Pink Rose

A Pink rose watercolor.  Maybe I could have used a few white highlights? What do you think?

More of those pesky coneflower

 I actually meant to make a video about these.  I sat down and started painting last night, but the paper and I were feuding a little.  Or maybe it was the paint or the water.  I don't know but whatever it was, I wasn't feeling confident enough to make a video about these.  I am hoping that I'll feel it more tonight, but we'll see.

At any rate, I hope you like them.

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.

Sketchadoodling

Just a few quick sketches I did.  I'm trying to recycle and reuse pieces of paper that I have laying around that have a bit of whitespace on them.  I've got more paper on the way, but in the meantime, I've got these bits to use and since they paintings aren't  great and were just sitting around anyway.....   So you might be forced to view through a few more before I've exhausted all my scraps.  Enjoy.

An Attempt at Cherry Blossoms

OK, I wanted to continue on with this style of watercolor painting, but I didn't want to do the same thing I've already done.  So, I decided on cherry blossoms.This is my first attempt, so they might not be quite right, but I had fun painting them, and hey, that's the point anyway.

I did get a little heavy handed with the color in a few places.  Especially in the bottom paintings.  Also, as you can see, I put a background down on the bottom painting before doing any work with the flowers.  I don't think it worked, and I wont be doing it again (at least I have no current plans to do it).

This style for me is all about putting a dark next to a light.  The contrast between the two is what gives the form its shape.  On the top twig, I did a fairly good job of it, but kind of lost my way a bit on the second painting.  Also, I got some of the shading on the petals correct, and some horribly wrong.  What can I say?  Sometimes I forget to define top and bottom and from what direction the light is coming from before i begin painting.  I get all caught up in having fun in putting paint to paper, and really should step back a little to think a bit more.

Yes, I was trying to limit my palette.  You really only see two colors, or more truthfully you see variation on two colors.    In my next iteration, I may try to work a third color into the mix.  It might help it to be a bit more dynamic.

Well, I'm done havering.   Hope you enjoy the paintings, and thanks for taking a minute to look at, and read about them.

Red Shade

One more before I move onto paintings of a more airy nature.  Like so many other pictures I've painted, when I saw the original, I wondered when I was going to paint it.  Notice I said when, not if.   Since I've been struggling with portraits anyway, it was a perfect pairing.  

I knew I would have trouble in two areas.  First, of course the hair.  Secondly, the hand.  I painted several layers of skin (yes, I'm very happy that I got a good skin tone, and not just a yellowish, pinkish tone).  I left a little bit of a hard edge to some of them, but I don't think that matters very much.  The jacket came next.  I needed to have a color different than the skin and different from the hair.  Accomplished.  The hand needed a few details.   I have a friend who tells me, "Suggest, don't State." and so I dind't try to get the hand exactly perfect, rather just some lines and a little shading.  I actually think it works.  Lastly  the hair.  A lot of hair.   Normally my hair looks like a blob of color with some streaks in it.  This time I really tried to make it look super real.  I think I probably made about 20000 brushstrokes on her hair.  (OK that may be a bit of an exaggeration, but not by too much.)  I didn't want all the hair flowing in the same direction, and I didn't want it all the same color.  I tried to vary it with 3 to 4 different colors.  

Well, all in all I think I did a good job, maybe not stellar, but I bet, better than most.  Hope you enjoy.

Da Da Da La Da Da Da Da Feelin' Googie

For some reason, I was doing a search on Googie Architecture.  Its that futuristic style of architecture.  Don't really know it?  Think Jetsons, and you'll have it.  It was an architectural style that had its hayday in the mid to late 60's.  Anyway, there are all kinds of Googie buildings still around.  Most are now covered by historic preservation societies.

This restaurant is located in Rossmoor, California.  It is designed to look like its namesake.  Not only are the parasol ribs viewable on the outside of this round building, but on the inside as well.  Additionally, there are parasols hanging from the ceiling.  In case you are wondering, yes, I used to eat there when I live in Long Beach.  Its a cute little restaurant that I am happy to say has recently been saved from demolition and still in business today.

This painting probably means more to me than it will to anyone who views it here, but I think its great.  Enjoy.

Pin-up Girl

Well, I wanted to get a quick painting in yesterday during lunch, and decided to paint a pinup girl.  As you can see, some good and some bad came out of it.    In general, I think its a pretty good painting.

I think I like her legs best of all.  There is some color to them, but they didn't get too yellow, or too red.  And the shadowing worked out pretty well.  Her stomach is ok, but her arms are way to yellow, and probably her face too.  Actually I had a lot of trouble with her nose, and mouth.

Her left palm is facing the viewer and also up.  I dind't quite capture that, and as a result her hand just looks odd.  And talk about odd, what is up with that pinky?  Well, I guess that's why they call it practice.

I thought as I was painting this that the background would show more blue and yellow in it.  As it turned out, it seems all green.  That's not all bad, but could be better.

Well, I had fun, and hope you all enjoy it.

random weekend sketching

These are just some pictures that I painted over the weekend.  The top of a chair with a red box on it.





The lamp hanging in the corner of the living room.



These are some of the plants growing in my front yard.  Not sure what all of them are called.

 These are some of the plants growing in my front yard.  Not sure what all of them are called.







This is the tree from across the street.

This is the lamp from the dining room.

Fireflies Again!?

This painting currently for sale.   - 9 1/2 x 12 1/2 - $15
Contact Michael for more details

Here is my entry for the June watercolor challenge: "Images of Summer."  As you can see, the sandals are now gone, the eye and eyebrow look better and there is more shading on the picture.  I think this one is miles ahead of the previous post.

I still reserve the right to go back and monkey with this one a bit.  I may put eyelashes on her, and I may put some more shading on her shorts (or skirt, or skorts, or whatever they are) and perhaps the front of her shirt.  I'm still debating, and won't touch it for a week or so to be sure.

Fireflies in a jar

For those of you who don't know, I am a member of a website that is just for artist.  That website holds competitions each month.  Competitions are broken down into different groups.  I attempt the watercolor challenge nearly every month, but I could just as easily get into the drawing, or acrylics, or oils competitions as well.

This month the challenge is to paint something that reminds you of summer.  I didn't and still don't wanna paint a beach scene or sailboats, or flowers.  I chose something that will always remind me of summer:  Fireflies.  I searched for pictures of fireflies until I found a picture I liked, and here is one attempt at painting it.  Its unfortunate that the original size of the picture is very small.  and detail is hard to glean from it, but as you can see it is a girl laying in the grass looking at fireflies in a jar.  I thought it was a great picture to paint.

To that end, here is attempt number two.  Attempt number one is ok, but it is small and very quickly done.  This one is much more detailed.  I am going to do at least one more of these as I am not completely happy with this one.  My biggest regret in this picture is putting sandals on the girl.  In the  next one she will be barefoot.  I do think I got some good shading on here, and I like the way I have done the hair.  If you click on the painting, you will be able to see it in more detail.

Woman Running in Field

This painting for sale. Contact
Michael for details.

This was painted for an art challenge from the website Paint My Picture.  The challenge was to paint a picture using only one color.  I think I did a pretty good job of showing the flowing dress and the bodice that the woman is wearing.

To be truthful the painting really didn't seem like much until I started lining it.  It just didn't have enough contrast.  Once I put on the lines, it really started to pop.