B Squared Coffed Haus and Wine Bar

Getting Closer:  After a couple of days of scrambling to get 7 paintings framed, I am finally ready to hang them at the B Squared Coffee Haus.  I have to remember that unless I paint in specific sizes, I will have to wait 2 to 3 weeks to get my paintings framed.   I had to crop some of these paintings in order to get them to fit in the pre-made wood frames.  Luckily, the only frame color I needed was black, since my supplier carries that and natural wood.  I haven't looked into other frame shops much, but I am pretty loyal to the I've Been Framed Art supply and framing store.  They cater to the working and aspiring artist and their prices and helpfulness can't be beat.    More later...

I painted a large version of the Summer Lightning Painting for the B Squared Coffee Haus. I'm in the process of mounting it on Gator Board.  Trying to figure out how I can hang this.  I wasn't able to find cradle board to fit the 22 X 42 size on short notice. 

My mat cutter served me well for all of these paintngs.  I was able to cut them to very specific sizes to fit the pre-made frames. 

Fixing up and moving on

I was all set to post the nearly final painting today.  When I looked at the photo I saw a glaring error in the composition that wasn't evident until I blocked in the neck area.  So rather than pointing it out I cropped the photo so I can fix it.  I wouldn't want anyone to key in on that error because that's all you would be looking at from now on.  I blocked in the neck and left some inconsistent areas until I can get a few more layers in there to soften the edges. I remembered the advice from Gary and Rhonda which was to minimize the lower portion so as not to take stray from the focal point.  So don't worry, there will be more minimizing there as I go forward...

By the way, I need to add that I recognized that I was not as focused as I needed to be when I went in to do the neck.  I moved ahead anyway knowing that as long as I didn't do anything drastic, I could fix it.  Hopefully I was right.

Stage Three: Digital Delay. Reference photo has no neck.

I got to the point  where I was ready to paint the lower portion and realized that my reference photo had been cropped.  I quite literally cut my own throat here. (thank you, that pun just popped into my head).  I have been grumbling about the digital frame I use for my reference photos.  It's difficult to navigate because the cheap buttons on the back don't always work.  In short, I need a normal  computer display to work from so the I can get rid of this thing. (or I can just work from life, but this one has specific lighting that won't look right if I do that)  The digital menu jumps around and I can't find the photo I need, then when I go to zoom it jumps out of the menu and I have to start over.  Hate is a strong word...I hate that thing.  By the way, my pc is just across the room and too far away to use, so Ill probably end up using my old pc as a photo holder and get a new monitor for that.
Now that I've vented, the actual photo is on this computer and I'll have to upload to the digital frame to go any further.  The danger of not being able to work on something when I'm ready is that I start to tinker with the finished parts.  So instead of tinkering, I decided to post this.  More as it develops.

Second Stage

Slowly, (and I mean slowly) but surely the painting is coming along.  At this second sitting...by the way, who EVER has used that term in reference to watercolor.?..  It feels like I'm working on an oil painting.  This time however, it's because I'm putting multiple layers in the dark areas to build the shadows rather than putting color in and dabbing out the light areas. When I started this, I used only the colors that were on my palette, which made for some interesting color combinations.  But as I progressed into this stage, I ran out of paint and had to decide what I really wanted to use for color.  I chose raw sienna, Ultramarine Blue and of course my old standby for cool shadows, Cerulean Blue. I also dabbed some Davy's Gray on my pallet to add to the Ultramarine blue if I need it.  I should mention that just before I ran out of paint on my palette, I found a little well of Yellow Ochre.  I found this to work nicely to represent the lighter area of the shadow on the forehead.  I'm feeling like I could make a fatal error by not having an actual planned color scheme, but so far it's working just flying by the seat of my pants.  At one point I was thinking I should make some decisions on what I want to do, but  I think it's more exciting to just go by feel and see what happens.  And now that I've kind of seen whats working I will probably stick with that Ultramarine Blue, Davys Gray, Yellow Ochre and some of the reds that seem to have worked in representing the skin as it emerges from the shadow.  This is intended to be a dark painting, which in some ways helps.  As long as I get the values close it should work.  In the back of my mind I'm also thinking that if I lose this painting,  I have another one in me.  So in some ways, this is a "study" that might end up being an actual finished painting.  My favorite way of painting is with cautioned expectations. I end up painting more relaxed.  Notice the splashes and drips where I've thrown the color on.  That's the best part of watercolor to me.

As an added note. I always like seeing how the photos come out.  Seeing this in 2D helps me see some of the fixes that are needed in the composition.  And the compacted view helps me see if my value range is working.

Latest News: Self Portrait

I felt compelled to post something new today because I got tired of seeing the same post day after day.  It's a reminder to me that I've done nothing since then.  I drew the outline for a self portrait over the weekend.  I've been intending to get a self portrait in my portfolio for awhile and after taking several dozen pictures, decided it was time to at least try one.  This is the first stage of a large one I started this morning. So far, so good, but when I snapped the photo the reflection of the water that hadn't dried created an effect that wont be there later, so the nose actually looks better than it is at this point.  But as I said, I needed to get something in a post.  My intention is to create a fair amount of texture in the shadows to make the painting interesting. It's important to let the watercolor do it's thing.  Just need to nudge it in the right direction.

Lately my work schedule is not conducive to painting (or sleeping for that matter), but I've found time to golf so there really is no excuse not to paint as well. 

Foster Apartment sketch

A little sketch (5"X7") of those apartments behind the Art Supply store.  I'm trying to work a little more raw and gestural so that I can get more paintings done in a smaller amount of time.

Matting and framing

My friend Adlai Alexander asked if I could frame a couple of my pieces for him as well as a print done by another artist.  Basically, the top and bottom left two are a couple of sketches (obviously more finalized sketches) I did for him.  The bottom right is a  print of an illustration of him done by Hampton Rodriguez.
 I made a note to myself.  The top painting was intended to be a quick sketch, but it came out pretty good.  I shouldn't have used the cheap drawing paper.  There were some obvious defects in the paper that showed up.

Birch Tree final answer....

At some point early in the week, I decided that the effort I put into the (first) Birch Tree painting was insufficient.  Though I rarely do this I started it over.  The reason I rarely do a painting again is I feel that if I don't succeed, I will have wasted twice as much time on one thing.  Time doesn't allow me to waste time on one try, much less two tries.  But I felt strongly about this project.  There were elements in the first one that showed possibilities.   I took the reference photo at Gabriel Park last winter and had thought about it quite a few times.
To be honest, it's hard to go wrong with birch trees in the sense that the white bark makes it  immediately recognizable.  The angle looking up is appealing to the eye, and....it's a tree.  No one can accuse you of putting a branch in the wrong place.  Speaking of which, I found it a challenge to get the branch coming in from the right side of the painting to look right.  It followed the angle of the branch behind it, which made it look too symmetrical to the branch behind it.....If you want to read the boring details there's more below. 

Small Framed Paintings, Birch Tree started

I finally filled the 3 small frames that were Christmas gifts from my sister Paula and bro in law Scott.  I also started that painting of the birch tree.  More on this later.

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.

Oregon State: Jordan Poyer

The slightly corrected version from  the early  Sunday post.

Note:  I am trying the new feature for Google + that links my blog with google plus accounts. These links have a + sign in front of them.
+Oregon State University .  Congratulations to +Jordan Poyer .  Defensive All American.
 I decided to do this watercolor of Jordan Poyer of OSU as a gift for my sister and her husband who are huge OSU fans.  I was hoping to post this watercolor before the game yesterday, but I wasn't where I wanted to be with it.  Then I watched in disbelief as OSU lost the +Alamo Bowl  to that Texas team which shall remain unnamed. This is definitely a painting that I want to make into a slideshow  (my next project today).  At times I felt like I was painting a landscape on a pinhead.    It started to become tedious and I had to back away several times to try  to loosen it up.   I'm trying not to nitpick it to death.  It will never be perfect, I just want to be able to look at it (hopefully years from now) and not regret fixing something. It took me the most part of two days to get it to this point.
My impatience almost hurt me, because I started out with NO Orange on my palette.  I had to mix the Orange about 300 times ( felt like it) as I went along and as you can see, this is an Orange dominated painting.
There were times where I couldn't find my little mixtures of blue for the subtle shadows. My palette started to look like a color hoarder's, with about 14 little puddles of paint mixtures hanging around the main colors
The challenge of getting a painting like this to look loose enough without being sloppy is considerable, because practically everything has to be in proper proportion.  I was working in an 11" X 15"  inch window.  I found out that the brushes I have are not small enough for this, and I was alternating between a stiff #1 (A Grumbacher that I've had for over 20years), and 2 way-too-soft liners.   That tiny Grumbacher saved me, because I had to remove paint in tiny spots several times, and nothing else I have will do that.

This is the slideshow I made to track my progress on this painting.  The software didn't allow me to comment on each slide.  Something I need to do to track my steps.  You will notice about halfway thru I had to wipe out the face and completely overhaul the helmet angle. The funny thing is, that was a huge mistake on the most focal part of the painting.  I remember not having a clear look at the detail of the face.  I had to go back and magnify the face to get a better idea what I needed to do.

Across the Street

This is a clearer picture of the sketch I originally posted

Woodstock Park early evening

Woodstock Evening.  6.5" X 8"  Watercolor . SOLD
Once again it was difficult to photograph this painting without distorting the colors.  It's not this dark, but the other option made it look too washed out and blotchy. One day I will either get a better camera, or learn the proper way to photograph my work.  If you stand back about 30 feet you might get the overall effect.  Anyway, I stopped working on it .  I think it's time to move on. 

As I learn more about representing lights at night with watercolor, I feel confident that I will one day have an approach that isn't as hit and miss.  I had a couple of moments where I thought I had ruined it, then turned it around. Finally, I figured that I should take the lessons learned here and move on. Though you can barely see it I liked how the reddish brown around the foreground lights gave the slight glow needed.  Pulling the tree trunks from the dark background was useful, and adding the texture of the ground in the left foreground was also a positive move.  Letting the trees in the top left form from the drips added one of the elements I was looking for in a night painting.  I couldn't get the foreground to produce the same effect.  I don't mind the tactile look of these types of paintngs, but I know I have to be careful where and how much I allow that to happen.

Hospital Parking Lot Study

First let me say that this picture is from a movie scene.  I was not imposing on someones private moment.  I saw this scene in Junebug, and wanted to capture the intensity of the moment.  In my rush to get it on paper, I ignored the obvious compositional challenges.  Had I been more deliberate I would have printed out the picture from my camera and composed it before proceeding. Instead I used the digital frame to paint from, and couldn't get my lines correct.  

And now I realize that I've just confessed to taking someone Else's idea.  This solves the question of whether I should try another more finished painting of this scene.  If I were to succeed in bringing this to the paper it would never be completely my own.  So I will probably move on and take what I learned from this.  I think it works in segments but not as a cohesive piece. At least as a study.  Lastly, I'm relieved that I found some time to get something done.  I had to get up at 2:30 AM to do it...but I did it.

Study

By the way, I have yet to  watch the entire movie, but it looked good. About an Art dealer trying to sign an eccentric painter from the south.

Watercolor Sketch

Abstract Egg

Water Study

This water "study" has been sitting on my table for weeks.  I finally got it to the point that I thought would be okay to post.  The idea was to generate a believable representation of someone in water.  I got close, though, the actual picture was taken from a brochure for "Aesthetic Medicine", and was more "aesthetic" in presentation.

Ongoing Struggle

This has begun to resemble a self portrait.

I'm still struggling to get this current project done.  It has hampered my ability to paint freely because of the time constraints.  The timing of this project was unfortunate, because my schedule had changed and I got very busy.  Add to the fact that I haven't done a commission in a very long time and, well...  maybe the expression of angst in this attempt is a reflection of my own in getting this finished.  It was supposed to be a smile. Oh, and not to mention I thought I had it nailed down awhile ago and had to completely retool.  I keep coming back to certain images no matter how I try.

Remnants of the Past.

I couldn't stand to see that last post on my blog anymore.  It reminds me too much of how little I've done lately. so here's something else to look at......This is the only thing left of this painting.  All of the pictures on my computer were deleted when it crashed.  That didn't really bother me too much though. I have some online and backed others up before the crash.  This painting was cut up to use for a gift tag I believe.  Kind of a cliche painting, in fact a sample photo that comes with Windows looks a lot like this.  I've been struggling to make time to paint, but mostly because I am back to my procrastinating ways and it has caught up to me.  Should have more time once the taxes are done. 

Night Light Painting: On the agenda.

Photo: Woodstock Park, Saturday evening.

  It's so difficult to focus on one topic when I'm busy with work.  I've decided to start jotting down some of these ideas in my blog if I don't have time to paint in the morning .
I'm thinking about creating a series of night paintings.   I want to get back to painting scenes that include people, even if I have to add them into a photo.  I took this awhile back and will need to adjust how it is framed up since the focal point is right in the middle.  The thing I enjoy about night paintings is all the ambient light and subtle colors that are there, but cannot necessarily be seen in a photo.  A lot of artistic freedom can be exercised .