It's So Nice I Had to Go to the Bayside Cafe

Well, this one too me a little more than an hour to paint.  In fact, it took me two lunch hours.  One to draw and one to paint.  And to tell you the truth, I am ecstatic with the outcome. I know that it is still not technically perfect, but it is a really good interpretation of the bayside, and I am learning a lot.

Check out the half barrels.  How do they look?  They look round.  Check out the tall stump behind the bench.  Round again!  and look at the shading on the umbrellas   They look like they could actually be in the sun.  The windows look like they are set back just a bit in their sills and the building has  a bit of texture to it.

The secret?  I'm learning to do things in multiple layers.  There is very little on this painting that was done with one layer of paint.  most of it has two three or four.  The stump, believe it or not, has six or seven, but i think it looks great.  I will admit that I had a bit of trouble with the grey in the windows.  They really need a go-over, but i couldn't bring myself to do it.  Any way, I really like this painting.

One more thing.  If you haven't seen it yet, there is a new drawing on Dabflyarts Drawings.   Just go to the top of the page, on the right hand side and click through.

Be it ever so humble, there's no place like home

Here's home, Morro Bay.  This would be the view walking down the centennial stairway.  Of course every good picture of Morro Bay gas to have the Rock in the background.

Two things i really love about this painting.  The sky and the tree.  This is a new sky technique.  Still trying to get the darkest part of the sky toward the bottom, but building it up in layers.  This one is three layers deep. If you look you can see the three different coats of paint.  I think it made for a  really dramatic sky.  Then the tree.  This is the new tree method, where I don'f focus on painting a tree, but rather on putting colors where light and shadow might be hitting the tree.  It takes the focus off of trying to get individual leaves and twigs, etc.  and allows me to focus on the bigger picture.  In this, it works because it kind of makes the tree look slightly out of focus.   The real focus being on the chess board and the Sun-n-Buns.

I wish i had had some green ready when I painted the rock.  I love the mottled look of it, but it needed a little more.  I tried to get it to stand apart by making the base of it darker.  I think i did an acceptable job, but it needed a bit more.

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

Woman on Bench

Ok, here we go.  I think i got the proportions on her a bit better.  She still looks pretty flat, but at least her feet aren't twice the size of her head.  Her arms and legs seems to be about the right size and length.  Her head seems to be about the right size. She just doesn't quite look like there is any depth to her.  Hmmm, back to the drawing board.

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.

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.

Bench and Brick Wall

Plein air painting at lunch today. Had to walk across campus to meet friends, find a place to sit, then paint, pack up, and back to work all in an hour. As you might assume, I picked a topic that I though I would be able to finish given the time constraints. The place we chose was in a bricked in courtyard.  It didn't afford the most fantastic views, but it did allow us to sit in the shade. 

The plants in the area while green, didn't afford me a real pop of color to offset the green.  So I chose a little different tact.  This afforded me the opportunity to work on perspective lines and trying to keep things square.  I think I might have been able to make the grey cement of the ground a little more angled to the right, but since I had to work quickly, I didn't have that much time to double-check my work.  I still think this little painting work out nicely.   Enjoy.