Painting Progress, and Maggie Does the Hay Room

Not too bad. I like the effects you get from doing those all-over, three-color washes with the spattering afterwards.  This is another demo I started in the class, and finished later at home.

Still darkening Voodoo and the background. I have another slightly different pose that I drew, that is waiting on the watercolor paper, after having done only one wash using two different blues. Might get to that this afternoon.

As I was heading to the barn the other morning, something caught my eye. It turned out to be a raccoon. I fed Bruno, then got my camera. My barn assistant was in hot pursuit. Thankfully the raccoon was well up in the tree by the time Maggie got there. Would not want her tangling with one of those beasties. 

There's the rascal, making his escape. I kept Maggie inside for an hour to give the raccoon time to escape. I think a family has moved into the area - I've seen them off and on for the past few months.

His Imperial Highness, after our ride.

Yes, it's a horse bum ... but a horse bum with sweat marks in the right place. It shows he has been using those powerful hindquarters properly.

While Bruno has his munch, Maggie and clean up, and clean and refill his waterbucket.  Maggins has discovered the joys of hunting in the hay shed!!! Today, she actually looked at me like she was asking to be allowed in. So in she went ...

She jumps and bounces from bale to bale ...

... looking for rodents.

I think she is probably a hunter, quite like a Jack Russell. She also shares the same intenseness and focus of that breed.

I just looked at the clock - 3:00 already, but it feels like it should be only 1:00. The time change has really discombobulated me this year.
Anyway, thank you very much for dropping by!!!

SO FAR ... Works-in-Progress ...

Voodoo is getting some background - permanent rose and quin. burnt orange.

Right now, I am in the process of darkening it. I'm sure I'll have to intensify the shadows on his head as well.

I used this as a reference photo for the class yesterday.

Again, I masked what I wanted white, in this case the few balsam standing at the edge of the pond. I wet  the paper thoroughly, and applied aureolin, alizarin crimson and cobalt blue, then sprayed and let the colors blend on their own. I did a second similar wash, using quin. gold instead of aureolin. Then I covered the sky and water with scrap watercolor paper, and spattered gold, quin. burnt orange, alizarin crimson and cobalt blue, and then sprayed to let them flow together.

Here, I have removed the masking, and am working on the trees, and getting some strategic dark shadows around the focal area.

That's it for now. The sun is shining warmly and invitingly, and Bruno awaits! He is in serious shedding mode - hair flying everywhere.

Thank you so much for dropping by!

Some Scenes from the Countryside

I had to go to the feed store to buy supplies for Bruno. This is one of the views on the route I take.

... a closer shot - that's Mt. Baker looming in the distance.

The lilies are putting out leaves in the ponds. 

A shot of our trail today.

Maggie, in a blurry photo. She is always on the move.

I was tempted to try to cross one of these logs over a gully. Thankfully, I thought better of it - I'll wait till it's drier, and the moss is not slippery. 

I think this will make a good demo for the next class. Once again, we will be doing a very w/w painting, trying to capture the light of a scene.

I spent most of yesterday inside painting, with a quick trip to buy some feed for Bruno. I really need to be outside every day, getting some exercise - woke up with a stinker of a headache. So this morning before work, Maggie and I headed out to the woods.

Thank you so much for visiting!

FINALLY Feel More Like Painting ... or Do..., Do that Voodoo that You Do So Well

This is from one of my favorite comedies, Blazing Saddles.  I thought the comment about Voodoo was appropriate. So here's a bit of humor ...

And this is the Voodoo I know.

I became so absorbed in painting,  I forgot to take any earlier photos. I had started doing the form shadows of his head with a dry brush technique, but it wasn't giving me the results I wanted, so I returned to good, old wet in wet. The only pigments I am using are quin. burnt orange, quin. violet and indanthrone. There is a touch of alizarin crimson in the inner canthus of his eye. 

Most of the mask is off, and I have glazed some dark brown in his forelock and the shaggy hair in his ears. The next steps will be more and more and more wet in wet washes to get the depth of the shadows. I have absolutely no idea what I will do for the background.

Thank you so much for visiting!

A Walk in the Woods ... Step by Step Painting of a Landscape

My reference photo - one of the spots I often pass during walks in the woods.

I had a request from the class I teach to do something very loose and different.  I started this part in class as a demonstration.  I masked out the stream, and did two very wet, sprayed washes with aureolin, alizarin crimson, quin. burnt orange and cobalt blue. I was following Nita Engle's techniques for creating a natural-looking landscape. Her book is called "How to Make a Watercolor Paint Itself", and it is full of great techniques that she uses to create very beautiful and natural paintings.

Later, at home, I did this practice run before attempting the splattering technique. 

Ready to go - masked off with old pieces of watercolor paper, mixed colors off to the side.  I used a mix of alizarin and quin. gold, another of gold, alizarin and cobalt to get a subdued green, and a third of the same pigments to make a brown.

This was the effect of the splattering. I then judiciously sprayed with water to encourage the colors to bleed together a bit.

My work space - I had to protect the walls from all the flying paint.

I removed the masking, and this is what it looked like after all the splattering and spraying.

I mixed up a black to paint the trees. Then did a thin wash over the stream with indanthrone mixed with some of the black. Last, I painted the reflections of the trees in the water. I very much like using these techniques - they are not difficult, and really give an extremely natural air to the painting.

Here's Maggie this morning, stopping off for a drink from the pool cover. Somehow, water  always tastes better here than from a bowl.

OK, you Easterners - sorry for this!!! We are having an early Spring. Birds are in full song, along with the tree frogs, and trees and bushes are opening their blossoms. The nights are still cold ... -3C, but the afternoons are glorious and warm. Yes, I have been out there in a t-shirt, and Bruno is not wearing blankets! He is shedding a lot, hair everywhere ... in food, in toothpaste tube???, on my paintings ... can't see a spot where there is no horse hair!!!

Thank you so much for dropping by! 

SADDLE SHOES ... a Short Walk down Memory Lane ....

Drawing reference for painting. I almost always use a grid when doing something requiring more accuracy.

First washes - a thin glaze of indanthrone on the "saddle" of the saddle shoes, and different mixtures of aureolin, permanent rose and cobalt blue for the greys and browns. The soles are painted with quin. burnt orange and alizarin crimson.

Ahhh ... that's looking better. I have done some applications of  black, using quin. burnt orange, quin. violet and indanthrone.

Here, I have scuffed up the toes and heel a bit, using a dry brush technique. Still a work-in-progress ...
Framable size  22 x 27 cm.

Voodoo [and he really suits that name]

My reference drawing

A slow start ...
36 x 28 cm.

The arts program director where I teach recently asked [well, asked several times] if I could do a painting for an charity auction the center is supporting. The theme is fashion. No longer being the fashionista I once was, I had a hard time thinking of a suitable subject. Then I had an inspiration from an old memory. When I was very young, every August my sister and I walked, with my mom,  up to the local shoe store to get our NEW school shoes. I always found this such a happy experience. It's strange what one vividly remembers. I can still feel and see myself walking home in the new shoes, too heavy and clunky for the hot summer afternoon. And I found it fascinating to be able to put my feet into a machine where I could see my bones glowing green! Now I realize it was some sort of x-ray device, probably not the most brilliant method of checking the fit of shoes, but it sure looked cool!!! Anyway, it was a great memory, and gave me a good idea for a painting - some scuffed up, old saddle shoes.

Thank you so much for dropping by!  

Life, and the Art of the Landscape [NOT]

I started this in class as a demo yesterday. Somehow it just doesn't do anything for me. Generally, I am not a huge fan of landscapes, preferring the greater intimacy of a portrait or still life, though I do like the cityscapes of John Salminen and the wild-life works of Morton Solberg.

I did a bit more at home later, but I'd really like to start other paintings.

This is one of the reference photos I took a few winters ago.  I found the abandoned look of these old fence-posts very appealing. Capturing that impression is something else again!

This was class yesterday - 9 happy, busy painters!

My cat-fancier student is thrilled to be able to paint a portrait of her cat.

BUSY  ...

Another student, so happy to be able to create livelier, more expressive paintings. 

This scene caught my eye last night as I was coming back from feeding Bruno. The photo is not great, but it is a crescent moon with Venus and Mars seemingly nearby.

I started a drawing of Voodoo this morning. This is one of the portraits I'd like to work on now.

And another ... my nephew with his Samurai hair-style. I painted it before, but was not thrilled with the result. My niece saw the painting, and fell in love with it, so I am painting another for her. She adores her older brother.

That's about it for now. I hope to have some paintings started for you on the next post ...

Thank you so much for dropping by!