Monday, March 28, 2011

Iris

I created the image below using the photograph here as a reference: Wet Canvas Image .  It was fun to do, but I've gotta admit that I'm getting tired of purple.  It's not one of my favorite colors, it's too "in your face" for me, but I am giving this painting along with the previous two to my brother for his birthday. He requested purple paintings.  Hopefully he likes them.  He's my brother, he has to!

Monday, March 21, 2011

Out for a ride

I'm doing several paintings using the color purple (the tree in my last post, this hot air balloon, and an extreme close up of an iris) and I am learning a lot about mixing this color.  It has been a great exercise so far.  I've also found out that if I photograph purple with a flash, the color shows up as blue.  haha.  The challenge in this one was the angle of the balloon/basket and also layering the silver.  I think it took three or more applications before you couldn't see the blue sky through the silver.  C&C welcome!  I should add that I had to crop the picture a bit on the right to straighten it-there is a bit of blue along the right side of the balloon.

Thursday, March 17, 2011

Just a Tree


This is a terrible photo of my most recent painting, but it'll have to do. The painting is pretty dark, but in person the whitest parts of the tree are much brighter, more eye-popping, I think, so there's more contrast. It was an attempt at a more abstract painting than I've done recently.
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Sunday, March 6, 2011

Acorns

I purchased a book called The Big Book of Painting Nature in Watercolor a month or so ago.  I was flipping through it in Barnes and Noble and even though I don't paint in watercolor I was drawn in by the photographs.  The book is made up of photographs by John Shaw and watercolor paintings by Ferdinand Petrie.  I used a photograph of oak leaves and acorns from this book as a reference for this acrylic painting done on an 8" x 10" canvas. I still don't have a good method of photographing my paintings and that gets a bit annoying but here it is.  I am not entirely happy with the background or the leaves yet-any suggestions would be very much appreciated!

Tuesday, March 1, 2011

Painting Pause


I have been sick on and off for three weeks.  Aside from a lingering cough, I am finally feeling better and can’t wait to get home from work tonight so I can start painting.  Hopefully I’ll have something to post tonight or by the end of the week, at the latest.   It’s funny how strong the itch to paint becomes.