Tuesday, August 30, 2005

A bit more color....



A few more washes. But I fear this may be going the way of Wally's fortune. (see comments below) It is so easy to over paint a water color. It is only 4" x 6" and I think I am trying to cram 9" x 12" detail into it.

Still haven't toched the water. :-)

A little cool color...



I had time for one quick wash before I left for work this morning. Time to start adding cool colors to round out the color temps.

I hope to have another post tomight with more progress.

Monday, August 29, 2005

Linville Falls, Step Three



OK,one more wash before I hit the hey. But I really do have to go to bed now. Children start waking up at 6:00 am around here now that school has started. More tomorrow...

Linville Falls, Step Two


Just adding a wash before I go to bed. I couldn't sleep until I had distinguished the water from the stone in some small way.

More tomorrow I hope.

OK, patince now...



Linville Falls - Step one

Ok, you guys know me well enought by now to expect more. And more will come. This is the beginning of a WC of a beautiful place I had the opportunity to visit recently in North Carolina.

This will hopefully become a decent water color sketch over the next day or so. It is only 4" x 6" but I am amazed at how much detail I m trying trying to cram into it. I just need to LOOSEN UP! But what have you. It is what it is...

More anon....

Sunday, August 28, 2005

Another oldie but goodie...



King Lear grieves over Cordelia Oil on canvas 30" x 36"

I hate to do this, but it has been an extremely busy week leaving me no time to produce any new artwork. One of my sons suggested I keep an "Oldy-But-Goody" file handy for such occasions.

So I give you the second part to my King Lear series.

Friday, August 19, 2005

Ah... at last...I'm done...


Peppers on the Cutting Board Water Color 9" x 12"

Well, it's 12:45. But I think I have finished this one. Now I really do have to go to bed. Tomorrow will come earlier than I think.

See you then.

Thursday, August 18, 2005

Mmmm.... Red peppers...


Well, I got the red peppers in here. Now all I have to do is the knife.

Here's the question. It's almost midnight. I have to get up at 6:00 am. Do I go for it or finish it tomorrow?

Another blog cliffhabger, huh?

Tune in tomorrow...

No more green


This is the last of the green peppers. I'm working on the red ones now. Be back later...

Wednesday, August 17, 2005

One more pepper tonight...


It's getting late, but I got another pepper in. Gotta go to bed now though. There's always work tomorrow.

Man, this is going slow...



Only one pepper tonight so far.

I don't know why I thought I could just come home from work and knock this out. Sometimes I under estimate the amount of concentration this takes to do a good job. It's the whole struggling to paint thing again...

I find it much easier to do artwork in the morning when I have a fresh brain. In the evening, after a day at the office, it's difficult to focus.

Bla, bla, bla. What a whiner, huh?

Don't worry, I'll finish it.

Tuesday, August 16, 2005

Peppers on the cutting block - step one


The other night my daughter was helping my wife cook. We were having fajitas and she was cutting up peppers to put into the mix. I looked down and saw how beautiful the veggies were on the cutting board. Had to paint this...

So. I came home from work tonight and I thought, "no problem, I can knock this out in one session.

Right....

Well, it took me about 2 and a half hours to get the background where I wanted it. That's what you're seeing now.

I will follow up with the completion of this painting in the next few days. But I thought I would go ahead and post what I have.

Anyway.. Here's step one. If all goes well, I'll finish this tomorrow night.

Ouuu... does that make this a blog cliffhanger????!!!

Tune in next time....

Friday, August 12, 2005

Illustration Friday: Wisdom


King Lear Oil on canvas 36" X 48"

This is an oldy but a goody. This is a portrait of Laurence Oliver as he played the title role in Shakespear's "King Lear". With a face like that how can you not be wise?

My apologies for the glare on the upper left. I didn't shoot this under the best lighting conditions.

Wednesday, August 10, 2005

It's Not Art... Yet!

This is slightly off topic, but not really. My wife was at the beach with two of our kids for about 4 days. My oldest son was home with me. We have been remodeling parts of house and the kitchen is on the list. About 2 months ago I took all the doors of of one set of cabinets so we could paint them. We'll eventually do this to all the kitchen cabinets.

Before she left my wife made the observation that we have stuff everywhere because of the remodeling we're doing. It is driving us both crazy. So I thought if I could get these cabinets painted, we could get the dishes off the dining room table and put away the way they should be. I thought it would make us both feel better.

She had mentioned she would like an antique crackle finish to give the kitchen a "French Country" look. So I thought, I'll go one step further and turn this into an art project as well. So bear with me while explain how, over the next few weeeks (months) there will be some art on this blog worth looking at.


Step One: My oldest son was a great help and painted the frame of the cabinets.


Step two: I painted each door with two coats of oil primer on each side. No fun to work with at all. I also masked off the inside panel. That's going to be mny "canvas" later on.


Step three: I applied the base coat to the outside edge of each door. There is a total of 12. After that dried, I applied the clear "crakle" finish and let it dry until tacky.


Step four: Then I applied the top color (a sage green) and like a miracle, it splits into this really cool antique finish all by itself.


Step five: OK, this is where the art comes in. I have faked it in photoshop to give you an idea of what the finished product will look like, but I plan on doing a still life in oil of various fruits and vegitables on each door.

Below are the reference photos I have taken so far to work from:







And I must give credit where it is due. Duane Kaiser's work gave me the idea. I am so inspired by the work on his site, "A Painting a Day"

Monday, August 08, 2005

Star Wars at the Beach



Jango Fet

On one rainy night at the beach I was drawing with my nephew. He's a real Star Wars fan and loves Jango Fet(the bounty hunter). He had this really cheap pad of newsprint that was fun to paint on. It was very absorbent so you had to paint quickly.

I have been very busy this week. Harry's recent "Help Wanted" post reminded me that I had this one sitting around.

Tuesday, August 02, 2005

Big-guy Beach Challenge



The Round Family

Click here for larger image

Ok. Harry started this. I saw his post this morning of the big, harry (no pun intended) guy on the beach. Seeing that we both recently returned from the same area, I had to post my sketch of a big-guy too. But I got lucky. I got a whole family of big-beach-people!

The beach fun never ends!