Going Back On My Word

This painting for sale 9x12  $30

 Well it didn't take long for me go revert to my old ways.  A short few posts ago I swore off cars for kittens. It looks like I was abel to keep that word for all of a week.

With that, what we have here is a Studebaker.  I can just imagine this cars sitting, baking in the sun somewhere in Texas, or Oklahoma, Arizona or someplace like that. The blazing sun has cracked the pavement and provided no relief to the dry, brown dirt on the other side of the parking lot.

I didn't take pictures for the whole process this time.  This is the first one I took.  You can see the sky is already done, but there is plenty to do on the rest of the painting.  I tried hard to put in some coud details on this painting instead of just a plain sky.  It's a bit hard since we don't have many real clouds here to look at in real life.

I've jumped ahead quite a bit here.  You can see the shelter in the background is done as well as the sidewalk, the windows, and the chrome on the car.  If you look at the shadows, they are different than the final product.  I thought I had them right when I put them in,  then I stepped back to look.  Wow! was I ever wrong.  I had to go back in and fix them.  They look a lot better now.

Finally, a few finishing touches and the painting was done.  I strengthened a few of the colors and put in the trees and weeds.  They seem simple but they really do add a lot to the painting.

Hope you all enjoy.

Can you spot the glaring problem with this painting

There is one huge problem with this picture.  Can you spot it?  I know that technically There are some problems with the picture, but there is one huge problem.  I didn't realize I had done it until it was time to scan the painting.

I on looking at this painting again, I think I need a shadow from the large pine tree on the left hand side.  I could go back and add that in later.  It's funny what you notice while you are painting and what you dont recognize until later.

Cotchett Education Building

This is the Cotchett Education Building on Cal Poly's campus.  In the foreground you can just see the word Design, which is on the Architecture Building.  Expect to see a picture or two of that building in the coming weeks.

I love the way the trees turned out on this picture.  They look like they have movement and life too them.  I also like the purple plants in the planter in front of the word design.  

In judging this one I think I should have made the shadows on the building darker. I think that would have given more definition to the building.  Also, I think I am gonna start to draw in pen so that I can get leaves on the trees.  As you can see I have loose drawings underneath the paint.  Drawing it this way allows me to have a general shape to the tree, but not get bogged down with a "tree" shape so that I can then just put the color on and let the tree become a tree.    Hope you all enjoy this.

Dorn's The Original Breakers Cafe

Double click this picture to enlarge.

This was done over the weekend.  I found out one really important thing.  If you have two sick kids who are pretty needy, you aren't gonna be able to paint very much at any one time.  This entire painting was drawn and painted in one to two minute segments.

Even with the challenges this turned out ok. Now, I will say that I have been past Dorn's a thousand time, and I don't think the colors are right.  As it turns out, I had to paint the entire thing from a black and white picture.  I should also say that I felt so confident when I started this, that I didn't even do it on really good watercolor paper.  I did it on a slightly lower grade paper.

Back Door to the CM Office

So, I was painting outdoors again today.  Once again I painted building 186.  Some good and some bad.  This is the first floor.  The second and third are of course not represented here.  The very top of this painting is where the railing for the walkway would be attached.  Yes the windows are a bit goofy, the bottom pane is opaque.  There are a few plants in front of the railing that comes from the door.  The lamp post is perhaps a little too thin.  It is close to the bench that I sat at to paint.

Now the good, I've been working on not having solid colors,  I think I got some of that where not all the sections of the wall are the same color.  Not all the panes of the windows are the same, not even all the concrete is the same color.

One more thing.  All but one line and I've got the perspective lines right.  That means my drawing is actually getting better.   Hope you all enjoy.

Building 186

Painted with my new paints.  This is the third floor landing of building 186.  I'm trying to do a more detailed drawings of what I paint.  In this painting I did the building outline, of course, but also the windows, window louvers, and even the railing.  It was hard to draw it and get it right, but I think I did  a pretty good job.

The worst thing about this painting is the railing in the foreground.  I tried to put some shadowing on it, but it just turned out as bad lines.  I like the windows a lot.  I think i did a pretty good job with the.  Yes the bottom row is blue/green.  They are panes of glass that let a little light through, but are not windows to look through

A Continuing Assault on Campus Buildings

I thought i would try something a little different today.  Bothe pictures today were done in watercolor crayon. It is sometimes hard to find a bench to sit on and paint, let alone a bench and table in an area where you want to paint.  So I thought it would be easier to take my watercolor crayons out and draw the pictures, then return to my office, wet them and outline them.  I have to admit there are some things I like about this approach.  I lose the opportunity for any detail at all, but gain speed and the ability to do this just about anywhere.  This picture is of the entrance to Cradall Gym.  The gym itself isn't used anymore and the University is trying to find a good way to utilize the space.  It is a huge building built in the old mission style.  This is the first crayon drawing I've done.

This picture is the corder of building 38.  I believe it is one of the Mathematics buildings.  The black in the center is a bank of doors that are just set back and very dark, even in real life.  I am working with a limited selection of colors which is why the bark mulch might look a little orange, and the bricks in the road a little too pink.

Hope you enjoy them both.

Around Campus

This first picture is of my building, but not an entrance for my department.  The wheel on the bicycle rack has been there for about a year and a half.  I don't know if its ever gonna be removed at this point.

This picture is of the very top of our library.  OK, its not the most exciting in the world, but it looks a lot better than the unfinished concrete box that it is.  The greenery in the bottom of the picture is from the tops of trees in front of the library.






This picture is the back side of the taco stand that I described wanting to paint in a previous post.  I still wanna do one from the front of the stand, but this one is nice too.

A Little Urban Sketching

Yesteday and today I decided to do a little urban sketching.  I suppose that is the new term for painting plein air.  Urban sketching sounds a bit less hoity toity.  I have been walking around campus trying to find places to sit in the shade and paint.  The shade part was crucial for me, and as I found out, was also the limiting factor in what I paint.  It turns out that nearly all the benches on campus are in direct sunlight at noon.  Who would have figured.  Anyway, in my hikes around campus, I found 3 places to paint.  They all seemed to fit onto one sheet, but the sheet is bigger than my scanner.  The first picture, Bench on Dexter Lawn, is actually on the bottom of the sheet.  You can see part of the Building 52 Plaza in the top right.

This is the picture that is above it.  This is Building 52 Plaza.  Or at least part of it.  I don't think I got this quite right, but you get the idea that it is a bench with mulch around it, and (absent detail) brick walkway in front of it.  I assume you all can tell it has a tree behind the bench?

This third picture is actually the first one I did.  I wanted to get the little taco stand next to this, on the left side of the tan building, but i didn't have a clear view from the bench I was on, so this got chosen by default.  Some different types of bushes and shrubs with a few rocks, and a wooden wall behind, just in front of the building.  I'm extremely happy with the way this turned out, I often have trouble working in different colors of greens.  The fact that you can see 4 distinct colors of green and a little shading in each is, for me, a triumph.

San Luis Obispo Mission2

If you liked yesterdays painting, you will probably like this one a bit more.  The wall in the foreground is a bit darker for a bit of contrast and the building is just  a bit lighter.  There is some definition between the tree on the right and the rosemary growing over the wall.  The shadows are pretty good, and the sky is pretty good.  Enjoy.

San Luis Obispo Mission

Ok, so the August watercolor painting challenge on the artist site to which I subscribe is "local historic buildings."  I am bound and determined to learn to paint buildings.  Most pictures of the Mission are not all that interesting, at least imho. This one, though, rather caught my attention.  I thought I could have a go at it.  So here it is.  I didn't wet the paper totally before I began, and found out that I should have.  The tree behind the rosemary on the right hand side needed to be a different color so that there was more of a distinction between the two.  I didn't include too much detail in this because it was my first attempt and I wanted to try getting the essence of the building before I tried mastering the building.  Its a big stucco building, but I think I did a fair job for my first attempt.