Blue Horse 6"x6" oil on gessoboard

Well the cookie cutter horse isn't really blue- it's metal. It does catch a lot of blue from that deep blue milk of magnesia bottle. So I guess I can justify the title of  "Blue Horse". The biggest challenge with this painting for me was the jar of medium in the left corner. I almost changed the color of the lid to a light red but decided against it.  I decided that the blue-orange complement with analogous colors was enough to make it work. I am pleased with the composition on this painting.

Blue Horse - Sketch- 6"x6" charcoal

Since this painting has a bit more compostion going on than most of my small paintings, I decided to sketch it in first with charcoal on my gessoboard. Vine charcoal is very forgiving. It can be wiped out in a second with tissue paper if mistakes need correcting. I was glad I did this because the first tonal testing (bottom) proved off balanced. I admitted it reluctantly after taking a photo to post. The next tonal (top) testing seemed more pleasing.

Hexagon Mystery Box 6"x6" oil on gessoboard

Question. How does a hexagon recede in a distance. I am familiar with a 4 sided box perspective but I don't think this one follows the same rules. All the lines of one side has a vanishing point but when you see the opposite side, is it parallel to those lines or do they recede also and if so, is it to the same vanishing point. Perhaps there are three vanishing points. Who knows. I only ask because, as Roma Quartana would have said it, I had a devil of a time trying to figure that one out.

I learned a lot from this one. 1) paint more often 2) don't use burnt umber as the undertone because I had trouble covering the white areas later 3) don't put oil paint in the refrigerator to keep- no comment 4) get the perspective right before painting. Well that about does it I think.

Mandarin Tea 6" x 6" oil on gessoboard

This was a fun one to do. I enjoyed painting the mandarins because there was such a variation of color from the shadow to the highlights as well as the reflection of the white cup.

Good Knight 6" x 6" oil on gessoboard

I was intriqued by the light going through the amber bottle.  The influence of color was more intense on the horse than how I have painted it. But I am pleased with the color mixes that I made for the shadows. I think I got that right.

"I Love You This Much" 6" x 6" oil on gessoboard

I admit when my mom and I played that game, our arms would be opened much wider. But the little salt shaker ( who is missing her pepper partner) found a new love. What a pair they make!

My Favorite Veggie 6" x 6" oil on gessoboard

The challenge of the week:  paint my favorite veggie. I know there are two veggies in the painting but the summer squash looked so cute when I put it next to the bell pepper, I had to keep it in the still life. I like bell peppers because they add that "something special flavor" to dishes, especially red beans.

After setting up this still life, I realized I used analogous colors on the color wheel that ranged from yellow to blue-green and used the complement red-violet for the background. I used a smooth-toothed canvas which takes some time getting used to. If I were to do this painting over, I would spend more time on the value sketch before progressing with the painting.

Me- Parts anyway 6" x 6" oil on gessoboard

The Self Portrait challenge. Not something I would have chosen, Lord knows but here it is. The face seems a little wide but perhaps it needed a stronger shading along the side of the face. Well finished no matter what. I learned a lot especially not to try another self-portrait!

Me- The beginnings- the value sketch

Ok, I played with this thing long enough to try to make it look like the photo. Even though it doesn't look like me, well maybe some parts do, I still had a lot of practice in placing the values... dark against light, light against dark. Always the same thought process for me.

Me -Photo

This week's challenge: self portrait. I took a zillion photos of myself holding the camera at arms length. Finally I got a few that I felt that I could work with. After chosing the final cut, I went into my photo shop and changed this photo to a black and white so that I could more easily see the subtle value changes when I began to paint. Then using the same program, I used an artist brush to soften the look. This eliminate some unnecessary details.

Lost Marbles 6" x 6" oil on gessoboard

From this week's challenge I chose to use the primary colors on the Color Wheel. The predominant color is red (pink), secondary is blue and the least amount of color used is yellow. The biggest challenge was to mix a neutral gray for the glass. The grays ranged from a warm yellow gray to a cool blue gray.

Cock-a-doodle-doo 6" x 6" Oil on canvas

This is the "chicken challenge" for the week. I changed the background to blue-violet from the original photo which had several different colors. I decided to keep the whole painting in the analogous color range with the two adjacent colors on either side of red.

What a homely little fellow.

German Landscape Challenge

Well maybe it doesn't look anymore like Germany than down the road from here. Lots to learn about landscape painting. I pulled out my book by Morgan Samuel Price to get an idea of what color scheme I wanted to use because the photo that I painted from left a lot to be desired- to me anyway. If you wish to visit the website where I am taking all these Challenges, it is http://www.dailypaintworks.com/Challenges. It is interesting to see the interpretations of many different artists.

Lemon Aid 6" x 6" Oil on gessoboard

This brave little lemon is trying to rescue his friends by standing on the lid cover. Lots of luck!

Tradition Continues 5" x 7" Oil on canvas

Painting over the value sketch, I tried to match the same values when mixing the colors. Where to start? I decided to first get the skin values in the light and shadow on the face. I knew it was light in value but not as light as the rim of the cup, the milk carton, and the powdered sugar on the beignets.

I am thinking about entering this painting in an exhibit at the Southeast Louisiana University President's home in Hammond. If it is accepted, it will hang there for a year and will be in a lovely catalog along with other local artwork.

Tradition Continued Photo and Sketch 5" x 7" oil on canvas

I took this photo of my grand daughter the day I introduced her to beignets at Morning Call. By the time she was finished she was wearing most of the powdered sugar that did not reach her mouth. I was drinking the Cafe au Lait while she sipped on her chocolate milk.  
After making a 5 x 7 inch print of the photo in grayscale, I folded the print in halfs and in quarters both length and width. I then marked the edges of the print with a pen so that I could easily see where the folds of the paper were. I marked the 5 x 7 inch canvas with the same divisions on the edges. How much easier and accurate to sketch it on the canvas this way! Notice I eliminated the cup in the middle of the photo and just extended the milk carton. I changed some of the values from the photo in order to help the composition.

Shadow Bigger Than Life 6" x 6" oil on gessoboard

When I put together this still life, the colors of the blue-green background, the red-violet flower and the muted red-orange tablecloth seemed pleasing together. Looking on the color wheel I realized that I was using the tertiary colors. No wonder they looked good. And the white bottle takes on the colors of the surrounding area so it unites these tertiary colors.

Even though I got too tight with this painting, I am happy with the results. The flower could have been a bit smaller and closer to the bottle. But the stem does pull both together and the wall shadow helps too. The composition was risky and maybe it is not the best, but certainly not the worst I could have come up with!

Shadow Bigger Than Life - Sketch 6" x 6" oil on gessoboard

I am depending on this bottle shadow on the back wall to pull this painting together since both bottle and flower only connect with a stem. We'll see.

I tried to get a handle on the values so that when I start the painting I can be more aware of the dark against light, light against dark dynamics. For the sketch I used Burnt Umber and turp. Lifted out the light areas with turp and used more umber for the darks. This will be my underlay for the start of my painting. Now all I have to do is fill in the blanks with the correct color values!

Color My World 6" x 6" oil on gessoboard

The Challenge: To paint a white object against a background of primary and secondary colors. No earthcolors on the palette. The study is to help the artist see the surrounding colors in the white object.

I debated whether to paint the white object in first or the surrounding material. Gut feeling led me to the white object first. It was important to get the values right on the bottle first in order to play the light against dark, dark against light game against the background.

I found that the colors that reflected on the bottle were more noticiable on the shadow side of the bottle. I think this was because the bottle had a soft luster to it rather than a high gloss. It definitely glowed with its surrounding colors. It was awesome. I hope the finished painting did it justice.

The Red Box

A blank canvas can be a daunting thing. But a painting gone bad is even worse. Being the day after Mardi Gras I thought I would paint something with green, purple and gold. I chose a Cupie doll; that doll with the big eyes that could have been a forerunner to the Precious Moments.  Even had the title picked out "Hey Mister Throw Me Something". Yes the title a bit trite and possibly over used. The painting was doomed to start. The lighting on the set up was too harsh and the doll was looking more and more like Chucky. Really scary. It was one of those situations when enough was enough. It is a humbling thing to admit defeat. But there I said it. I pulled out my little red box that Carol Marine gave us at the workshop to make sure it was closed up tight.
The next painting will be better. How could it get any worse!