Tahoe Art Faire (WIP)

This is a piece I started a while back and have decided it is time to finish. After simplifying my reference photo a bit, I began by painting in the shadows, something I don't generally start with. That turned out pretty well, but made me hesitant to go forward. Now that I've started on it again I'm realizing that it is much more complicated and tedious than I first realized. I actually thought I might finish it TODAY! I will keep working on it. Here is my effort to date.

Following the Masters Assignment #2 - Completed

Here is the completed assignment for Following the Masters.

"Following the Masters" Challenge #2

I've joined Michelle Burnett's Following the Masters on-line challenge. Challenge #2 (my first) is to make our version of Walking on the Beach, by impressionist Joquin Sorolla y Bastida (1863-1923). I started this last night and, since I'm out of ink for my color printer, I'm working from a grayscale version of the picture. Here is my work so far.

Rocky Beach

Since finishing the Watercolor Beyond the Obvious class I have been kind of slacking, catching up on things other than painting. I also started working a little on color theory - I am amazed at how many times I've tried to make a gray-scale value "color" wheel only to find that my grays were too dark and didn't transition properly into my light values. Taking a breather from gray-scale studies I did this painting, Rocky Beach, along with an on-line video. Trying to paint with a video is actual harder for me than trying to figure it out myself, but here it is. I paid for the on-line class so I'm going to finish it!!! :)

I DID IT!!!! Here is WBO #20

I did it!

Yesterday was our last class for Watercolor Beyond the Obvious. We had a potluck and art show for the class and anyone who wanted to attend. We had a ton of people! It was so amazing to see all the paintings we did! I think there were something like 400 paintings in all! I was nervous about taking this class because I knew it would be a lot of work, but I also knew I would learn a lot. As you can see from all twenty paintings that I've definitely tried some different ideas with my still life series! Thanks Mike!

Here is #20!!! It has some fine "gold" lines that you can only see if you click on the picture to get a larger view.

WBO #19

Number 19 is done! I drew this design a while ago while sitting in a waiting room. Can you see the "coffee pot" shape? Leaves? The shapes are hinted at rather than drawn completely. That little round circle on the left (center) represents the "screw" in the handle of the coffee pot!

WBO #18

I spent so much time working on #17 that I had to just whip something out really fast today (Sunday). My thought behind this piece was repetition and glazing. I used Primary Yellow, Rose Madder Genuine and Cobalt Blue. I think the Primary Yellow is a bit too strong but I was out of Aureolin. I started with the background thinking it was just to be a sort of ghosting of the image. Then I moved on to painting with yellow, followed by pink and then blue. Only the foremost image has all three colors. I was painting really fast with a big, drippy brush and my my board tilted. I wasn't aiming for anything frameable, I just wanted to play and experiment. See Mike! I'm taking chances! :) I ended using a black marker to help focus on the main still live and crisp up the edges a bit, but still keeping it loose.

I think I prefer it as a value study in grayscale.