Truckin' through a field

For some reason, I felt the need to paint another old truck.  I just cant seem to get enough of rust and faded paint.  So here it is, an old Ford sitting in a field.  It looks like its been here for about a dozen years or so.  No wheels at all, so it is never gonna move.

I love the effect of the distant trees in this painting, and I can live with the sky.  I only wish I had painted the truck in my usual way.  One piece of sheet metal at a time.  It usually allows for nice breaks in the painting and I don't have to paint the joints between the panels.

Well, I like this and even the field seems to have a lot of texture to it. Enjoy.

Oh, and by the way, it comes in video too.  Check it out.

European Robin

A robin in winter.  I will admit that this guy doesn't display all the personality of some of my other birds, but he is cute anyway.  I was painting from a picture that had been taken in winter.  I can tell from the snow on the little stick the bird is on, but I couldn't make out what was in the background.  So I tried to fill it with cool colors.  I wanted to leave them a little light so as to not take away from the bird, but just give an indication of temperature.  Now that you know its cold in the picture, I bet you can really see it.

I made a video to go along with this so you can see how I did it.  Interested parties can follow this link.

I hope you enjoy this little bird and I hope you enjoy the video.   You keep looking and watching, and Ill keep painting and posting.

Lone Tree in the Snow

Ok, so today I have a series of pictures for you.  Trying to work wet in wet in the background, and dry brush in the foreground.

You can see in the first photo, I've got the tree sketched out, and have blocked in some colors.  I put just a little color in the sky.  Maybe the color from the distant hills is reflected in the sky just a bit.





This second one, I've got the tree in and some rocks and grass.  I tried leaving a little white here and there, especially on the ground where I think the light might be reflecting off the snow.

Adding details to the tree and to the grass.  The tree in the photo has some really deep grooves in it.  It's pretty wind warn and has a real ancient feel to it.  

 A few more details on the tree and a few more sprigs of winter grass and I'm just about done.  Not only did I use many shades of brown and red in the base color of the tree, but I'm not using a single color in all the shadows.  I think I've got 5 or six different colors.

Here it is framed and hanging on the wall.  I noticed after looking at it that there really wasn't enough differentiation between the near and far hills,  I went back and put just a touch of blue to create a hill.

I really like this painting, and the woman I painted it for really likes it.  It is currently hanging in her office.  It really makes me feel good to hand off a painting like this that someone really likes.  Hope you all like it as much as I do.  Thanks so much.

European Robin in Winter

Yesterday was a really busy day for me.  Running non stop from the time I got to work, until nearly quitting time.  I did find just enough time to paint this little guy.  I must have been in a bit of a dour mood yesterday, because he seems to be in bit of a huff.  Let's hope I wasn't showing my frustrations.

This on is from a winter time picture.  The bird has obviously gotten his down up a bit to keep warm.  I tried to paint it with all cooler colors.

Well, he was fun for the 5 minutes or so I got to paint him.  Enjoy, and thaks for the view.