Seriously Tiffany (oil, 8x10)

Hopefully, some of you will recognize some of the features of my nieceTiffany Matson's in this painting. What a might struggle I've had with this one! There are so many tiny things that make each of us individuals, not the least being animation. Tiffany, in real life, is a much more animated person - she doesn't hold her cards tightly at all. At least that's been my experience. This shows the more serious side of her, pensive, etc. This is based on a photo I took when she modelled for the portrait portion of the Zhaoming Wu workshop several weeks ago. Unfortunately, I had to leave soon after we began so I painted from the photos at home, without the help and coaching of Zhaoming Wu and my fellow painters. I'm fairly happy with the result, although I have barely scratched the surface of what can be learned about painting portraits. I've left it to dry for now but I may play with warming up the colours before calling it finished. It was so much fun!

 

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The challenges of painting figures

This painting is my most successful one from the Zhaoming Wu workshop last week. Unfortunately, I failed to notice the looseness of the canvass until the stretcher bars began showing through. Fortunately, the learnings are just as valid whether or not the paintings turn out :). Cheers!

 

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Zhaoming Wu Workshop

Today was my first day at Zhaoming Wu's workshop hosted by FCA Calgary. Zhaoming painted for the morning and then coached us throughout the afternoon. It was fun but exhausting ;). I had a great seat for his morning demo and he is masterful and magical to watch. Makes it look SO easy. NOT. Here's the beginning of my painting from this afternoon's pose. I concentrated on the early stages and will probably finish up later from my reference photos, although they make a poor substitute for a live model!

 

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Home Time (6"x6", oil)

Just fun little sketch done on an overcast, gloomy spring day recently. I had fun starting this off completely abstract and then found this red booted person. I'm really looking forward to studying under Zhaoming Wu May 25-30 in Calgary. He is an amazing artist and a very experienced teacher - it should be a great week! Click on his name above to look at his work.

Happy Friday!

 

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Circling Promise with Prayer (11x14, acrylic)

I may be finished with this one. I think it's got pretty good flow, it feels right, and I must stop and let it percolate for a few days. What do you think?

 

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Acrylic WIP, 11x14

I'm working on a canvas that I stretched myself this time. It's an interesting surface - the golden gesso has a lot of grab and a bit more absorbency than other canvasses I've used. I am really enjoying it and I can see a lot of potential for exploration.

In general, here are the steps for these "from chaos" paintings:

• Texture - drizzle tar gel, scrape through masks, stamp various acrylic mediums to make an interesting surface. Dry.

• Transparent glazes - I select 3-5 colors that I've learned will work well together (IMHO) and paint several layers on my textured surface. First layer is diluted with water and typically quite loose. The tar gel and other textures absorbs the paint differently and act as natural barriers as the colours run, making for some interesting patterns. The second and subsequent layers are mixed with glazing fluid and are somewhat thicker fluid. These layers are mental doodling to push and pull the shapes that emerge on the canvas. I'm thinking about composition at this stage.

 

Next step for this painting...

• Translucent and/or opaques - near the end of a painting, the acrylics can be mixed with white. The sky is the limit here... no, seriously! If I need to lighten an area and I feel a transparent would look best, I paint the area white and once dry I glaze over it transparently. Or, if I'm looking for an opaque, I blend the pigment with white. Transluscents are beautiful too... Very thin mixes of white and color can cover an area with a beautiful veil of color.

And now it's time to paint.... Have a great day!

 

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Kyoto Street Scene (oil, 6"x6")

I spent so much time on this little painting, relative to its size! One thing about painting a small street scene that seems counterintuitive is the importance of details. Too much detail is impossible with my brushes (1/2" here)'but too little detail doesn't tell the story. That said, the most critical factor in this painting is the light. It was a fun afternoon project for a stormy spring equinox day. I hope it's warmer where you are... Calgary, I already know you're basking in spring sun - lucky!

 

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Winter Plowing (oil, 6"x6")

Playing around on a little square canvas today and found this guy frolicking in the snow. Enjoy!

 

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Getting ready for another show…

I returned home from an awesome trip to Cuba on Monday.  I made some quick adjustments to “The Ride” and “Beach Buds” yesterday and included them in my jury submission for the FCA’s Absolutely Art show May 12.  I felt the skin tones were too light and cool in my first postings [links above].  I like them better now.  What do you think?

The Ride [oil, 9”x12”]

Summer routines are wonderful to look back at and forward to…  One of the great things about spending time at Moose Lake Gospel Camp is the waterfront activities.  The kids love ALL of it but having a generous boat owner willing to pull them on the tube is a highlight.  In this painting I’ve tried to capture the joy of the ride. 

Cheers!

Tokyo Beach Buds [oil, 9”x12”]

The two little people on the left are my grandkids, Kalista (6), and Kai (3).  The gal on the right is a new friend the kids made on Decks Beach near Tokyo Teleport.  This is an amazing area in Tokyo Bay…  man made islands with fun things for families to do and connections via ferries, boats and trains.  We had so much fun.  Cheers!

City Rain [9”x12”, oil]

I’ve been home from Japan now for just about 2 weeks.  I’ve had no previous experience with jet lag and I must say…  I’m not a fan!!!  I also brought home a lovely cough so I’ve spent this past week lazing around in the house recovering.  I’m finally back to painting and I’ve got lots of ideas and material to paint from – so exciting!

One of the spectacular sights we visited in Tokyo was Shibuya crossing.  Unbelievable numbers of people crossing each light – even in the rain!  This painting is roughly based on my memories and photos from our night there.  Cheers!

‘Wing Me [oil, 6”x6”]

I painted this from a photo of Kai [my 2 year old grandson] from this summer…  swinging.  He loves swinging.  At Moose Lake family camp this summer he was either swinging or begging, “wing me, wing me, wing me” until mommy was way past done with it, haha.  It was fairly entertaining for Grandma but less so for Candice at 7 months pregnant.  Ah, the life of a Grandma – SO much fun!

Monday Model [oil on canvas, 20”x16”]

I had another go at the painting from class 2 weeks ago…  I like her face and shoulders better now.  She appears to be sitting up straighter.  I also toned down the colors in the dress and warmed up the color in her skin.  This seems to have put the focus back on the model rather than the bright dress.  I feel like I’ve learned quite a bit from this exercise, particularly about the pushing and pulling of warm vs cool skin tones.  Getting a “likeness” however, is still eluding me.  Fun stuff. 

C’mon In! [12”x9”, acrylic on birch panel]

Vicky loves the water… I used a photo taken July 2009 as the basis for this painting.  In that photo, her left arm was waving around like a cowboy’s so I had to do some adlibbing and decided I didn’t need to do much, just suggest that her arm is behind her.  I think it’s fairly convincing.  I really, really struggled with her facial features, particularly her mouth.  I found myself smiling while doing this painting…  the expression on her face is so cute and she’s a bold little gal.  What fun!

For those of you that paint, I thought I would share a few “in process” photos.  The support is a birch panel [1/4” prepared with GAC100 isolation coat].  You can see the warmth of the natural birch glowing through the painting and it pulls the whole thing together with a “warm day” look.

1.  Drawing and highlights…  Left photo below: I increased the contrast on my photo reference and collaged over her left arm as a test.  Right photo below:  After sketching her features on the panel, I painted the lights in her features and reflection with titanium white. 

   

2.  After glazing some hair [quin gold] and skin tones [yellow/red] as a base, I struggled to find the right colors for her facial shadows. The reflections from the water looked to be blue.  Blue, yellow, and red…  all side by side.  At times she looked like she’d been given a serious beating – bruised!  I persisted with what I saw rather than what I think her skin color should be.  Difficult and patchy!

Again, I found the acrylic paint [both fluid and heavy body Golden] dried very, very quickly.  That left brush strokes and bit’s of paint raised.  In this shot I was still struggling with the shape her mouth and just that one little issue and she looked like…  a blonde Rachel [a cousin].

3.  I’ve darkened the water, puttered a bit with her mouth/chin shape,and darkened highlights in her hair.  I’m happier with her facial expression now.  I mixed up a very light skin tone [zinc white, yellow, and red] with glazing fluid.  I glazed all of her skin with this mixture.  The glazing fluid extends drying time, thus giving me more time to change the color up a bit and time for the brush strokes to flatten out.  I think it worked well to unify all her skin tones!   

Onward to the next painting…  Cheers!

Victoria - Part 3 of 5

Today you're seeing Victoria, Matthew and Christina's 3rd child. Vicky is 6 now and really losing the little girl persona and turning into quite a little miss. She has her own sense of style and knows what she wants.
Vicky has a pink and white striped shirt on in the photo I used for the transfer. I needed to find a way to work with the pink without having it fight with the colors I used on the other cards. The green-gold combined with the soft red-brown seems to have worked well. The argyle ribbon adds an extra bit of fun. Enjoy and Happy Easter!

Kristian - Part 2 of 5

This is the second 5x7 card in the series I'm putting together. The heat set photo transfer of Kristian was done first, followed by some glazing to boost the color in the transferred image. Since Kristian enjoys seashells I chose a seaside theme. I used some shells, shark teeth, and beach glass that I picked up from the beach during our visit to Puerto Vallarta last December.
Enjoy!

Part 1 of 5 - Matthew's Family

This transfer was done on a chipboard surface that had been prepared with white gesso. I used the heat transfer process that I described in detail on March 20th. Then I painted a black border around the transfer and overpainted parts where the colors were washed out. Then I added "Hannah" lettering and the stickers and overpainted a bit more. The wool yarn is woven through holes I punched with my new "Crop-A-dile II Big Bite" (cheap - $34 with a coupon at Michael's). I added some metal beads to the yarn just for fun.
I'll be doing 5 of these panels as a gift (a very long overdue birthday gift). Each panel is 5"x7". The holes on both sides attach the panels to eachother and make a zig-zag booklet of sorts. This one will have a panel for each of Matthew and Christina's children plus a bonus one because something has to be a surprise. Enjoy!

Transfer with heat...

I'm having fun playing with transfers again. Here's how the steps to this one went.

Photo 1 - Prepare watercolor support and transfer image

• This time I started out with a bit of prepainting on the 140 lb watercolor painting. I wanted a bit of color beneath this transfer. Once that's dry, I determined the exact placement for the transfer. A few pencil marks for guides is a good idea.
• I put a single layer of Golden Soft Matte Medium over the area receiving the transfer AND over the image. [Cross-directional strokes will result in a nice linen/woven affect.
• Once both dry I aligned the transfer atop the support and lightly secure it (a bit of tape holds it temporarily)

Photo 2 - Image transfer

• With my preheated Versa Tool, I carefully and thoroughly heat the paper back of the transfer with a circular motion. The heat melts the two layers of medium together, fusing the ink into the surface of the watercolor paper.

Photo 3 - Removing the paper backing to reveal the transfer

• The back of the support can now be carefully wet and the paper will roll off to reveal the transfer underneath. This takes old fashioned elbow grease. Roll your finger back and forth until a bit of paper grabs on and begins a roll.
• Wet and roll, wet and roll. The key factor to get the paper rolled of with no tearing is to wait for the transfer to cool completely.

I've had a couple of great results with this method and frankly, I plan to stick with it. Enjoy!

Last figure class

Figure drawing was a lot of fun this year! Our last class was yesterday. Wow that went by quickly! I thought I'd include a few photos of yesterday's work here with a short description of what we were trying to accomplish with each photo...

1. Warm up... using the side of a 1" piece of dry media [charcoal or conte], capture the general mass of the figure shape and add in the most important/descriptive lines - 20/30 seconds

2. Still warming up with the same method but now we're up to a minute. It's still not enough time to "see" and convert the information to paper. But it's a bit more descriptive. Sharon's reminding us to look for the musical/graceful/interesting lines. We're also supposed to be getting hands and feet onto these quick sketches - yikes, I can't move THAT fast!

3. More time now... although I can't remember exactly how long these ones were. I've switched to charcoal and I'm liking that better.

4. Still more time [I'm wishing I'd jotted it down, oops] - I think these might have been 3 minutes??? I'm having better luck with the extra time.

5. Switch to painting but using a similar method. Block in with one wash for first 10-20 seconds and then define further with a second color. I could have used less water and more pigment - these are faint. These were more difficult poses with limbs crossing, etc.

6. We switched to a heavier paper. I used some cheap watercolor paper and struggled with it from the get go. This is the only longer [10 min] pose that I did that turned even a teensy bit. I think I captured the light and shadow reasonably well. I struggled with the shape of the leg that was foreshortened [pointed directly at me]

I hope you enjoyed this little walk through a figure drawing class.