Poppies

This is a fun painting I did for the coming of spring.  It's Poppies!!   The state flower of California.  I've got these growing wild everywhere around my house.  They add a beautiful splash of color.  

Many poppies have a dark center.  This variety instead has a bright vibrant yellow center.  I thought they would make the perfect subject to paint.

Oh and as for the background.... Well, I wanted to play a little and let these have some fun.  So a half wash and some splatter were just what the doctor ordered.

I painted this picture with a very limited color palette, and was delighted to see that even with that you can paint a beautiful paintings.  I really hope you enjoy it.

Oh, and if you are curios about a video of this painting, I've got just the thing for you.  I did make one and posted not long ago.  (yes, I've been delinquent about posting to this blog).  Anyway, you can find the video below.

Oriole

I must be on some kind of bird painting kick.  Here, I've painted an Oriole.  He is sitting on what appears to be a broken branch.

This bird was really fun to paint.  The vibrant orange color is made from a couple of different reds, and a couple of different yellows.  I did use a pre-mixed grey (payne's grey) but I augmented it myself.  I don't usually use the grey right out of the tube.  It's mot a bad color, just a little bit flat.

I've given the bird just a few indications of feathers.  Just enough to enhance the shape of the bird.

He sits on a  stick that has obviously seen better days.  Its got some pitting and dents in it.

The background was originally going to be a bit more mottled, but I think I forgot to mix another color into it.  As it is, the colors are phthalo blue and ultramarine blue.  The green parts are windsor green and viridian.  The blue behind the orange really makes this bird pop off the page.

Well, I hope you enjoyed the painting and the quick read.  If you want to see how I painted it, check out the following video.

Thank you.

Halloween Pumpkin

Here is a pumpkin for your Halloween pleasure.  It obviously hasn't been picked yet, but I wouldn't expect that to last.  This on looks good enough to carve up and put on the front porch.



Also, it comes with a video.  See link below.

red

Here is a painting I started a long time ago.  I just never seemed to have enough time to finish it, or maybe it was interest.  Well, at any rate, I spent a little time last night to finish it up.  Hope you like it.

A Couple of Coneflowers

Ok, for some reason, I can't seem to get away from flowers.  Here I have two different cone flowers.

I don't know what it is I like about these, but since I saw the first pictures of coneflowers, I've had a thing about painting them.  I must have painted a dozen coneflower or more (some of which have made this blog.)

I apologize for not having a good story to tell about painting these paintings.  Its been a long day, its late at night, and I'm about to go to bed.  So, since I don't have a lot to say.....   Hope you enjoy these paintings.

Goldfish

So I attempted a few fish a week or so ago.  I didn't like the way they came out.  Not that they were bad, but they were kind of stylized and not really like real goldfish.  So, I decided to take another crack at these fish.

The ones I painted here are much more realistic, still with a little Michael style thrown in, but a much better goldfish effort.  The three of them together look like they could be swimming around a fish bowl right now.

I won't tell you the problems I ran into while painting them.   They were fun to paint.  I love painting things like this that as long as you have a basic fish shape, your eye will tell you that they are goldfish and you won't even think about it.  Oh, and I apologize for the yellow in the photo.  I obviously had a really warm light on the paper when I took the picture.  If it were a little harsher, more white, it might look a little more like it does in real life.

Well, anyway, enjoy, I did.

simple fish

Just a few simple goldfish.  Had a great idea of how to paint the fins.  Wanted to be sure to get some big sweeping lines.  Didn't quite make it, but not a bad first attempt.  Oh, and I needed to make background more dramatic.

Solitary Cone Flower

So I had a little time while I was waiting for my paint to dry on different painting and I thought I would just get a little more wet int wet practice.

A really simple, but somehow nice coneflower.  I know its nothing special, but somehow being simple makes it nice.

Bouquets of Roses

Another bunch of roses.  I'm still trying to get them right, whatever right is.  I definitely think I'm on the right track.  With the single rose, I tried putting in a loose stem and leaf.   On one of the groups of three I tried to let the undercoat show through to represent some leaves, and on the other group of three just some dark shading under the bottom of the petals.

I am thinking that I can make these a little better if I let the darker color reach all the way to the outside of the petals in at lease a couple of areas.  I might try that tonight.  I guess that's why they call it practice.    

I'm not sold on having a full green background around the roses.  It really does make the flowers pop off the paper, but it seems to take away from the rose a bit.  It's like its just floating in a sea of green.  With no definition.  I think I'm kinda on the track with allowing a base layer to show through in leave.  If I overlay several leaves it might provide enough interest that I'll like it a lot.  More practice and trials are called for.  

These are all painted on the back side of old paintings.  I've kept all my painting for the past 5 years (the entire time I've been painting).  I've got a huge stack of old paintings that aren't really good, that nobody but me would like.  So on the sheets that can be used on both sides, I'm using the back.  If I decide to sell a few of these, whomever gets them is gonna get two pieces of art for the price of one.  

Also, I'm toying with the idea of putting together a video or two to show people how I paint.  I like this new style so much, I want to pass it along.  Any ideas on how I should go about it?  I'm accepting ideas.  

Thanks for the view and the advice.   Hope you enjoyed this post.  

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.

A rose by any other name

Having gone through a poppy phase over the last two weeks, I might be going into a rose phase.  Here are a few I sketched out.  Some good, some bad.  Hope you like them.

Sketchadoodling

Just a few quick sketches I did.  I'm trying to recycle and reuse pieces of paper that I have laying around that have a bit of whitespace on them.  I've got more paper on the way, but in the meantime, I've got these bits to use and since they paintings aren't  great and were just sitting around anyway.....   So you might be forced to view through a few more before I've exhausted all my scraps.  Enjoy.

Got My Scanner Back

Today, I got a scanner back and hooked up to my computer.  If you haven't noticed, this year my paintings look like they have had a bit of grey tint to them.  My camera just doesn't take the greatest pictures.  I'd been trying my best with the equipment I had.  Now, however, I've got my scanner back and things are looking better.  

Here are a couple of thank you cards that I have painted.  They are, of course, small.  In fact you could say they are the size of a thank you card.   Enjoy.

Roses Redux

Ok, so here is my first finished work of roses.  I kinda like the way it came out.  I've pasted it on my office wall and already gotten several compliments.  

So I obviously  have a little work to do on my petals.  I think on some they should be closer together, and then outer layer should be pretty wide.  Since I'm still trying to figure it out, I'm not gonna be very hard on myself for an mistakes.

And I suppose you are wondering why a drip is going horizontally.  I'll explain that:  I just thought it would be fun.  That's all, no good reason.

I'm still considering not leaving the highlights on the inside of the flower, and moving some to the outside petals.  Actually, I'm not sure how much it matters.  Your eye ends up seeing the way it wants anyway, but I'll probably  try it just to see.

I definitely think that after a few more attempts I'll get roses down.  Errr, well, thats the hope anyway.


Hope you all enjoyed these.  Thanks for the view and for taking the time to read this blog.

Chicken Mania

In addition to last nights poppy painting session.  I also found a little time to paint a few chickens.  I really don't know why i keep painting chickens.  I do like birds, but if I were asked to list my favorite birds, chickens would be WAY down the list.

It must have to do with the fact that you can throw a few colors into a chicken shape and it always comes out looking good.

I started painting them to force myself to let the colors mix on the paper, and I guess I got a little addicted.  Well, at any rate, they are fun to paint.  I hope you like them.  

Poppypalooza

I went home last night with the intent on painting some hydrangeas, and guess what happened... Poppies.  This time it was a little different painting from little pans (All I have at home is a small travel set of paints).  I wasn't sure if I would be able to make up enough wash to really work this style of painting.  Luckily, I found out I could.

Also, I should say, I wanted to paint yellow/orange poppies, but somewhere between palette and paper, my mind forgot, and I got these red ones.

I can't express how fun it is to paint these.  Most of my whole artistic (if you can call it that) career (part time dabbling with paint) I've been painting tight pictures, and it always bothered me that they didn't look like the pictures I was painting from, and they were rather lifeless.  Additionally, if I were to paint outside a line, or paint something wrong (whatever that is) it would make me nuts.  I could never figure how to let the water and paint do their own dance on the paper.  

Now with this style, I feel much freer to let the paint be the paint, the water be the medium to make the paint dance, and the paper to record it.  All I have to do it keep refilling the brush and move it to the paper every now and again.  I know these pictures aren't accurate representations of poppies (or whatever I'm painting).  But what I think I get is the expression of the poppy (or whatever I'm painting), or the feeling of, and that is what is important.

Anyway, I'm gonna keep along these lines for a while.  Don't expect me to be painting inside the lines.  I had fun painting this, hope you had fun looking and reading. Thank you and see you next post.

12 Poppies

I got a bit ambitious today and decided to do quite a few poppies. Why 12?  I have no idea.  I just kept getting paper out and painting.

The first two I drew so that I would know where the flowers would be.  Don't ask me which of the 4 paintings they are.  The next two I did freehand.  Again, I couldn't pick them out without looking closely at the paintings.

These are of course orange poppies.  I don't have orange in my palette, so I mixed Cad Yellow Medium with Scarlet Lake.  It really make a vibrant orange.

I don't know how far I'm gonna go with this technique, or with painting flowers, but for now, I'm having fun with it.

Hope you all enjoy.

Oriole

Here is the latest.  It is, as you can see, an oriole.  Not sure what I liked so much about this picture when I stated painting it, but I think it turned out nice.  A lot of times, it seems when you paint birds, you end up doing them in profile.  Maybe I liked this one because it wasn't in profile.

He's just sitting there checking out his surroundings.

Hope yo enjoy this one.  Thanks for the views.

Old Truck in Front of Barn

Ok, first of all, let me say that this is still a work in progress.  Secondly, let me tell you a little story about this.

A colleague of mine, knowing my propensity for all things rusty and wheeled, sent me a picture he took of this truck.  I couldn't help but attempt a painting of it.  I drew it, and painted it.  It looked horrible.  I couldn't stand it.  Even my colleague looked at it and asked if I had regressed in my painting.

I literally started pouring on the water and rubbed most of the paint off the truck.  Having done that, I was left with a painting that still had color, but which was infused with tiny white dots where the paint had been taken off.  It still looked horrible.  So, here is what I decided to do.

I admitted to myself that I'd wasted a sheet of paper and used it for some practice.  I stood, instead of sitting, and started swabbing on paint, not worrying about color or exact placement of paint.  In short, painting more loosely.  You can see I got some red on the roof of the bar,  a big swab of blue on the side of the barn, some green for trees, and yellows, reds and greens for grass.  While still wet, I just flicked in a few weeds.  I touched up the paint on the truck, and POW, a huge difference. I couldn't believe the transformation of this picture. It went from something that was totally drab and blasé to something in which the truck actually stands out in the picture.

I know that I still have a little bit of work to do painting but I couldn't believe how much better it look when I stopped trying to paint so tightly.

I hope you all enjoy it I am going to be posting the finished painting soon. Thank you.

More Koi

Today, I present for you a few Koi for your viewing pleasure.  I hope it looks like you are looking down onto them through some gentle ripples that the light is just catching.  The water and the bottom of the pool are algae covered.

I'm pretty happy with this one.  I think it turned out just about like I wanted.  The one thing I don't like is the gouache I put on.  I've not really used it before, and it didn't go on quite like I thought it would.  Regardless of that its a nice little painting.

Enjoy