A Few Flowers

 I haven't been making any videos lately, but that doesn't mean that I haven't been painting.  Here are  a few o f the paintings I've done over the past few weeks.  I know they aren't much, but I hope they help hold you over until I can get something better to post.

Splatter Splatter

I love a good splatter painting.  It can be very cathartic to literally throw some paint around.  You get to be messy and sloppy and it all works out in the end.

You can probably tell that I painted these in the same session.  They use the same colors, the same positioning, and generally the same feel.  Usually I will have included a few buds in the painting to allow for something a little more natural, or as natural as a splatter painting can get.   My head must not have quite been in the game when I did these, or I'd have included a few.

Well, anyway, they have nice colors in the, and aren't too hard on the eyes.  Enjoy

Quick Flowers

Well, I have been able to get back to the studio a bit lately.  I'm working on a few larger projects, but I still have been able to do a few quick sketches.  Some are good, some, not so much.  It doesn't matter, they are all fun to paint.  Hope you like them.

Iris

Two quick iris tonight.  The first one on top is a 5 minute study.  Don't give yourself time to overthink what you are doing.  Just get your work on paper.   It makes me try to get to the essence of what I am painting very quickly.  There are some things I really like about this.  The yellow petals stand out quite a lot.  It's easy to see how defined they are, and the red/orange petals morph from the yellow.  I like the transition.  But..... Ugh!  that pencil line.  hmmm, well, it was a quick study,  I guess I shouldn't be too hard on myself.

The second one, i really like with one glaring exception.  The yellow is so muted next to the red and the petals have almost no definition.  Ooops I guess that was two thing.  But I like the composition, and the flow in the second one.  I wanted the two flowers to almost meld into one across the painting and that is exactly what happened.  I drew a few veins in the petals, just enough that your eye will pick them up.  And look, no pencil lines.  I drew the petals with yellow and red watercolor pencils, and the stems and buds very lightly with a green one.  They washed away as soon as water went over them, but left enough for me to know what I was doing.

Wait, did I just say I knew what I was doing?  Ha, what a joke,  What I meant to say what that I did what I intended to do.  Which is distinctly different from knowing what to do.

Well at any rate, hope you all like them, and thanks for the read.  Enjoy

I've got so many flowers I ought to be a florist

Some more quick loose flowers.  Still trying to get coneflowers right (don't ask me why).  And working on roses.  I like the way my roses turn out.  From a distance they look really good, and as I keep at this method, they should continue to get better.   The coneflower is interesting.  I keep adding layers, and it keeps looking better.  I start with the outside petals, and then the inside and finally the ones in the back.  seems like it works, but I still have a little way to to to get it right (whatever that is).

At any rate, I'm having fun painting the flowers.  Hope yo enjoy looking at them.

Roses are Red

Having mastered (LOL) poppies, I am moving along to roses.  I'm still working hard to keep my style loose.  I don't want to feel like I have to paint between some lines, and I don't wanna be constrained by any.  I'm totally happy to let the paint go and do its thing and try to keep my mitts off.  

These are just some preliminary sketches.  Trying to get the handle on the feel of roses.  I think I'm off to a good start.  More to follow.

Morning Glories

Ok, so in a past post you all found out that Morning Glories are one of my favorite flowers.  I love the way the just keep going.  Water them, they grown, neglect them, they grow.  Forget about the, they come back the following year.  And each year they have all these wonderful flowers on the.  They are survivors.

I don't know if these flowers turned out exactly as I had planned, but I like morning glories so much I just had to post the.

I was hoping to get a nice dark green around some of the flowers to indicate some leaves or greenery behind the flower.  I don't think I quite got that right, but it does make for a bit of a different look.   I think I need to work a little orange into the picture to really make the flowers pop off the page.

Well, at any rate I had a blast painting them, hope you enjoy them too.

Morning Glories and Roses

Building on yesterdays lesson, I decided to spread out just a bit.  Today, it was morning glories.  These are some of my favorite.  You plant them and they keep replanting themselves and seem to grow whether you care for them or not.  

I think I rushed these, and the subsequent roses, just a bit.  I didn't give my paper time enough to dry and as a result, they didn't turn out quite like I wanted.  That's not to say they turned out badly, just not quite what I wanted.  You can see there is one hiding in the middle of the painting.  I guess it looks like its behind the others.  I wanted to paint 5, but in my rush, that one got a little covered up.  Oh well.  Live and learn.

The red that is on the left hand side is the poppy painting from yesterday.




So, in addition to the Morning Glories, I painted two roses.  I rather like this first one, though I think I left a bit too much white on the inside.  The second one....eh.  I tried to paint it a bit from the side and missed my mark, thought I think I know what the real problem with this is:  The outside petal is too shallow.  Had it been deeper, it would look less saucer-ish, and more flower-ish.  Something to remember for next time.

Well, I hope you really enjoy these.  They truly were fun to paint.

Poppy Fields

Im not sure why I feel the need to paint flowers right now.  Perhaps it's the oncoming spring.  Perhaps its the vibrant colors.  Or, perhaps it's because I can paint simple flowers without having to struggle to draw something to paint.  (Honest Admission:  I am not good at drawing, and from time to time will trace my subjects onto paper and then paint them.   I am working on trying to draw better, but it is taking a while to get to a point I feel my drawing is acceptable.)    But for whatever reason, I thought I would try my hand at painting some poppies again.  I've tried poppies before, and though they are simple, mine never seemed to work out well.  But this time, I have forsaken trying to paint a literal interpretation of poppies, and gone for a much wilder interpretation.    The whole point of this exercise was to put paint to paper and make an image that gives the impression of a poppy without throwing a poppy in your face.

I definitely think I accomplished that.  While I think I got a few of the colors too dark in places, and perhaps should have had a  little cleaner rinse water to allow the paint to fade a bit more, I think I did a decent job.

Well, if nothing else, I'll have a nice spot of color on my walls.  Hope you enjoy viewing these as much as I enjoyed painting them. Thank you.

Prepping for Christmas cards

Last year it was trees.  This year I am thinking I'm gonna do poinsettias.  I saw a little tutorial on this and thought I would give it a go myself.  Yes, these leaves are a little stylized.  The real ones are a bit fatter.  I might have to do a page of these where I do a bit fatter leaf, but I think these are gonna be what goes on the Christmas cards this year.

The two on the left have a yellow ochre behind them,  on the right azo yellow.  Not exactly sure the direction I'm gonna go.  Brighter, more in your face, or a bit more demure.    I'll decide after the next group of tests.

A Few More Quick Sketches

Just a few quick sketches I've done recently.  I've not had time to do more than a few sketches.  But I want to keep practicing a bit. 

This little wren is a quick study to try to keep loose.

To be honest, I don't remember what typed of bird this was gonna be.  If I had to guess, I'd say a robin.  But agian, just a quick sketch and trying to stay loose.

First attempt at a butterfly I was thinking of doing for an art challenge.  The butterfly is  too yellow and the flowers are too solid red.  It's all good, like I said , its just a quick sketch.

Enjoy them.

Weekend Painting with a 5 Year Old

Painting with my daughter this weekend.  For Christmas, I had gotten her some glittery watercolors.  She loves them.  I've never used them until this weekend.  The actually are watercolors, and as they dry, the glitter in them starts to shine.  We spent some time painting flowers for Mom on Saturday morning.  Olivia wasn't sure she could paint the flowers, so I quickly painted some for her.  

These are the roses I painted for myself.  Between hers and mind, I probably spent all of 3 minutes painting these, but they do still look cute.

I also painted part of King Tuts mask.   Painting with Olivia usually only lasts about 1/2 hour, and mostly I spend all my time running and getting her fresh water, new brushes, extra towels, etc...  

As always her paintings are better than mine, but we always have a great time.  Enjoy.

Library Flowers

Thanks to my friend Jessie, the library on campus was hosting a stress break/painting break for faculty, staff and students today.  He organized a get together in the center of the library atrium and provided live plants, reference books, watercolors, paper and brushes for anyone who wanted to take a break from their normal day.

I used my own materials,  and had a great time forgetting for an hour that I was supposed to be at work.  What I give you is a small representation of the flowers that were in front of me.  I've no idea what kind of flowers they are.

I didn't draw the flowers or the vase before I jumped in and started painting.  With simple things like this, where I don't have to be exact to paint a flower, I like to do it all freehand.  I't not like painting a building or a boat or something where if I get an edge crooked, the whole painting looks off.  I guess I cold have screwed up the vase, but seem to have done ok with that.    Looking at it now, I wish i had given a little more time to defining the leaves, especially where they all come together, but all in all, not too bad.

Jessie is hosting another get together next Wednesday, so, barring any tragic events, I'm gonna be back there next week.  In fact with spring and summer just around the corner, I'm gonna be able to get out and paint more and more.  Hopefully, I'll keep with it and have plenty of paintings to post.  Thanks for the views.  Hope you enjoyed it.

Painting Metal Flowers

I just had to get outside to paint today.  I made up my mind early, collected my materials, and when lunchtime rolled around, it was out the door.   We have a lovely little arboretum on campus, and though it is a bit of a walk, I wanted to get up there to paint.

As it turns out, I might have been just a bit  early to get there.  Though it is near 80 degrees today, the flowers don't quite think spring is here.  Most of the plants are either still dormant or are yet to bloom.  So, I had my choice of colors to paint: brown, green, grey, or some combination of the 3.  Well, here is my lunchtime story.

A 13 minute walk up the hill to the arboretum.  6 minute walkthrough to find that there is no color yet.  20 minutes to draw and paint (thus the simplicity of the paintng).  A 12 minute walk back to the office.  9 minutes to scan the picture in and write up this quick post.  

I settled on this rusting metal sculpture of some flowers.  I've no idea of what kind of flowers they are supposed to be.  They were in the shade under a few California (Coast) Live Oaks.  I sat on a footbridge over a dry creek and painted.  A little vitamin D and a little exercise for the body and soul, and I'm ready to tackle the afternoon.

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 Sketching

 A couple of quick sketches I did in preparation of my previously posted work.  Each of these took about 10 minutes to do.  They were just to get an idea of whether or not I liked the picture, and whether or not I'd be able to paint a decent picture of it.  Obviously, I chose the second on to use as the finished painting.

Also, this is a good way to use the backs of those older, not so great paintings that accumulate around the house.

Enjoy.

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.

More Sketching from the Hotel

This watercolor painting for sale.  5 1/2 x 8 1/2.  $7

 These are two pictures I did of centerpieces at the hotel last week.  Once again, I started to draw these, and then quickly decided that given my drawing skills it would be much easier to just paint them.  The flowers were in nice glass jars, and were mostly either green, or orange flowers.  There were the occasional calla lilly, but even those were pretty green.

Ok, ok, ok, I know they aren't the most technically perfect paintings in the world.  I didn't really try to paint a technically perfect painting.  I don't know that that is something I will ever do, but what I did was give a fair and accurate representation of the bouquets.

While I was painting the top one, I had several members of the convention I was working stop to talk to me about painting and watercolors and what not.  It was really nice to be able to chat about it.  

This watercolor painting for sale.  5 1/2 x 8 1/2.  $7

While painting this one, which is, again  just a simple painting of some flowers in a jar (errr, well the centerpieces on the tables),  I got the chance to talk to a couple of students that I might never had had the chance to spend much time with otherwise.  It was really nice to know we have such nice students at good ole Cal Poly.

I have to say that the paintings might not be the greatest, but the time to talk and share with those around me while I was painting more than makes up for and deficiency in the paintings.

Hope you all enjoy these a much as I enjoyed painting them.

steps

Well, I went back to the arboretum today.  It was really nice.  Yesterday there was a group of people at the gazebo and they were making a bunch of noise.  Today there was nobody but me.  I sat in the same chair, but instead of looking down the hill I move the chair into the walkway, and faced it up the hill.  You can see some crazy plants at the top of the stairs, and there was a huge terra cotta pot on the left hand side.

I chose this because I like the rocks so much from yesterdays paintings that I had to do some more.  I don't think I quite got the contrast in the rocks that I wanted, but I think i got a fair representation of the rocks on the path.  I didn't have enough time to do all the shading that I wanted to.  I might go back and put some in later.  I might, also, to make the individual stones and rocks stand out a bit more, outline these in black pen.  I havent really decided yet.

I purposely left a lot of white in this painting.  There was mortar between the stones that make up the stairs, but I thought it might be a little better to leave those spaces white.  I'll bet yo that until you read that last sentence and looked at the picture again, you didn't notice it the white spaces.

I painted this whole painting with one brush.  Usually, I use two or three.  My travel set came with a very small pure sable brush.  I had never tried it before, but it has the benefit of being small and easy to carry (I know, all brushes are small and easy to carry).  Having tried it, I can definitely see why so many people love sable brushes.  Not only could I do thin lines with it, i could so a larger wash and every thing came out pretty good.  I might have to invest in one, or in a set soon.  I'll keep you informed.  In the mean time, hope you enjoy the paintings.

PAC Center

This is a quick little painting I did of the PAC.  The Performing Arts Center.  People seem to call it the PAC Center for some reason.  Really they ought to call it the PA Center.  There are some dorms that really should be behind the trees on the left hand sid, but I took a little license.  And there should be some mountains behind the trees as well, but......  I think i did  a great job with everything I did put in.  Looking back a t the picture, the only thing i forgot to put on are some shadows across the sidewalk.  enjoy it.