Looking Good For The Ladies

I was granted permission to use Helena's picture she posted on Facebook of a VERY colourful turkey (thank you Helena!). I had so much fun painting this!! I had no idea where or how to start this one, so I just did. I loved all the different shapes and textures and my brush was flying in so many directions that it just flowed. It is my favourite painting so far this year, it makes me laugh looking at it..

"Looking Good For The Ladies"

14" x 11" Oil on board

#20029117

FCA Workshop on Composition and Colour

  This is day 2 of the FCA Calgary Chapter workshop with Alice Helwig. In this lesson, we took a magazine picture with colours we liked and then had to colour match it on the side and paint a small painting of our photo resource (left-magazine picture on upper right of easel). We then took that as a reference (photo on right) to paint a a larger painting using those colours (my new colour reference on the left top corner of my easel, photo reference underneath and painting on the right.

 This is Alice's photo that we used for the next exercise. We took a black and white copy, traced the large shapes and then painted it on water colour paper with black and white oil paint.

After that dried, we painted over the large shapes with 2 colours of grey (light and dark) keeping some white and black areas.  Once that dried, we went back over it with colours to make sure the values stayed correct. 

I used wild "unreal" colours to see if I could make them tonally correct.


This is the photo of the above painting taken on my camera in black and white showing me that I did get the values right.

FCA Calgary Chapter workshop with Alice Helwig

I attended a FCA Calgary Chapter workshop last Saturday and Sunday with Alice Helwig teaching about values and colour schemes. I really found the value part of the weekend really seemed to finally hit home for me. I can't do the "squinty eye" thing that everyone else seems to be able to do to see values and not details. My camera could do that for me as I found out. Using acrylic was a challenge as well but I learned more about using it therefore enjoyed it more.

 This exercise was to put different colours of the
same value. This is something I could never see until I viewed it on my camera in black & white. You can see where I painted a couple of brush marks in a darker value.




 This is the same exercise again using different colours and using white in the mix. The black and white study shows they are all a similar value.






These are photos of my palette as I am mixing, trying to get the same values with this wide range of colours.

Flowering In The Sun

"Flowering In The Sun"

Oil on board   20" x 18"

# 20020117

There was so much I liked about my reference photo, firstly being the memories of a cycle trip in Spain. I loved how the balconies were decorated with flower pots. They softened the rock and plaster buildings' look especially in the old town centers. 

Learning Values - AGAIN!

I painted a scene of San Miguel de Allende over the Christmas break (18" x 22"). I was not sure what was wrong with it but thought I did not have enough darks. Sure enough after showing it to Doug Swinton yesterday, my lesson was to paint a photo he chose using only black and white so I could see the values. I didn't finish the painting as he could see that I did know about values, just could not transfer them into colour on that painting.

Original photo

My incomplete version of photo in values only

When I painted  from the photo a second time, this time in colour, I focused on the "thingness" instead of just shapes. The painting above is Doug painting over mine to lose some of the details and he made bigger shapes on the barn and snow. Some days my brain just hurts after coming out of his class. Painting will be life long learning for me!

Finnegan - a commissioned pet portrait

I have never painted a dog that was smiling before so this was really fun. It is always interesting to try and paint a pet whose coat is very similar light shades. It is a challenge to give the pet depth. It was interesting watching Finnegan develop and eventually smile at me! Thank you Tracy for this commission and the surprise tip!

"Finnegan"  Acrylic on canvas with wide sides painted.

10" x 8"     #20010116       SOLD

Showing painted edges

Elvis - A Pet Portrait

  This is a commissioned pet portrait of "Elvis". Elvis was so cute and fun to paint. I had to check and recheck the photo reference on Elvis' tongue placement as it seemed to far right, but that was the correct placement. Tracy had also sent me a photo of Elvis with a tie on...looking so cute and fun that I hope to paint it one day!

"Elvis" 9" x 9"
Acrylic painting with painted wide edges    #20008116   SOLD

These photos show the wide
painted sides. This painting does
not need to be framed.

Skinny Mara Lake View

I was a little befuddled on how I was going to paint this scene of Mara Lake, B.C. I was in Doug's class and after asking what I liked about the painting, it seemed like it was really about the rocks in front AND Sicamous, B.C. and mountains in the background. Essentially I had 2 subjects. After struggling with trying to "map" this on my canvas, Doug took it and disappeared, coming back with my canvas board cut in half!

Now, he said I could do the two subjects I was interested in. Honestly when you cover up the mountains and sky the rocks really aren't that interesting. Some days the paintings flow, other days are a challenge. I had never painted on such a small and irregular canvas board before but I really enjoyed it once I got going.

"Skinny Mara Lake View 1"    3" x 12" Oil on board     #20006117A  

I painted the one above first and enjoyed it so much I decided to paint it again with the other half, hard to tell which one I like better.

 

"Skinny Mara Lake View 2"    3" x 12" Oil on board     #20006117B 

Sketching while waiting...

I have been trying to bring my sketchbook with me when I have appointments or know I will have some waiting time. It certainly passes the time quickly! It is also an interesting way to get used to people looking at me while drawing/painting. I am not sketching long enough for to many comments or to much interaction.

This is a sketch I did of chairs and art in a couple of waiting rooms. The lighter lines were done in black ink while waiting for a flu shot. The darker lines were done in my doctor's office with a felt pen of the chairs and art.

This plant was also drawn during an office visit. To keep everything compact I have not been packing my water colour pencils or small paint box.

This is a drawing that I did a little at a time of the dashboard of my car as I was waiting for my husband Gord to come off the C-Train at the end of his workday. Some days I only had enough time to do a couple of lines and other days I got a little more done. I am not going to do any more on it now.

Sketching while travelling by plane

While on our flight from Puerto Vallarta to Calgary I drew my hand in pencil in my sketch book then used my felt pen to draw the lines. I really liked how this turned out even though the flight was really bumpy while doing this.

This was the second sketch I did while filling in time on our WestJet flight on Dec 31. I think the fellow across the aisle filled in his time watching what I was going to do next. 

I decided to try my hand again, only this time crossing my fingers. This one just looked strange to me, I much prefer the one above.

The last sketch I did on the flight was what was on my tray at the time. I had my pencil, eraser and

pencil case so I leaned by sketch book against the tray and started drawing. There was no one in the middle seat so it was wonderful to have room to move my drawing arm around without worrying about bumping or being bumped.

Rincon de Guayabitos, Mexico holiday sketches

Happy New Year to you and your loved ones!! Thank you for browsing my blog, hopefully some inspiration is found for your artistic soul and journey. I thought I would start the new year by putting the last of my sketches from our Rincon de Guayabitos last minute holiday. I am hoping it will help inspire me to sketch more often, especially urban sketches.

We met lovely Isabel on our bus ride from Puerto Vallarta to Rincon de Guayabitos and she gave us the name of the restaurant she was working in over the holidays. It took us days to find it but we finally did (we had walked by it many many times on the beach). The large palapa roof obsured the name. I drew this between enjoying cold beers, salsa and body surfing the waves.

This is the last urban sketch I did from a beach side restaurant. It was so fascinating to watch the very busy beach of Mexican vendors and families enjoying their short time ocean side.