I had a tough time applying myself today. And this did not turn out how I’d imagined it in my head. I’m a quarter of the way through though.
Paintings
Day Three
Another painting done and I enjoyed this one more.
I drew it out first, but found that frustrating. I had a lunch date and had to rush off after I finished it, thinking I’d photograph my still life set up later to post. And then I ate the grapes as I was running out the door. Of course they looked JUST LIKE in my painting. I started with a grey panel and I liked the experience of that. I’m getting a little annoyed with having to fill the whole background in; it feels uneccessary, so I prepped some panels to provide different background options. They’ll need a few coats of gesso before they’re ready, but we’ll see how that turns out. Could be good, could be a learning experience…
Day Two, Painting Two
Why is it that my peppers always look like pumpkins?
I’m a little happier with this one. I struggled with the colours I used for my shadows on the pepper itself and I might have found a better option had I experimented a bit more. I started with a charcoal drawing of the same pepper in order to get a good sense of the tones. I think that helped.
And now, something a little different… Day One, Painting One.
I have painted very little this year – I just haven’t felt like it. And I think that’s a pretty poor excuse. So now that I’m on vacation, I have decided to paint a small still life painting every day until I go back to work on August 1. I’m hoping this will motivate me to push through and just do the work. It may not be pretty, but I am determined.
This was difficult. I was tired and did not feel like doing it. But I don’t always feel like doing my daily drawing and I just do it anyway and I did the same thing here. I started by covering my 8″ x 10″ panel with a diluted layer of burnt sienna and then did a quick drawing of my subject with more dilute burnt sienna before wiping away the paint from the lightest parts of the image. From there I mixed a few colours and filled in some of the major pieces a bit roughly. Then I moved from area to area filling in details and adding tone. I don’t know that I have a really great process – I’m working on that concept yet – but it got me through this painting. I don’t love the result. I see some depth created with the apples and the bowl, but the background is really flat and weird. And you can see that I rushed at the end with the fabric that the bowl is sitting on. I included this bit of folded canvas because I like painting fabric, but I was just too tired. And that’s one painting done.
“The world always seems brighter when you’ve just made something that wasn’t there before.” – Neil Gaiman
June 5, 2017
My poor neglected blog. Fortunately, I have done a little painting in the last month – the results are below. I’ve been playing around a bit and am looking forward to more experimentation with dark outlines.
My drawing a day project is going reasonably well – another 31 days completed.
May 1 2
May 3 4
May 5 6
May 7
May 8
May 9 10
May 11 12
May 13
May 14
May 15 16
May 17 18
May 19 20
May 21 22
May 23 24
May 25 26
May 27
May 28
May 29 30
May 31
For June, I’ve decided on two rules:
- All of my drawings will consist of a few items selected from 21 still life props with the addition fresh produce I have on hand if I choose to add it. I’ve photographed all the props together to better illustrate how distant the resemblances in my drawings are to their real-life counterparts.
- Any medium goes – as much variety as possible – it’s about being experimental and knowing that some (or most?) of these drawings will be atrocious! This is my chance to play with all of those art supplies I was so enamoured with when I saw them in the store but I really have no idea how to use.
“Art has always been the raft on to which we climb to save our sanity.” – Dorothea Tanning
March 20, 2017
Only a couple of things to post this week. The first is a new copy of a master lemon painting. This one is from “Fruit and a Jug on a Table” as featured on the Museum of Fine Arts Boston site.
I completed the next lesson in my Craftsy class – creating a colour wheel with Burnt Sienna, Yellow Ochre, Titanium White and Mars Black with a 50/50 mix of black and white standing in for blue. It was an interesting idea and I thought it turned out fairly well – especially as I avoided using multiple brushes by working with a palette knife instead.
I liked this format for a colour wheel so much that I decided to go on and do another one using primaries and secondaries directly from the tube based on Betty Edwards recommendations in her book Color: A Course in Mastering the Art of Mixing Colors. Colours used are Cadmium Red Medium, Cadmium Yellow Pale, Ultramarine Blue, Cadmium Orange, Cobalt Violet and Permanent Green. I added Titanium White and Mars Black for the tints and shades. I could have done some smoother gradations on this one, but it serves its purpose all the same. And no brushes to clean!
“Embracing the vulnerability it takes to rise up from a fall and grow stronger makes us a little dangerous….
February 23, 2017
“Embracing the vulnerability it takes to rise up from a fall and grow stronger makes us a little dangerous. People who don’t stay down after they fall or are tripped are often trouble-makers. Hard to control. Which is the best kind of dangerous possible. They are the artists, innovators, and change-makers.” – Brene Brown
Between family ski trips and a lack of inspiration to paint, I decided to work on a Craftsy class that I purchased (and began) awhile ago. The class is called Paint & Palette Essentials and since I had very little recollection of my experience of completing the first assignment, I repeated it. Both versions are below. This was a Monochromatic Wipe Out Study – something new for me. I generally keep a lot more paint on my brush than this technique involved, so I found it a little frustrating getting the hang of this style of application. It turned out better than I had thought it might and I see the point of this approach. I kind of like my first attempt more than the one I just did though. I’m glad I avoided looking at it until I had completed it the second time around. I am looking forward to the next lesson to see where this leads.
“We only see what we look at. To look is an act of choice.” – John Berger
January 16, 2017
My work from the last two weeks:
Panel 1 WIP, Jan 14, 2017, Mixed Media on Birch Panel, 11″ X 14″
Panel 2 WIP, Jan 14, 2017, Mixed Media on Birch Panel, 11″ X 14″
Panel 3 WIP, Jan 14, 2017, Mixed Media on Birch Panel, 11″ X 14″
The latest in the 6″ X 6″ Circle Composition series:
And my daily drawing challenge so far:
January 1, 2017
January 2, 2017
Jan 3
January 4, 2017
January 5, 2017
January 6, 2017
January 7, 2017
January 8, 2017
January 9, 2017
January 10, 2017
January 11, 2017
January 12, 2017
January 13, 2017
January 14, 2017
January 15, 2017
When I did my drawing a day project back in July, I decided to use the same medium all month – black drawing pens and a bit of watercolour. I used a small watercolour sketchbook to work in that had 28 pages to which I added 3 more small sheets that I tucked in the back to contain the entire month’s work. I’m carrying both of these ideas over into this new project. I’m using a 2017 Moleskine planner set that consists of 12 small 3.5 x 5 soft cover books. Each has a different colour cover and a page for each day and they can all be contained in a hardcover. The lines on the pages don’t bother me, but the show-through from one page to the next does. So I’m experimenting with gessoing every second spread to avoid that. For the month of January I’ve chosen graphite as my medium. It’s been awhile since I’ve messed with graphite and I’m enjoying it so far. I’m not as fond of the way the graphite responds to the gesso on the pages, but I’m working with it and trying different things – sanding the gesso a little and using harder pencils, or just dispensing with the gesso and accepting whatever show through results. So far it’s going well. Two weeks in, 50 to go.
“To embrace luck, you have to enhance your tolerance for ambiguity.” – Twyla Tharp
December 19, 2016
I managed to work on three different pieces this weekend. This one was looking so much like a bullseye that I decided to add the eye.
Possibly too colourful, but I thought I’d try a different approach and this is where I ended up.
And I have decided that this is now finished. Unless of course I decide to come back to it at some point. For now though, it’s done.
susanne semchuk 