rusted lock

If you've read through my blog thoroughly, then you know that I like rusty things.  If you haven't then I'll let you in on a not so secret, secret.  I like rusty things.  Well, as I happened, I found a picture of a rusty lock on line and wanted to take a crack at painting it.  So.... Here is how it went.

I really like the hasp.  I think it turned out pretty good.  It looks old and a bit warn, but still could be used today.  And I really like the nails in the wood, and how the rust has kind of run and stained the wood.

As for anything else,  well..  lets just say i struggled a bit.  I'm not saying this is a bad painting, but I can do better.

As a critical assessment, I should have had more color variation in the wood, and probably made . a few more cracks.  As far as the lock goes.  I could have been more precicse with the bronze.  Though I do think the right hand side of the bronze locking mechanism looks great, the left leaves a bit to be desired.  Then we come to what I thought was gonna be the best part, the rust,  and well, it fell a bit flat.  First off, its too dark.  And being that dark, doesn't allow me to put much roundness into it.

If I were to do this again, I'd be able to do a much better job.  I am sure of it.  In fact, maybe I should do this one again to prove it to myself.

Think I'm right?  Think I'm being too hard on myself?  Leave a comment and let me know.

If you want to see me painting this lock in a video, check it out below.

Better 1, or Better 2. Better 2 or Better 3

If you were at the optometrist, you would hear something like, "Better 1 or Better 2."  In this case, you have three to choose from.  I was asked to do 3 paintings of the same thing.  It just so happens it was the doorway I previously did in blue.  I was also asked to do it in cranberry.  Now, I get cranberries in a baggie at Thanksgiving time like most people, and they all seem to be slightly different colors.  In that vein, I made the doors with mottled colors.  If you look, you can see reds, greens, blues, and terra cotta.

Tried to make the foreground just a bit darker than the background.  Also tried to be a little brighter at the top and a little darker at the bottom.

In general, I like the way they turned out.  I have some definite favorite parts of each, and think grab all those and put them on one page, it would be a knockout painting.

I hope you all enjoy them, and more than that,  I hope their future owners like them.

Santorini Doorway

So, I had this picture painted.  I was ready to call it good, but it was totally blah.  It didn't look bad, but it didn't look good either.  I had some shading on it, and the flowers were there, but it was just so so.  So..... I pulled a trick that I did on the last painting.  I pulled out the colored pencils.

Using them, it was easy to brighten up the flowers, and to bring out more distinction between the gate and the shutter doors.  I like the painting.  I think it turned out really nice.  Hope you all enjoy it.

GMC Truck

This painting for sale.  6x9  $20

Well, here is the latest old truck.  I keep thinking that the last one I've done is gonna be the las tone I'm gonna do, but.....  As a result, here is the latest one.  As you can see this one is sitting on the edge of a field with a lot of grass and weeds growing around it.

I really like the distant hill.  You can see that it is pretty blue and really looks like its way back there.  I think I got that right on this painting (not always the case on my paintings).  

I did one thing drastically different on this one than on others.   I traced a picture using blue carbon paper.  I don't know how much of the blue you can see, but it was really different painting with blue lines as opposed to grey lines.   I don't know why it should make much of any difference, but it really did.

Also, i thought this truck had been taken slightly better care of than some of the cars and trucks I have painted in the past, so you can see much more of the paint job.  I don't now why this one had to be yellow, but i just called to me to be yellow.  Well, hope you all enjoy.

A Barn in the 'Hood

Ok, so on this painting i was working on letting color mix on the paper.  You can see on the barn roof and siding, that the colors are not uniform.  We all want to think that colors are mostly solid, but if you look closely, most colors are a mishmash of many many different colors.  I think I am getting a handle on form and shape, I might even be getting a handle on depth in my paintings.   Painting while allowing multiple colors to make up the body of each object may well make my paintings look more alive and vibrant.

Hope you enjoy.

How Now Brown....Door?

Ive painted other doors before, and will paint plenty in the future, I am sure,  but this may be the one where I look back and say that I have kind of changed techniques.  I started by drawing a very (well, at least fairly) good representation of a wooden door in a stone wall.  I didn't draw any of the stones in the wall, but drew everything else.  I had plans to do what I always do, which is to paint this little bit, then move the paper, paint another little bit, then repeat, repeat, repeat until I have what I think is a finished painting.  Well, after I started the door that way, I took a little different turn.  Everything after the wood was done free form and in rapid succession.  While the coloring is a little less than imaginative, I think it made for some really nice bits to the painting.

Painting with the strict way I would have painted in the past, this painting would have taken me an hour or more,  but since I painted the brown of the door, this took me no more than 10 minutes.

For me, the stone really stands out,   I could have used a bit more color, but they really seem to stand out, and the door does look like it is set back just a bit in the jam.

Hope you like it.

Who Doesn't Love the Shell Shop

Once more I'm tackling the more memorable sights in Morro Bay.  Everyone who comes here drives past the Shell Shop.  Some even stop.   I've lived here six years and been in there once.  But if you talk to visitors of our fair city, they all know the Shell Shop.  I don't think my last picture did it justice, so, armed with a different picture, I tackled it again.

This one has much better perspective.  The really big thing I did differently, which I started on the last painting, but brought out more here, is the shadowing.  The shadows of the building are all building color. It's a more intense, darker color.  From this you can tell what part of the building is in shadow (most of it), and you can see the triangle at the bottom that is not in shadow.  I think it makes more sense to do shadows this way than by putting a blue grey shadow on everything.  I might have been able to mix a little more grey in the color, but I think the principal is one I am gonna continue with.  Shadows on the focal point of the painting are gonna be the same color as that of the subject.

Additionally, I think the anchor turned out pretty good.  The writing on the shell is a little crooked.  Its really hard to paint letters freehand.  Especially with red.  With red if you make a mistake, you can never take it off the page.  Other colors a a little more forgiving.

Well, thats it, I hope you all enjoy it, and when you come to Morro Bay, you can stop by the Shell Shop and see it for yourself.

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.

blue door

Getting back to the doorway theme I was working on a while ago, here is a blue door.  The proportions aren't quite right, the angles aren't quite right, bars over the door aren't quite straight, but for some reason I like this little picture.

Campus Market

Can you guess what this is a picture of?  Yes, you got it, the Campus Market.  And guess what else, they have a potato bar.  Woooo Hooo.   I love the look of the metal, stone and glass on this  building.  I tried to do it justice.  In reality there are a few picnic tables in front of the building, but I tried to draw them and it got to be just a bit too much, so I left them off.  Looking back now, it really could use something in the lower right hand corner to balance the picture out a bit.

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.

Got Fish?

This came out a little redder that I had originally intended, but I still think it is a really great painting.  If you have never been, you need to go. Giovanni's is an institution in Morro Bay.  Great fresh seafood, and there is alway a line for fish tacos.

Drawn By Lindy, Painted By Michael

Lindy was so proud to draw this truck for me.  I drew one for him too, and we sat down together to paint them.  As you can see, this truck has an engine in the front and one in the back.

Wednesday's Door and Window

Watercolor 6x9 SOLD

I think todays picture came out pretty good.  A nice perspective painting.  I painted this because I loved the way the wall had stucco, brick and rock exposed.  It made the surface really interesting.  I just hope i did some justice to the real place.  Hope you all enjoy the painting.

Tuesday Lunch

Alright, today I felt a bit rushed painting .  I still think my door turned out pretty well.  I think I am headed in the right direction with the stonework.  Maybe I should stay with that instead of the stucco like the building in the lower picture.

Hope you all enjoy these.

Monday Lunch

Two pictures today at lunch.  They are part of my effort to paint a little more quickly.  From blank paper to two finished paintings in under 1 hour.  I think that is not too bad.

The top picture i think is a little better than the bottom.  I'm trying to work on perspective.  Not all the lines are exactly right on the picture, but I'm getting there.

On the bottom picture, i started painting and then thought to myself, the whole picture is awfully grey.  Then I had to figure out what to do to remedy it.  I don't know that this is my best effort.

Expect to see more doorways posted here.  I've tried to paint some before, and feel like I need to paint some more now.  Probably will be working on it for the next week or so.