Seated Figure Challenge

8 inch by 8 inch oil on canvas panel

This was my attempt at the challenge photo on DailyPaintworks.  Before I started, I decided that I would focus on the figure only, and not try to put in any of the background details.  I wanted to show how the light was hitting the man.  I did this with a huge brush and about one hour, so I couldn't work it to death.
My favorite part is the legs.  I didn't get the light on his shoulders right, but no going back!  Onward!

Landscape # 4 after Kevin MacPherson

12 inch X 16 inch oil on stretched canvas

This is the fourth painting I've done in my project of painting my way through Kevin MacPherson's book, "Fill Your Oil Paintings With Light and Color".

 MacPherson's painting is called Sunlit Hills And Sycamores.  He painted his tree branches using negative shapes by painting the clouds and sky and foliage over the branches.  I tried to do that, but wasn't as successful as I'd like to be at that.  Need more lessons!  I'd actually like to see him do that in person, as I'm not sure how he achieved it.  Mine was sort of trial and error.

I am happy with the way the painting turned out, though.  I learn something new every time I do one of these.  I've already started another one!

Small Study

This small study was done in about two hours.  I dropped it and scratched it when I was carrying it, and I am too fed up to work on it any more.  So I took a picture, scratch and all.

I still am having a difficult time laying in my dark values dark enough initially.  I keep having to go back and darken and correct.  I hope it comes with time.  Thanks for looking!

Workshop Last Day

My camera wasn't working on Thursday, so I couldn't take any pictures.  I was thinking I needed a new one until I got home.  Then I discovered I had left the memory chip in the computer when I'd downloaded photos the night before.  Doh!

Here are pictures of Carol's demo on Friday.

This was Carol's set up. 

This is her drawing.

The completed painting. 

I loved sitting right beside her easel on that day, and I got to watch her mix her paints.  It's almost as fascinating as watching her paint.  

A lot of us wanted to paint eggs that day, so I tried my hand at that.

My first attempt was too pale, so I went back to a small four by four inch sketch.

The dark side of the brown egg looked almost like chocolate.  My brain kept telling me it couldn't be that dark!   And it's as smooth as a baby's behind.   I like the reflected light, though.

Carol's still painting eggs.  Check out her blog.

Workshop Day 3

On Wednesday, Carol painted a demo of eggs. 

This was her set up. 

This is her finished drawing.  Again, notice that she completed the ellipse outside the canvas.

This is the finished painting.  Not the best photo because I took it indoors with a flash.  The photo doesn't capture the wonderful glow of the golden shadows cast through the eggs.

After Carol's demo and lesson, she put us to work with some ten minute exercises.   A lot of us painted apples, which warmed under our lights, and soon the studio was filled with a wonderful apple fragrance. 

My first set of exercises I used too large a canvas, so for the second attempt, I taped off four inch squares on a canvas board.  Even at that size, I never had time to finish the background.  On my first apple I used white to try to capture the reflected light, and it looks rather pink.  Carol recommended I use yellow to lighten the apple, and I like that a lot better.   Here are my apples:

 

After lunch I was hating those apples, so I switched to lemons.  We were supposed to try to lay down a stroke without blending.  My first lemon is totally blended.  When Carol told me the second one still looked blended, I laughed and told her "that's my chunky".   I always have great plans to paint loose, but what comes out of my brain is something else.  

After Carol's beautiful egg painting, the next day we all switched to trying to paint eggs! 

Day 2!

Tuesday started with another demo with Carol.  Lordy.  She mixes a new puddle of paint for each stroke. It's amazing.  And she almost never has to say oops, wrong color.  She mixes each puddle beside the one for the previous stroke so she can compare the values.

Carol's set up. 

The completed drawing.

The finished painting.  Notice how she painted the ellipse off the edge of the canvas.

Her palette after the painting was completed.  

Next Carol had us paint some value paintings, using only burnt umber.   The idea was to have three basic values, light, medium and dark.  We were to make three paintings, with one each with one of those primary values.   We scrubbed the umber on and lifted out the highlights.  Mine were primarily paper towel paintings, not brushes.  

Carol reminded us to SQUINT to see the values.  She said we should practice squinting all the time, not just when we are painting.  She said, "It's like Kegel exercises!"  We were falling off our chairs, laughing!


Here are my three.  

Primarily dark.  My least favorite.  

Primarily medium values, some lights,  with a smidge of dark.  

Primarily light values.  

These painting were fun, and I was feeling pretty good.  It built me up for the fall I was going to take on day three.  On day three we added color!  Ack!  

Carol Marine! First Workshop Day

I am so happy to be attending Carol's workshop here in San Antonio.  I attended one of her workshops four years ago with my daughter.  Now that I've been painting for a couple of years,  I can understand and relate to what she is telling us much better than I could the first time.  I'm not saying I can DO it, I just can comprehend better!

I thought you'd like to see pictures of Carol painting a demo for our class.  She makes it look so effortless, I think, "Yes!  I can do that!"     And then we paint.  Sigh.   Well, maybe tomorrow.

Carol always uses a viewfinder to draw her paintings.  She has toned the canvas with burnt umber, then draws with burnt umber.  She first locates the edges of the objects with small marks, then draws them in.  You can see she used lines to draw the ellipse of her cup.  Next she uses a paper towel to wipe off the excess paint so it doesn't contaminate the colors of her painting. 

This shows her completed sketch.  She also draws in her shadows are a part of her sketch. 

Carol first paints in "islands of color".   Then she paints in the "ocean" around her islands.  She says it helps her to control her edges better.  

The second apple. 

The rest of the apples and the beginning of the mug. 

The finished painting.  My photo has a little glare, but you can see how beautiful it is. 

You can see she paints off the edge of the canvas onto her canvas holder.  She says it helps her with the ellipses.  

After lunch, Carol had us each compose a set up and paint so that she could see where we each were.  

I tried something new.   She paints with a very limited palette, and I tried to paint using only her colors.  I had a very hard time making gray.  She mixes gray from red, yellow, blue and white, so I tried to do that.  I had a difficult time---it came out very blue...