Downtown Early Morning...So Far

This is the Acrylic Painting I've been working on.  I've got some tidying up to do here, but the main portion is done.  This is a rare case where the original actually look better than the photo.  It's very difficult to capture the dark colors with a camera.  I was thinking about making the headlights in the background more prominent, but this seems to be working as well.  I'll have to sit on it.  Im moving on to the next scene.  A larger painting that might test my resolve to ge this project done. 
  One thing I have discovered again about Acrylic paint.  It dries faster on the pallette than you can paint most of the  time.  This makes me think harder about moving to oils.

Warehouse finished

I tried to strengthen the color a little to convey the strong sunlight against this yellow building.

I worked on the Warehouse to correct some of the lines.  I believe I can do a little better next time around if I choose to do a more refined painting.  But I was satisfied with the over all look of this one. I would like to try some wet on wet for the sky, even though I don't really mind the somewhat textured look in this one.  There are some areas in this one that I really liked.  Specifically the shadow of the tree on the right side and the loose brushstrokes in the tree.  I also liked the contrast of the yellow building and the shadows

Warehouse

Warehouse.  Still in progress I guess.

What started out as a relatively simple shadow study ended up a little more tedious than I anticipated.  Having a distinct vision in mind would have helped.  I liked the shadow against this bright yellow warehouse wall.  The color scheme looked pretty simple, but I struggled to get the right colors, and when I went to paint the tree, I found it difficult to portray the light spots.  Still some work to do, but I think it will be worth the effort.  The shadow of the second tree (out of frame) fools you a bit now that I look at it.  Funny thing about shadows.  They are affected by the surrounding objects more than one might think.  The top of the wall was considerably lighter.  And I noticed some lines got out of sync. I don't plan on doing anything drastic, being that the lesson has been learned on this one.

Woodstock Park Series

Tuesday:I'm not done with this one yet, but I think I need to put it away for a few days so I can figure out where I want to go with it.  When I started it, I had the intention of cropping the painting to make it work, but I think that lack of focus hurt me when I went to paint it.  More about this later....
And it is later: Wed.   So after looking at the painting I knew that I liked the sky, but wasn't sure about the building (school) on the left.  Then something struck me.  I think this painting would really work if more of the sky was featured in the top half.  Too much foreground and not enough back ground. In fact, the more I look at it, the more I realize the sky could have really brought this to life.  Lesson noted

Is this the one?.....

I am desperately hoping this is the one that works....late for work.  More later

Revisiting Yupo

Lutz Tavern  Watercolor on Yupo: the painting as it looks now...to see what it looked like before I tinkered with it, see the link mentioned below.  Hindsight is that the original was actually fine if not better in some ways.

May of 2012 the Lutz Tavern on Yupo original post    I found an artist who has been very successful using Yupo for his Watercolors.  This piqued my interest once again in using this water resistant paper for a water based medium.  The upside to using Yupo is it's resiliency.  You can lift paint with absolute ease, in fact all the

Serving breakfast at the Blanchet House

The Blanchet House of Hospitality

My daughter Grace invited me to help serve breakfast Monday morning at the Blanchet House of Hospitality in downtown Portland.  This organization helps "To feed, clothe and offer shelter and aid to those in need".  When I was a kid my dad volunteered  here and hired some of the patrons to help with odd jobs around our house.  Now I can say  three generations of Neals have volunteered here. (This was my first time, but Grace has helped here before).  Just this small commitment of time made me feel invigorated and grateful for what I have.  It's great to get things in perspective. Every little bit helps.

Back Stairs

I've been wanting to paint this apartment for awhile.  I first noticed it one  late afternoon when the sun was casting intricate shadows of the stairs.  The contrast of the old whitewashed building made it a good subject.  The sky was a brilliant blue with only a few clouds when I took the photo. It sits right behind the art supply store on  SE Foster.