Keeping it Reel

Yes, I know I said I was done with the whole fishing theme.  But I actually did this a couple of months ago, and had never gotten around to posting it.  As you can see, we have another reel.  This doesn't necessarily look all that old save the bakelite crank handle .

I had a bit of a had time trying to get several different colors and shades of grey or chrome.  I didn't want any one piece of chrome to look too much like any adjacent chrome.  Then I had to put a few shadows on.  I guess the jury is still out on how I did.  

I think the thing I still need to do on this is to paint or draw on some line and this one is done.  Hope you enjoy it.

Keep it Reel

This painting for sale.  Watercolor 5 1/2 x 8 1/2.  $20

Well, in my attempt to elevate different everyday things to an artform, I give you the simple fishing reel.  Most of us probably have one or two sitting around in the basement or in the garage.  If you have ever gone to a garage sale, you've seen them. They get so unceremoniously tossed in a box and forgotten about for years and years.  Then one day you are doing your spring cleaning and..... Bammo..... there it is, and you have no idea what to do with it.  A quick search on Ebay to see if the reel is worth anything results in an overwhelming number or items that are tough to differentiate among.  Some are worth nothing, most worth a little, and a very few worth quite  a bit.

Well this humble instrument that allows us to have fun and catch our own dinner once in a while deserves more than that.  With this painting I hope to give it a little bump in the prestige department.  Hopefully viewing this reel will make you smile and feel good about your reel when you find it next spring.  Enjoy.

No More Monkey Wrenches

This painting for sale.  Watercolor 5 1/2x 8 1/2.  $20  

Part of trying to elevate everyday things into artwork.  I saw an image of some wrenches and couldn't help myself. I probably made the ratchet in the front a little blue, but somehow it doesn't seem to matter to me.

I am happy to say that this was drawn and painted in one lunch hour.  I used to do this a year or so ago.  Then I tried to do bigger pictures or more detailed pictures, and my rate of painting slowed way down.  Part of what I really liked and still like about painting is seeing things come to fruition in such a short amount of time.  I know that the subject is rather simplistic, and the handles don't have names on them, and I could point out lots of other flaws, or drawbacks with this painting, but I really like it.  I think maybe it is the simplicity of it that I really like.

Its a bunch of straight lines, with a few circles and arcs thrown in, but if you've ever worked on a car or bike or something, you will immediately look at this and it will bring back some memories for you.  Maybe, in the end thats why I painted it.  I saw the photo and it brought back a fond memory and I wanted to relive that as long as I could.

Anyway, enough of my rambling.  Hope you enjoy the painting.

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.

Some More Sketching

Today's paintings are the rest of the the random sketching I was able to do over the past several weeks.

Starting at the top:  The play structure at Monty Young Park in Morro Bay.  To its right is a plant that sits on the credenza next to my television.

Starting the second row is a car that my son got for Christmas, and then a small Christmas tree in a planter.

The picture to the left of this writing is another plant in the house and the last painting is the clock we have in our living room.

Of all these, my favorite is the living room clock.  It is chrome, and the wall color behind it yellow (of course).  I think it turned out great and just the right amount of shadow on the wall.

Other than that i really like the little christmas tree for some reason.

Well, just wanted to let you all in on some of the other small things I had been working on

Another Old Truck

THIS PAINTING SOLD

Another old truck. And surprise, its the same one as before.  The previous one is gone, off to someone else to look after it and I liked it so much I had to have one of my own.  Thus, this second painting of it.  I did a few things differently on this one.

First, i tried to make the hill on the right hand side a little more mottled.  It looks like there is some texture to it now.  Additionally I made it a little bluer.  It really makes it look like it recedes off in the distance.  I also tried to put in another level of weeds around the truck.  I thought this would really make it look like the back is way back and the front much closer.  I don't know how successful that was, but I don't think it takes away from the picture either.

The truck is mostly the same.  As I learned to paint shadows, I learned that they should be a blue grey and laid over top of the underlying color.  I 'm not sure that that really makes for the best shadow areas. on this one, I tried to just put in a little darker more intense coloring in the corners so it looks like a bit of a shadow but nothing too harsh.  Looking at it, I probably could have been even more aggressive with the color.

All in all, I am really proud of this one.  I think it is at least as good as the first one.  If anyone wants to buy, I'll sell.  Just send an email and we can talk terms.

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

Broken Down and Rusting

Firstly, let me apologize for the quality of this image.  The size of the painting is larger than my scanner can hold so I had to snap a pic with my camera.  Obviously it didn't do quite as good a job as the scanner.

I've had a book of great pictures from across America for quite a while now.  One of the pictures had a truck in a field in front of a barn.  I like the truck a lot, the barn, not so much.  So here is my take on the truck.

When I drew the truck, I was thinking to myself, just dont screw it up.  When I had finished I thought I did a pretty good job, and wanted to take a picture so I could use the image again.  Then I though, if i can draw it once, I ought to be able to draw it again.  So I forged ahead with painting.  Then as I was painting the parts of the truck I kept thinking, don't screw it up its a long process to get back to where you are.  But in the end,  like the way it turned out.  I might to another one of these, but it wont be for a while.  I think I'll have more confidence in painting it knowing that I've already been able to do it once.


Painting is 11x15
For Sale - $20 - free shipping