the skin tones on both.  I probably still have a way to go in painting people, but I think I'm getting closer.  I'll get there soon, but I think I might move on to a different subject matter for a while. Don't be surprised if starting next week there is a big run on some other topic of paintings.

Hope you all enjoy.

Woman on White Couch

Ok, I think I am getting better at hair.  I'm not saying this hair looks fantastic, but it looks better than the last one.

This is another one that might be destined to have a background put on at a later date.  I am, however, pretty pleased with the way this one turned out.

Surfing

This painting for sale.  Watercolor   71/ x 11  $10

Ok, I tried to have a little fun with this one.   Living on the left coast, surfing is pretty popular.  I don't do it myself, but i can appreciate all it takes to get  up before work, haul your gear to the beach, get into 50 degree water, and paddle out to sit in the cold water, with cold air blowing around you waiting for a wave.  Ok, Ok, maybe I don't really get it, but I thought I would give painting it a chance.

Another Portrait

Ok, here is another portrait.  I think I did ok on this one, but probably not great.  I like some of her skin.  But in other places, not so fond of it.  Hair is always a problem.  It's tough.  This was additionally tough given that she is a blonde.  How do I differentiate her hair enough from her skin to make you notice .

I liked the picture when I originally saw it, and still do.  Face, hand, arms and hair.  All the things I wanted to work on..... And all the things I think I still need to work on.

I do think the eyes are better.  The problem I had with this painting was trying to determine how dark to make the eyebrows and lashes.  The picture that I painted from has dark eyebrows and lashes, but they look too dark for some reason.

Well, I still think it is a good effort and I think I learned some really good things from painting it.  Hope you enjoy it.

More Sketching from the Hotel

This watercolor painting for sale.  5 1/2 x 8 1/2.  $7

 These are two pictures I did of centerpieces at the hotel last week.  Once again, I started to draw these, and then quickly decided that given my drawing skills it would be much easier to just paint them.  The flowers were in nice glass jars, and were mostly either green, or orange flowers.  There were the occasional calla lilly, but even those were pretty green.

Ok, ok, ok, I know they aren't the most technically perfect paintings in the world.  I didn't really try to paint a technically perfect painting.  I don't know that that is something I will ever do, but what I did was give a fair and accurate representation of the bouquets.

While I was painting the top one, I had several members of the convention I was working stop to talk to me about painting and watercolors and what not.  It was really nice to be able to chat about it.  

This watercolor painting for sale.  5 1/2 x 8 1/2.  $7

While painting this one, which is, again  just a simple painting of some flowers in a jar (errr, well the centerpieces on the tables),  I got the chance to talk to a couple of students that I might never had had the chance to spend much time with otherwise.  It was really nice to know we have such nice students at good ole Cal Poly.

I have to say that the paintings might not be the greatest, but the time to talk and share with those around me while I was painting more than makes up for and deficiency in the paintings.

Hope you all enjoy these a much as I enjoyed painting them.

A Couple Quick Sketches From the Hotel

Ok, so I just spent a few days at the Cliffs Resort in Shell Beach.  While I was there for an official work function, I was able to break away and do a couple of painting.  This is the first one.  It is the side of the resort.  To the right is where the swimming pool is, to the left is the Pacific Ocean.  I don't know what I liked so much about these trees.  I guess it was the fact that none of them were straight, and the cast a really interesting shadow on the side of the hotel.

This little group of palm trees was about 20 feet from where I sat to paint the picture above.  They were just in the middle of the small field that separated the hotel from the ocean.


Now that you have seen these pictures, take a closer look at them.  Know what you aren't seeing.  Pencil lines.  I actually started out drawing both these scenes.  The drawings were horrible.  Painting in my "studio"  I have time massage drawings and to make sure they look as right as possible.  For whatever reason, my drawings were not working out at the hotel.  After  a while I just decided that I could paint them better than draw them.  So I did.  And I did.  I know these aren't the most technically perfect paintings, but I spent about 5 minutes apiece on each, and given that amount of time, I think they are pretty good.  I've some others from this conference that I will post tomorrow.  They are quick and dirty paintings too, but look just a bit better.

Hope you enjoy these.  Thanks for looking.

Dorn's The Original Breakers Cafe

This painting for sale 6x12  $10

Well, I do like painting the things around where I live.  Here is another painting of Dorn's.  It is a restaurant in Morro Bay.  The views from the street side are not all that great, but from the water side, you get Morro Rock, the sand spit and the Pacific Ocean.  I've done other paintings of Dorn's and i thought they turned out ok, but this one I think turned out even better.  I used two colors of blue in the sky, but unless I am painting storms, I don't think I'll do that again.  I've used yellow, and red in the sky a long with one color of blue, and I think it adds more than a second color of blue does.

I think the shadows coming off the pots in the front of the building really work well.  They do set the depth for the rest of the painting.  I had fun painting this, hope you have fun viewing it.

Nude, but covered

I'm calling this a WIP (work in Progress) because I am gonna go back and add a background at some point.  I like most of the shading and coloring, but I think it needs a bit more.  The only thing is that I am not quite ready to do it yet.  I've been busy and will be even busier throughout this week.  I don't wanna rush thought and put on a bad background.  I'd rather let it sit and come up with something better after a while.  I also think I need to put on a little darker shading.  Its really hard to notice when looking at it right after you've painted it.    Maybe that's the key.  Paint it and let it sit for a while before you mark it as finished.

I tried to give her some realistic skin tones, while trying to not just use one color.  There are reds and yellows and greens in in her skin.   Believe it or not, the only brown i used is in her hair.

I also used 120 lb paper, which I don't normally use, but it was all I had on hand when I started. The paper has a different feel, and holds water differently.  The grey that you see in the scan is from the paper being just off the scanner bed.

Well, I'm off for now.  Enjoy.

Check out these Hooters!

Ahhhhhh, the old bait and switch.  There is only one hooter.  Having a little success with human eyes, I thought I would give a a try to an animal that has perhaps the best eyes.  My thought was to have the eyes crystal clear and sharp, then as you moved further away from the eyes, the painting became fuzzier, so that your eye would focus in on the eyes of the owl.  I'm visualizing this owl sitting in a tree staring out through the night.  If I were to come across an owl on the golf course, this is what, in my mind I would see. (btw, I run into them on the course all the time.  I give them a wide berth knowing that owls can be really mean.

This one turned from another eye exercise to a looseness exercise.  Trying to get that etherial look around the edges.

Hope you enjoy it.

Oh and if I give post a title like this one, I'll get 3 times the amount of hits that I normally get.  Funny how that works.

Kingfisher on Birch Tree

This painting for sale 9 x 12  $20

Those of you who know me, know I have a thing for kingfishers.  They are really funny little birds with some fantastic coloring.  This is a quick sketch I did of one.  There isn't much to say about it, I just saw a picture of it, and had to take a crack at painting it.  Hope you enjoy, and Thank you.