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."

Dreams

I have been having some vivid dreams for a few weeks. I have illustrated my dreams from time to time over the years so I thought it would be fun to share some of them on my blog since I haven't had time to paint for a few days.

This was "designed as I slept" a few nights ago for my pastor's wife, Heidi's bridesmaids. Tim and Heidi have been married for nearly 20 years so it has nothing to do with reality and she will not be using my design.

This bridesmaids "ensemble"consists of an asian style jacket covered in white sequins accented by a scroll design created using black bugle beads. Soft flowing wide leg pants in black complete the look for the contemporary wedding! Sounds to me like something out of the J. Peterman's catalog.