Whale Breach

There are whales that migrate past my home every spring and fall.  This is just a quick representation of one of those whales breaching just outside the town harbor.


Oh, and by the way it come with a video to.  You can check it out here.

Thank you.

Surfer Girl on Beach (For lovelylightandpeace.blogspot.com), The Thrilling Conslusion

And here we are.  Kelly Murphy and I have both finished our write up of how we would paint out chosen photo.  Now is the time when we put our money where our mouth is, and actually draw and paint the painting.


Kelly Murhpy

Here is my process....

I sketched this out really quick....I tried to do the sketch within about 10 minutes....and I included a lot of extra lines....which infuses a bunch of motion and energy in the sketch...which shows up later in my watercolors....I like loose lines....and I tend to sketch quick with a water soluble graphite pencil....I tend to like to see lines all over my paintings...so I don't mind if these don't disappear when I start painting. 


Here is my sketch:

Just as I mentioned in my approach in Part 1.  I started with her left shoulder...I always start on the left. 

for colors....

I somewhat....haphazardly select colors....I have no plan....I have no real direction when painting...I jump about the page....with whatever feels like....where I should go. 

dipping into an ultramarine blue...a splash of some red...and watch it bleed and mix on the page...I never....or shall I say....rarely do I actually mix paint in any premeditated way....

as I mentioned to Michael....I just pick some paint and hope for the best.... let things bleed as they may....

oh, sure- I don't go all Dr. Seuss, oceans are blue....sand is sand color.....for this water...I think I used about 4 blues....with a dash of red...and some green....and splashed them about here and there.....

Next...I went for the girl....and splashed some brown....some orange....some yellow....some yellow ochre.... quickly...with lots of water. 

for added motion....after I splashed some color around....I used my watercolor pencils.....a blue one for some water....

and because I had picked up a purple watercolor pencil I found laying around...I used purple....which seems just as good as any to do some darker lines here and there...in her hair...and in the shadows. 

The thing is.....it seems as though.....the painting area....the palette...the way we approach the painting....and the actual painting of the thing....speaks volumes of us...our personalities....

the way....I haphazardly approach a painting....where my brushes lay around.....where I find my watercolor paint.....around the house....is who I am.  I'm disorganized.  If I want to sketch something...and I see a green watercolor pencil laying on a table....I pick it up and use that...for the reason that....it was there....and I used it.  just as good as any color....

and what happens is that...I think, at least in my method....much like life....sometimes you see an opportunity....or you're handed a certain tool....a situation....whatever may be handed to you....

and it's what you do with that.....thing....that counts....not exactly what that thing is....but how you use it to your advantage. 

and my lack of planning...only makes me....think about making the most out of the only watercolor brush I can find....or the only 3 colors on my palette....because I can't locate the others when I want to paint something that I'm driven to paint....I actually, I guess...create an environment that makes me....have to figure shit out....huh...how am I going to paint this with one brush and 3 colors? 

I just sit down and paint...whatever is around me at the time....is what is used....maybe I'm too lazy to go find all the tools...

or maybe....I just want to do the thing so bad....I just make it happen...no matter what I'm handed...

I'm going to make it happen. 

and believe me...I know my process...can drive some people mental....but so interesting to see how different we are as people....

you know....just....this kind of examination of how we paint....is really just....a bigger look at who we are...

everyone processes the world around them differently....we all just radiate our unique personalities through all we do....and when we start to examine how we paint...we see how we approach things in life....we see our strengths....and hopefully we can appreciate and love ourselves for the wonderful things we bring....and maximize those strengths....

because....by really thinking about these things....you start to know yourself....to really try to understand....where you are coming from...why you do the things you do....

and just.....LOVE YOURSELF FOR YOUR AWESOMENESS.....everyone should....

just....

do....

that. 


ahhhhhhhhh......man......deep philosophical stuff.....


peace...and love....and making.....it happen.  See Michael?  

This fun exercise just made me go off into....well, the place I go....life...painting....whatnot....how it all connects.  

Michael
So, I followed my own writings in order to make this painting.  First I started out with a nice drawing. There isn't a lot of detail here, so it didn't tae too long to do.












Next I tested a few colors to see if they really were what I wanted.  I was pretty satisfied with my initial color selections.  I don't think I needed to change any of them.  The only thing I did was mix a little of the quinacridone rose into the water color to get it a little purplish.

I'm really happy with the way most of this turned out.  There are a few things, however, that I wish I had done just a bit differently.  I must have rushed a few times.  First, the horizon line to the right of the girls head.  Second, some of the shading on her legs.  All these places there is just a little too much run.  I really wish that I had taken just a bit more time.  I will offer the excuse that it was considerably colder in my studio than normal, and the paper wasn't drying as quickly as I thought it would.

I am really happy with the hair.  I put it on just like I wanted to:  The mass of it one blob.  From there I began pulling out individual hairs and really putting form to her hair.  Then I darkened the color just a bit and began adding all the individual strands.  The overall effect of the hair I really like.

As for her suit:  its not really black.  I don't have black on my palette.  So I had to make a mix of all the primaries to get it the way I wanted.  Hopefully, you all like it.

Thank you to Kelly Murphy for being brave enough to ask me to help her on her project.  I had a blast chronicling my steps and producing what is, a very nice painting.  Thank you.


And so there you have it.  Two drastically different approaches to the same painting.  One, (mine) much tighter and literal, and one, (Kelly's) looser and free-er.  Both, I think, wonderful paintings.

Thank you, Kelly, for bringing me into your project.  I hope we can work on another one at some time in the future.

And thank you, faithful reader, for following what we did.  I hope you enjoyed it.   I know I did.

McWay, slightly differently

I've painted McWay falls before.  This time from a slightly different angle.  And this time I set out to have different values in the paintings. Definitely trying to get the closest stuff to have the highest values and the darkest hues.  The water I think is ok, and the isthmus I think is fairly good, but I think I got the tree on the left a little too dark.  It doesn't look like it sits back quite far enough for me.  Or, conversely, maybe I didn't get the tree in the foreground quite dark enough.  hmmm.

For anyone that doesn't know, this is a little cove that sits on the California coast near Big Sur.  Only about a billion pictures have been taken of the place.  I've not actually been there.  Ok, if you followed the above link you will see that my painting doesn't have quite the color the real place has, but that's kind of California today.  We haven't had a good rain all summer and everything, I mean everything is brown.

Well, anyway, there is my little picture.  Hope you all  like it.

McWay Falls

Ok, this is a quick sketch, a trial of sorts, for a picture to be painted later.  I did it on cheap paper, but there are some things I really like about this.  For those of you who have followed my paintings, you know that my paintings have been very tight in the past and have been getting looser and looser recently.  This painting displays some of my best wet in wet to date.  

The parts I really like:  the beach and the trees on the left hand side.  I've been trying to get the whole paper wet with paint at the beginning of the painting, letting all  the colors mix and trying hard not to force the paint to do what I want it to do.  In this painting I let the paint do what it wants to do, and tried to stay hands off.  The way the water dissolves into the sand of the beach, or the beach into the water, whichever way you want to look at it, makes me happy to see.  The layering of the trees also makes me happy.  Ok, I got a little too much saturation of color in the distant trees, but the technique and thinking was right.  I can fix the saturation in the next one.  and in the foreground, it looks as though there are 3 or 4 layers of pine trees.  I tried mixing a few different colors of green so that it didn't look like one giant green blob.  I got at least a few different colors.   and the closest ones, while they were wet, I just threw in a little purple for no particular reason.

I should say at this point that painting on a larger scale seems to be easier. It was fun to just scribble in some lines and see it come out close to what I wanted to see.  And for some reason with a bigger brush, this was easier.

I had to put in some leaves from the gum tree in the foreground.  I think in the finished piece, I'll put in even more leaves.  It really did help to push the rest of the painting back.

I'm not a big fan of how the rocks turned out.  I'll have to work on those.  My intent was just to show some texture, but I think I over did it.

Overall, I'm happy with this and if I get a few things worked out with it, I know that its intended recipient will be ecstatic about it.

Thanks for viewing.

Surfing

This painting for sale.  Watercolor   71/ x 11  $10

Ok, I tried to have a little fun with this one.   Living on the left coast, surfing is pretty popular.  I don't do it myself, but i can appreciate all it takes to get  up before work, haul your gear to the beach, get into 50 degree water, and paddle out to sit in the cold water, with cold air blowing around you waiting for a wave.  Ok, Ok, maybe I don't really get it, but I thought I would give painting it a chance.

Monterrey Cypress

Ok, well, I tried to do another  one from the central coast.  This one being a monterrey cypress trees along the coast.  I think I jus tmissed the mark on this one.  I like some of the rocks, I think the grass is ok, but I really think I missed my mark on the tree itself.  I know, I know, thats a pretty big thing since the tree takes up the whole painting.  Well, some are winners, some maybe come in second place.  This is one that probably finished second, or even later.

Morro Bay City Limits

Yes, this is Morro Bay.  I know there was some question about what this painting is.  This was painted from a picture taken in Morro Strand.  You actually have the city limit sign with some bushes behind it, and the rock in the background.

The thing I like least about this painting is the sign.  I thought for sure I would like it best when I was drawing it.  As it turned out, painting around all the letters was pretty difficult.  I think I'm getting much better at letting the paint mix on the paper.  If you look at the bush behind the sign, there are lots of different colors, brom yellows to greens, blues and purples.  They all seem to work together to give you the feeling of a huge bush.  and if you look at the ground around the bush, it is blue at the top, which pushes it back, and has a reddish tint on the bottom which serves to pull that area forward.

Hope you all enjoy this.  It was fun to draw and paint.

Seaside Path

Ahhhh.  A nice leisurely walk along the seaside.  Some nice cypress pines along the way.  Well, the picture didn't turn out quite like I thought, but its not half bad either.

And, looking at the pic, it looks like I forgot to put in the chain between the posts.  Hmmmm, well, nothing I cant put in later.  Enjoy