Quick Study

This is a quick study I worked on during my lunch break on a scrap piece of Arches 140lb cp. This albino peacock was fun to work on. I love peacocks, with their iridescent feathers. They are such showoffs! I don't appreciate that in humans but in peacocks, I do.

I love to paint flowers but I need a break from them from time to time. After the crystal and roses I have a commission piece and then maybe a full sheet of a peacock.

I Love Garlic!

I have been wanting to sketch more in my spare time and none of the items on my desk say, "sketch me!" So...this morning when I was packing my bag I noticed this wonderful little gem just sitting there and I could smell it! I popped it in my bag and here it is.

I absolutely love garlic! When a recipe calls for 2 cloves, I use 4...or 6. It will probably not last throughout this weekend. I am sure I can find an even better use for it once I get home...garlic olive oil, roasted vegetables, spaghetti sauce...mmm.

Have a great weekend!

"Spring Beauty ~ Revised"

This is the revised version of the Rhodie (below) that had the brick wall as a background. After scrubbing the bricks I layered Winsor Violet then Cobalt and Winsor Yellow allowing each layer to dry before proceeding to the next.

Finally I dripped color (including some opera and rose madder) and let it run while I held the painting upside down. I also took some of the WV and darkened some of the shadows on the petals, added some highlights to the leaves and lost some of the edges.

I am not sure if this shows on your monitor but the main color of the background is Winsor Violet which seems a little too blue in this photo. I will live with this for a few days and probably end up tweaking it a little more.

I still plan to paint this on a full sheet at some point AFTER I finish the crystal vase of roses.

Have a great day!

Coming Along

Another update on the pale pink flowers of "Spring Cascade."

I have worked on the values and adding color to make it more lively. I am still not happy with the shadow in the center flower but I will work on that over the next few days.

Have a great rest of the weekend!

Ugly Duckling Update

I think I may have over reacted...just a little...ok...quite a bit.

After scrubbing my deep, purple shadows and areas of the rose madder wash, which I liked when I first applied it, I walked away and thought about what I wanted to accomplish and how I wanted the flower to look. The advice I was given was well intended but it was not my style to paint that way. Now if this will work with the other shadows I think this painting will be worth framing!

The Ugly Duckling

Here it is...the ugly duckling! This painting is at that terrible stage where I would just as soon throw it away! I am not going to of course but I have thought about it. 

I was given advice to have nice, strong shadows at the same time I thought maybe some should be stronger than others. I chose to go against my gut feeling and painted all strong shadows. I should have listened to myself and then if it wasn't right I could have darkened them.   

I painted a wash of rose madder over the flower on the left (with the arrow pointing toward it) and was not happy since I want the flowers to retain the white in the petals. If you look closely you can see that I have begun scrubbing heavily on the flower to lift much of the damage I have done. O well, as a wise friend of mine said, "Art is also about learning."

"Spring Cascade" Progress

A quick update on the progress of "Spring Cascade."