Bosc Pears

Since the oil painting didn't turn out well at all, see below, I decided to try some watercolors. I am much happier with the simple rendering here. Should have started lower on the page, but overall, color and shading I'm pleased with. Thanks for stopping in. 

Muscle Pears

Oh, dear, this one is a flunkie. I call it muscle pears, because it looks like these poor Bosc pears went on steroids or something, tricked out with oversized bottoms. I am posting it because I think it's important to show that not everything turns out, and to admit that we are all limited by our skill level. Maybe by this time next year, I'll be able to look back and see exactly where this one went wrong. Oil 8" x10". 

Double Painting

The eighth painting, eight days. Rolling along here. I find that the second attempt at just about everything is the better version. EDM folks have been talking lately about right brain-left brain functions and warming up before drawing and painting, and as I mull over the comments, it just makes sense that you can apply what your right brain has learned at a first attempt in a second, more freed up version. I also like the blue bowl here, and I sprayed the lemons with water so they weren't drying out so fast. Another lesson applied. Next I think I'll try some limes, maybe, or maybe some fortume cookies that I spotted, leftover from our last take out order.

Many of the EDMers are also working on goal-plans for the year 2007, and since my brain (either side) is too lazy to think of new things, I think I'll just borrow Laura's from last year (see the Laurelines blog, sidebar, wonderful stuff) and revise a bit. Will post soon. Thanks for checking in. 

Seven in Seven

Day seven of the trial run on daily painting. Trying some yellows, and finding the shadows on yellow are really tricky. This one is definitely shakey, but I'll let it dry before i try some refining. I DO like the one lemon slice at the side of the bowl with the little shine spots. Oil on canvas board, 5" x 7". Thanks for looking. 

Eggplant Two

This is the second version of the still life set up. See first attempt below. This one much better on the shadow color, softer. And the skin of the eggplant looks smoother here, more like how it should look. Continuing with the effort to do a painting a day. Watercolors are gonna count.
 

Eggplant Watercolor One

First attempt at a small still life with eggplant and a nice pepper. The color of shadows is still an elusive thing for me. This version is too blue, I think. But I had stretched and stapled two small pieces of watercolor paper on the same board, so did two at the same time. While one was drying, flipped the board around and worked on the other. A nice break from the oils. 

Little Landscape

And here's the little landscape, from a summer photo of Lake Hollowell in Olney, a tiny and peaceful residential pond, nice place to paint, except of course, no bathrooms. Gotta find a large bush in that case. But there were a lot of geese, even a heron there on a couple of occasions this summer. They make the oddest sounds, or maybe it was a crane? Really don't know, but it was a very cool bird. Anyhow, this is one of the five in five days paintings. I was needing a break from the desserts, but I want to try this one over with a larger brush and see if it comes out more loose and painterly. Glad you could stop by. 

Cupcake Two

The Christmas cupcakes, second version, with one of the green ones included. I'm happy with this one, although the shadows are a little odd, going off and up the napkin like they did. Expecially like the frosting on the white cupcake, after scraping it off a couple of times. The papers were fun to do, since who counts the folds anyway? Just imagine them in and you're done. Thanks for looking. 

Cupcakes One

Another small painting of some Christmas cupcakes from Giant. The green ones actually look more Christmasy, but I wanted to try two of the little paintings with cupcakes. I did better with the frosting here, I think, than the eclair. 

Five paintings in five days to see if I could do it. Not necessarily in any order, but I've done four desserts and one landscape, all small sizes in oil. This fruity one on the green plate is the last, finished this morning. Yes, definitely a Karen Jurick influence here, thanks to whoever had her as a link on their EDM blog. I absolutely love her work, and am trying to study it to learn to paint similarly. This one I'll call home serving, since it's the size of a slice you'd never eat at a buffet or at a restaurant, or at a friend's house, but at home...well, totally different story. It was melting as I painted it in the spotlight, but I kept popping it into the freezer for a minute here and there to firm up again. As you can see, things were sliding off the custard topping. The elclair I had a hard time with, especially the whipping cream, that's so hard to get right, I'll have to try again a couple more times to get that white and shadow right. Thanks for looking.
 

Something Sweet Challenge 96

This took about two hours to paint last night and I admit that I was in a hurry. I didn't want the filling to spoil before I could eat it, and it did have a light shining on it. I am happy to report that it was indeed delicious, the berries especially. The flakey crust had gotten a little mushy by the time I got to it, but overall, yummy, nice smooth vanilla filling, oh my yes! Done in oils on canvas hardboard, the masonite scraps from Home Depot which I cover with canvas. Thanks for looking.
 

Challenge 94 Spoons

Same large spoon, done with two different sets of pencils. I'm really not happy with either one, since the spoon is a beautiful silver antique spoon which belonged to my mother and grandmother, a large and heavy serving spoon, now somewhat bent and scratched a bit, and these don't actually look silver. I will have to use it in a watercolor to try to do better by it. Nice to play with good sharp pencils though, as always. Thanks for looking. 

Checking on Values

What a neat feature of the photo editing programs! You can go black and white, and check to see how you did with your values. I almost like the grey scale version better than the color version. But it sure is useful for the tones in the color version.

Diamond Drugs in Gaithersburg

Our painting class spent a very cold afternoon trying to paint outdoors on Tuesday, doing urban landscapes. This one was almost sucessful, though I think I overdid it. The yellow here is much brighter than it is in the painting. In the painting it's more of a white-yellow. I do like the way the sun falls on the front wall, and I think the shadows are finally starting to work here. The windows were the most fun to paint. Thanks for checking in. 

Oil Landscapes

Two landscapes in oils, trying to capture the "big color notes." Sometimes it works, sometimes it doesn't. I will have to fix the tree color behind the buildings on the bottom one, I think. Make the colors more in keeping with the rules of cooler, lighter for distance. The green comes too much forward. Thanks for looking.