Smoke Stacks

If you have not been to Morro Bay before, then you probably don't know that there are actually two different thing that dominate our skyline.  The first is, of course, Morro Rock.  The second, which most people think of as an eyesore, are the smoke stacks of the power plant.  Personally, I think that the stacks have been here long enough that if they ever were to go away, people would work hard to find a way to restore them.  I've been working on a way to include them in a painting for a while now.  Well, I finally found one.  I painted this very quickly and loosely.  I think rock came out pretty good, and I even like the bushes in front of it.  I couldn't help but paint someone walking down the road.  All in all, I think its a pretty good representation of what they both actually look like.  Hope you enjoy.

Camping, VW Style

From the moment I saw this picture I thought of my neighbors.  They are quite old, and only live in California half of the year, but while they are here they do a fair bit of camping.  They have a brown VW Vanagon in their garage, and about every other weekend they get away for a little camping.   I don't really know if theirs is a pop up or not.

I painted this picture to give to them when they make it back to the Golden State.  But now that I am looking at it, I'll never be able to give it to them in this state.  I seem to ha ve forgotten to put shadows on this painting.  Shadows are always the last thing that you add, and oops....  Well, it wont take to too long.  It really is amazing how much interest a few shadow lines will put into a painting.

Well, I hope you all enjoy it, I'm off to add sahadows.

Down on the Embarcadero

Ok, here we go again.  This is a second painting of Giovanni's Market and Gallery.  If you don't remember the first one, you can view it here.  This painting is from the opposite direction and some obvious differences.  

The first real differences is that this painting has all the proper colors.  The previous one was taken from a black and white photo, and I was working from memory on the colors. This one was painted from a color picture and so, all the colors are correct(ish).    I got a bit more ambitious with this one too.  Obviously there are people in the painting, but also there is tile and brickwork, among other things.

I used ink to outline and highlight edges on this painting.  My intent was to not to do that.  I wanted to only use paint to edge the painting, but I couldn't quite keep the lines straight enough, so i had to switch over to pen.  I like how the outlining turned out everywhere except around the main awning.  Oh well, that's how it goes sometime.

Anyway, I had a great time painting this, hope you all enjoy it.

Top Dog Coffee Shop

Ok, here it is, the Top Dog Coffee Shop in Morro Bay.  Its right on Main Street.  I had a little harder time with this than the old truck.  I think it got started with the number of vertical lines I had to draw.  It followed through with the tables and chairs in front.  II think it came out pretty well but you will have to be the judge.

Things to Watch for Next Week

Just a quick look at what is coming up next week.  I've got a good start on the Top Dog Coffee Shop here in Morro Bay.   The lower picture is another one of Giovanni's Fish Market.

Seeing the pictures in various states of finish will also give you a little insight into what I go through in order to create these paintings.

Enjoy

Old Truck in a Field

SOLD!

This was a great picture to paint.  I lived doing it.  The picture I took it from was really dark, and I wasn't sure I would be able to lighten it up and still keep the same look.  I think I did a pretty good job.

Well, I tried to make the colors of the truck and the grasses in front of it brighter and more intense that those at the top.  That pulled the truck foreword in the picture.  It really does look like the field in the top right hand corder is a long way off.  Also, I tried the trick with the ground in between the rows of vines and the vines themselves.  They are darker the closer you get to the bottom of the picture, indicating that they are closer to you.

The chrome was a challenge.  How do you paint old rusty chrome.  Well, the answer for me was not too.  I merely made the chrome stilghtly different colors away from what I thought would be the most reflective part.  So between the top of the hood and the diamond in the middle of the grill, the chrome is brightest (again, allowing that to seem further toward the viewer).  As the chrome goes back from there, it gets darker, and of course as it goes down it gets darker.  If you look closely, you can see different colors in the chrome.

I tried to paint the body of the truck in different sections as they would have been put together.  The door, the cab, the bonnet, the fenders, the grill, each got painted at different times.  I was hoping they would come out slightly different colors to make it seem as though the paint is oxidizing at slightly different rates.  You will have be the judge.

My favorite part of this painting is the big dark front wheel.  It turned out great.  The color, the shadow, even the hub.  I love it.

Hope you all enjoy viewing this as much as

Grandparents Wedding

Well, for what it is, here it is.  The people don't look quite like they are supposed to, but I think I did a lot of things right on this .  You can tell where the suit coats come together, it isn't just one big blob of color.  You can just imaging grandpa standing there in his dress whites.  I'm glad i left some highlight in his hair.

The hair was a real problem for me.   I tried to leave a little highlight and allow you to see the hair texture.  Shading on the faces was really hard.  I knew it would be going into this, but wanted to try anyway.

Well, I'm chalking this one up to experience.  Its a piece I really wanted to do, and I still like it, but I think I fell a bit short of my expectations.  I'll have to use that as motivation to do better on my next one.

Enjoy

A hint of things to come

The purpose of this post is two fold.  First so you can see what is coming up from Dabfly Arts, and second so you can see what the process of painting looks like.


So I have this fantastic photo of my grandparents on their wedding day.  The picture was taken 70 years ago.  I projected the picture onto watercolor paper and traced out basic shapes.

From there, as you can see, its all about adding layers of paint onto the paper.  The first layer is just a basic layer, just trying to get colors all in the right vicinity.  This picture has two layers of paint on it.  You can see that I have put on some extra paint to try to begin defining shapes a bit more.

 IN this picture I have darkened things a bit more and really begun to give shape to the clothing.


















Here I gave Emma-Jean, the woman on the far right a brightly colored suit.  And Bob, the gentleman on the far left a distinctive collar.  The next step will be to finisht Bob's suit, then hair, hats and deepening the skin tones.  Oh, and shoes.  I saved Grandpa for the last because his Navy dress Whites are so white that they are only gonna get some shadowing on them.

I am really hoping this is gonna turn out well.  I think it is, but the proof will be when I start painting the faces.  Faces will make or break this painting.



Hope you have enjoyed this little sneak peek into how I paint.

Angel's Landing

Some good and some bad on this painting.  Lets start with the good.

I was gonna do a dark sky, or at least darker, but when I saw how this one turned out after only one layer of paint, I liked it so much I stopped.  And knowing what the sky looks like in Zion most of the time, there are no clouds anyway, so the sky seems about right.  The next thing that is really good, I think, are the mountains in the background.  They really do look like they are far away.  Just enough detail so you can see a few crevasses in the rocks, but not too much detail that its out of place.  I really like them.

Now for the not so good.  I don't think i got quite the right shape of this hill.  It is, in general, dome-ish, which I got, but somehow its not quite right.  I might go back and see if I cant make the far side of the path fall off just a bit, maybe that will help it look like it is rounder.

I might go back and pencil in some chains like on the real pathway, but I don't have time to do it today, but wanted to get this picture up.  If I make changes, I'll repost.  Hope you all enjoy.