A Rose is A Rose is A Rose

A nice loose rose for the weekend.  I had a little spare time and I decided to paint a few things.  You can see a painting so close to this that I couldn't crop it out.

I don't know if I like painting flowers or if I think I am good at painting flowers, but.... since I think I do them better than most other things I paint, I just keep bringing them.

Not sure I totally got the top of this, where the petals open up.  But  I'm not sure it really distracts from the overall painting too much.   There is just enough going on to make you a little distracted.

Actually, I bet you look right at the middle of the painting more than anywhere else.  I put in just a bit of yellow to warm up the painting in the very center.  It really does make your eyes kind of hang out there.

Anyone else notice this?

Water Lily

For any of you who don't know, I moderate a Google+ Community.  We all paint the same pictures so we can see the many different styles in which everyone paints.  A few weeks ago, the challenge was water lilies and lily pads.  I didn't like how mine turned out at all.

Last night, as I was painting away on other stuff, I thought I just might take another crack at this water lily.  The results, while not astounding, are much better than my initial attempt, and much more in the "Michael" style.

Just a quick post to let you all know I'm still here.   Thanks for the view and I hope you enjoy the artwork.

Iris

Two quick iris tonight.  The first one on top is a 5 minute study.  Don't give yourself time to overthink what you are doing.  Just get your work on paper.   It makes me try to get to the essence of what I am painting very quickly.  There are some things I really like about this.  The yellow petals stand out quite a lot.  It's easy to see how defined they are, and the red/orange petals morph from the yellow.  I like the transition.  But..... Ugh!  that pencil line.  hmmm, well, it was a quick study,  I guess I shouldn't be too hard on myself.

The second one, i really like with one glaring exception.  The yellow is so muted next to the red and the petals have almost no definition.  Ooops I guess that was two thing.  But I like the composition, and the flow in the second one.  I wanted the two flowers to almost meld into one across the painting and that is exactly what happened.  I drew a few veins in the petals, just enough that your eye will pick them up.  And look, no pencil lines.  I drew the petals with yellow and red watercolor pencils, and the stems and buds very lightly with a green one.  They washed away as soon as water went over them, but left enough for me to know what I was doing.

Wait, did I just say I knew what I was doing?  Ha, what a joke,  What I meant to say what that I did what I intended to do.  Which is distinctly different from knowing what to do.

Well at any rate, hope you all like them, and thanks for the read.  Enjoy

Goldfish

So I attempted a few fish a week or so ago.  I didn't like the way they came out.  Not that they were bad, but they were kind of stylized and not really like real goldfish.  So, I decided to take another crack at these fish.

The ones I painted here are much more realistic, still with a little Michael style thrown in, but a much better goldfish effort.  The three of them together look like they could be swimming around a fish bowl right now.

I won't tell you the problems I ran into while painting them.   They were fun to paint.  I love painting things like this that as long as you have a basic fish shape, your eye will tell you that they are goldfish and you won't even think about it.  Oh, and I apologize for the yellow in the photo.  I obviously had a really warm light on the paper when I took the picture.  If it were a little harsher, more white, it might look a little more like it does in real life.

Well, anyway, enjoy, I did.

Back to the Chicken Shack

Once again, i've ben playing with chickens.  They really are fun to paint.  These ones might get a little grass under their feet soon.

I'm trying to get a little addition by subtraction, and not painting everything on the chicken, but enough detail that one's mind will  fill in all the missing bits.  I think I got (or got close to that) with the body of the chickens, but I lost it a little bit in the tails.  They are just a little too busy.

I also picked a couple of pictures that weren't totally in profile.  Not sure how I did with that, but.... Well, they are done.

Hope you enjoy them.

simple fish

Just a few simple goldfish.  Had a great idea of how to paint the fins.  Wanted to be sure to get some big sweeping lines.  Didn't quite make it, but not a bad first attempt.  Oh, and I needed to make background more dramatic.

Rose Madder

It's been a little while since I made a post and I don't want it to go too long without putting one up.  I've been somewhat tired, and somewhat working on different projects (damn life getting in the way of my painting).  I did manage to get up a little gumption tonight and paint a few flowers for you all.

I'm constantly told that I do a really good job painting my flowers.  I think it is because I really enjoy painting them.  Flowers don't have a right or wrong.  They are roundish and if you give an indication of petals, people believe they are flowers.  It is true that some look more realistic, and some less, but everyone agrees that they look like what I paint.  In this case its a few roses.  Maybe they look like other flowers too, but because you've read that these are roses, they will always look like roses to you.

Well, anyway, enjoy the roses, and thanks for taking a minute to read this blog.

Struggling

Last night I was really struggling.  I wanted to paint.  I really did.  I painted about 6 paintings, but no matter what I did, the picture that ended up on the paper in no way resembled what was in my head.  I just couldn't get things to work out.  These two are the best I could muster.

I'm always flummoxed when something like that happens.  Do I keep painting, and power through in hopes that at some point though out the night my my paintings will get better?  Or do I pack it in for the night, and try again the next day?

I guess I chose to power through and see what I could muster up.  I don't think its anywhere near my best stuff.    

Expect to see a better product nest time you check back.

More Practice

Just a little bit of sketching from last night.  I really do think that I am mastering the roses.  Now I just need to master the leaves.  And a few more poppies.

Hope you like them.

A Bit of Hydrangea

Here is a painting I was having fun with last night.  Its a bit of Hydrangea.  It looks similar to my other flower paintings with one real difference.  The petals on the top of this painting are painted in positive.  Then, I began to work my way down the paper and the petals on the bottom are completely in negative.

It's an interesting way to paint, and I think I'll keep trying this.

Also I was kinda painting this from memory, knowing that hydrangea are just 4 diamond shaped petals.  I didn't really know what the center of the flower looked like, so I dropped a little yellow in the middle.  Now I know that there is a little button in the middle of the 4 petals.  Hmmmm, well, I guess I have something to work on tonight.

Please feel free to leave a comment and let me know what you think, and thanks for taking the time to look.

Pouring a Glass of Wine

So I was trying to paint the act of pouring a glass of wine.  I totally obliterated the right side of both glasses, but I think its totally cool.  I should have been a little tighter with the wine bottles, but.... you know, sometimes you just get a little carried away.    They were both fun to paint.  Hope you guys enjoy them.

Solitary Cone Flower

So I had a little time while I was waiting for my paint to dry on different painting and I thought I would just get a little more wet int wet practice.

A really simple, but somehow nice coneflower.  I know its nothing special, but somehow being simple makes it nice.

Bouquets of Roses

Another bunch of roses.  I'm still trying to get them right, whatever right is.  I definitely think I'm on the right track.  With the single rose, I tried putting in a loose stem and leaf.   On one of the groups of three I tried to let the undercoat show through to represent some leaves, and on the other group of three just some dark shading under the bottom of the petals.

I am thinking that I can make these a little better if I let the darker color reach all the way to the outside of the petals in at lease a couple of areas.  I might try that tonight.  I guess that's why they call it practice.    

I'm not sold on having a full green background around the roses.  It really does make the flowers pop off the paper, but it seems to take away from the rose a bit.  It's like its just floating in a sea of green.  With no definition.  I think I'm kinda on the track with allowing a base layer to show through in leave.  If I overlay several leaves it might provide enough interest that I'll like it a lot.  More practice and trials are called for.  

These are all painted on the back side of old paintings.  I've kept all my painting for the past 5 years (the entire time I've been painting).  I've got a huge stack of old paintings that aren't really good, that nobody but me would like.  So on the sheets that can be used on both sides, I'm using the back.  If I decide to sell a few of these, whomever gets them is gonna get two pieces of art for the price of one.  

Also, I'm toying with the idea of putting together a video or two to show people how I paint.  I like this new style so much, I want to pass it along.  Any ideas on how I should go about it?  I'm accepting ideas.  

Thanks for the view and the advice.   Hope you enjoyed this post.