#258 Fat Baby Robin 12/9/19

After the trauma of Wallace, and afraid of wanting to "trace" a photo, I chose something simple enough to sketch easily: the fat baby robin.  Sketched quick, painted quick, wanted something to undo yesterday.  It worked out ok.  Lots of brush marks, and he could use some tweaking, but overall a feeling of satisfaction.

#255, #256, #257 Cat Night 12/8/19

The dogs had their day, now it is time for a few cats.  Not Batman this time.  My son Matt and his wife Eva have two cats, Wallace and Francisco.  Francisco used to be named Steve for a short time, but it didn't catch on and they changed it up.  Dave and I thought for sure they'd name him "Grommit" since that was a favorite video of the boys when they were young.  We visited Matt and Eva in October.  Usually their cats are indifferent to me, but they have some competition in their lives now: Luke.  Yes, a human baby was born to Matt and Eva and now Wallace and Francisco are not the center of attention.....so they were willing to hang with me on this visit.  I loved the photo of them at the front window.  They spend quite a bit of time there, being tormented at times by the bajillion little lizards that are all over the outdoors in Florida.  I painted the window version of the two cats first, and it went pretty quick - I think because it didn't involve trying to get their faces painted.  Free-hand drawing once again tonight, I felt pretty good about this one.

So I moved on to a second try at the little white cat that I photographed at the Pumpkin Patch.  I had done the cat on one of the tiny easel canvases 3 months ago.  By comparison this version is huge (perhaps an exaggeration, it is 5in x 5in).  I free-handed it again and it went down pretty quick.  But then I decided to "fix" the paws in front, which then led to a cascade of fixing the next nearest thing (more white, less white, more shadow here, no take that shadow out, etc etc etc).  Finally, I put it down.

With still time, I went for a third cat.  This time Wallace alone.  He was sitting at my feet one day, sphinx-like, as if he was guarding me (perhaps in case any of those lizards got in the house).  I took some pictures, and of course he pulled in one of his paws, losing his sphinx pose, but still a paintable  photo.  Well, this painting turned out to be traumatic for me.  I think I've spent about 6 hours on this one, and I STILL can't get him right.  And then I think, if I had just done a simple tracing I could have finished him in an hour...a simple tracing, why didn't I just do a simple tracing.  But then why didn't my drawing suffice, like it did for Stella and Jack?  Frustrating, very frustrating.  I played with the chin, over and over, repainted the eyes, the ears, the stripes...nothing made him look like Wallace.  Grrrrrr!

Is this a cat, or a rat?  It needs work!!!

After hours of messing with the painting, he's more cat-like, just not Wallace-like.

Weeks later, I messed with him again and I'm finally going to put down varnish and call it quits!

And....I continued to mess with him, even after I decided to call it quits.

#253 and #254 Stella and Jack 12/7/19

More dogs on the menu tonight.....more free-hand drawn dogs.  These turned out lovely, if I do say so myself.  I just love Stella.  Stella was a dog that visited my Farmer's Market stand over the summer.  I asked her owner if I could take some photos, she said sure.  Finally, months later, I felt Stella calling.  I thought perhaps the pics didn't have a good angle, the head looked huge and the body small, would it translate to a decent painting?  I gave it a go, and decided not to be a ninny and sketch the animal myself, with the idea that sketched creatures look more "alive" than traced creatures.  That's not really true, as some sketches seem to work and others are horrible miscreants (of course I'm talking about PITA the Parrot).  Stella came alive and looks just as I remember her. 

Stella

The second dog of the night is my brother Doug's dog, a black lab named Jack.  Jack comes on family vacations with us and is a very well-behaved dog.  This past summer Jack had some sort of medical issue, a wound that was having trouble healing, so he was a bit more reserved and looked a bit depressed.  Still, I took some photos with the intent to paint his sad face.  He turned out good, I think.  I might be getting the hang of this "drawing" thing!

#252 Beagle 12/5/19

The first oil of December, I've had WAY too long of a break.  The project at work that has consumed me is mostly done now, and I can hopefully get back to my regular life.  I decided on the cute beagle, free-handed the drawing and painted fast.  It looks a bit too fast if you ask me, kind of sloppy. But it was my foot coming back in the door, me getting back up on the horse, a begin-again, so I didn't want to get bogged down with anything that would make me go back to a non-painting existence.  According to Bob Ross, people who paint are a "happy bunch", who wouldn't want to be part of that?  I think I got the likeness of the face ok, he's just rather too loose perhaps, the shoulder is missing and the back hip is incomplete.  I'm not going to put the source picture here, as it leads me to criticize my work even more than what I've already just done.

first night, called it quits

second night, tried to "fix" a few things

#249, #250, #251 A Trio of Acrylics 11/26/19

Work has been hell the past few weeks, and it has eaten into my free time to such an extent that I am quite crabby.  No time to paint, it's been awful.  I have to choose between eating a late dinner and going to bed vs painting and going to bed.  Dinner wins, as stress eating is part of my coping repertoire.  Fortunately we had a trip planned to Michigan to see my family for Thanksgiving.  It was wonderful!  I was going to bring up this very cool robot craft project for the nieces and nephews, but at the last minute I couldn't find the robot body parts (wood scraps)....without that, there wasn't a project.  But I did have a bajillion matte board center cut-outs from packaging all my paintings for the "Christmas on the Hill" show.  So I brought all of those, with red, blue, yellow, white and black acrylic paints - a limited palette.  After dinner, I set up a still-life scene in the middle of my sister-in-law's dining room table and all the kids painted.  Even a few adults painted.  Ahhhh, it felt good.  Except it wasn't oils.  The acrylics seemed very thick and the cheap paint brushes I had brought seemed very flimsy, so it was with great difficulty that I was able to get paint on the matte board.  The first one was the teapot, free-handed with only paint, no pencil.  It went quick.  The second one was the lemon, free-handed again and it took much longer, as I wasn't satisfied with the 3-D aspect (it looked 2.2D).  The third one I painted my nephew Noah, who was sitting across from me at the table.  I kept adding paint, and adding paint, and at one point somebody said "wow, that looks like Mr. Spock from Star Trek".  Noah is 14....and hardly looks like Mr. Spock...once I fixed the ear, it was a bit better but still didn't quite capture Noah.  The good part of acrylic painting was (and I can't believe I'm saying this) that the layers dried quickly, so I could keep adding more.  The whole reason I got hooked on oil was that it DIDN'T dry quickly and I could mix things on the canvas, and remove things, and not have to feel like anything was "done" till I was ready.  Turns out you can take as long as you like with acrylics too....you just have to blend the colors first and then add them to the canvas.  The colors aren't quite as intense....so that can be a draw-back.

#248 Sleepy Pup 11/15/19

After the PITA parrot yesterday, this little pup was a breath of fresh air.  I confess I traced, only to alleviate the horridness of the parrot painting....but it was such a minimal amount of tracing, really just where did the nose and eyes belong.  I wanted to keep this one very loose, so as to translate his loose fur.  He went MUCH quicker than you know who, and if I were a dog-person I'd probably like this dog!

#247 Green Parrot 11/14/19

I'm into free-handing my drawings now.....and after this parrot, I'm thinking of reverting back to tracings.  I just could not get happy with this guy - he looked "off".  So I'd widen the neck, then move the wing, then make the beak bigger, then make the wings smaller....it went on and on and I kept thinking "if I'd have just traced the bugger, I'd be enjoying this a whole lot more!"  The only parts I really like are his eyes, and the green on green background.  Perhaps this one will grow on me, but for now his name is "PITA".

#246 Two Tomatoes 11/10/19

I have painted this photo before....it was my "super-fast" painting, done it like 20 minutes as near as I can recall, and it turned out pretty good with a loose feel.  It sold quick, so now, months later, I'm revisiting it.....and it's not so fast and loose.  It took more like an hour this time, so much for progress!  I stressed over the fact that it seemed to be floating, rather than resting on a surface.  Usually a bit of dark-dark colors near the bottom edge solve that problem....but it just seemed to continue to float.  So the next day I put some red in as part of the shadow color, and it helped just a bit.  They still seems to hover though. I should call this one "miracle 'maters"

#245 Three Pears 11/9/19

Today is Saturday, so I painted in the morning and I painted in the evening.  Tonight: three pears.  Last night Steve and Mary came over for pizza and beer.  Mary brought chopped pineapple and 5 pears.  We cut up 2 of the pears and ate them...leaving three.  I told her I was going to give the left-over pears a photo-shoot in the morning.  By mid-morning Dave had eaten one and I only had two pears.  I took pictures and sent one to Mary, telling her I was too late to get the third pear into the shoot.  So she sent me back a picture of three pears on her kitchen table.  I used that photo here - she set them up lovely!  I tried to keep all the edges "non-sharp" - I wanted to go for a painting that was completely "painterly".  I painted those pears over and over, trying to get them right.  Not sure if it's because my sketch was a bit off or what.  But finally I grew weary and called it done.  The wood table in the background is a bit dull though, I might work more on that later.

#244 Ballet Slippers Two 11/9/19

Here we have the second rendition of the ballet slippers.  I took extra photographs along the way.  I sketched them myself this time and I'm a bit happier with this result.  I tried to keep the brush strokes visible, "painterly".  These look like a child's feet though, the first one looks more like it could be an adult.  Must be my sketch was a bit "short".  I've recently been using palette paper, I tape it to the inside of a thin flat 9x12 inch plastic container.  It has a lid, so I just close it up a night and the next day, some of the paints are still just fine (the brown is not, it will dry overnight even in a closed-off environment).  When I've filled the whole paper with paint piles, I just take it out of the container, roll it up, and throw it away....then tape a new sheet down.  It's been working quite well!

The Source

My Sketch

Outlined with Raw Umber

The limited palette, so far

Raw Umber smeared/dried with a 1/2 Kleenex

Painting started

Almost done, need to finish the leg, etc.

It's finished!

#243 White Roses 11/7/19

I spend quite a bit of time perusing pinterest postings of paintings....they've got me on their radar and every day I get an email saying "here are some more things that are just like the things you are obsessed with, take a look!"  So, tonight I opened up my pinterest file called "Artist's Rendering
" and stopped on the first one that said, "wow, wouldn't it be great if you could do THIS".  The white roses won, mostly because the other ones that were speaking a bit louder required a red canvas, which I don't have prepared right now.  With a charcoal pencil I sketched the jar and some ovals that would be the flowers, that's it.  Then I used raw umber and painted over the charcoal and added more raw umber so there would be darkness underneath in certain spots....and then I wiped it down with half a Kleenex.  Should have used a paper towel, but the Kleenex box was within reach.  Am I really too lazy to walk into the next room to get a paper towel?  Apparently yes. Am I so tight that I wouldn't use the whole Kleenex?  Also yes.  The other half of the Kleenex still sits here waiting for its turn.  Might be my nose running, might be something else.  Then I painted the stems and leaves.  With green and brown still on the brush I added some Lt. Graphite and started in on the right side of the canvas, adding white as I moved to the left side of the canvas, the inside of the vase taking on different tones of the Lt. Graphite as needed.  Finally, I added the flowers, ending with the bit of yellow and A. Crimson.  Last stop, white highlights on the vase and an extra leaf that was on the outside of the vase.  I like this one, my photo here doesn't do my painting any favors (it looks a bit washed out).  I will post it on pinterest next to the original, which looks like they are not only a more proficient painter, but a more proficient photographer.

The Inspiration from Pinterest

My junior version

#242 Ballet Slippers 11/6/19

I loved my larger pointe shoe painting so much, that I started to search for more ballet related photos to paint.  I spent an hour, and found some nice ones...and since the evening was rapidly being depleted, I selected the most simple one to do tonight.  Super simple cartoon drawing, but I figured I could paint it into something more elegant.  I love the peach tones on these slippers, which must be the standard color for ballerinas since it was the rare photograph of these shoes that wasn't peachy pink.

I read somewhere that one of the famous French painters, Monet, would paint the same subject over and over, waterlilies.  So, while I like this painting, I think it could be looser, I could do better at reaching the vision in my head.  I could be like Monet and consider it a study, and paint 6 different renditions of the same thing, see where it goes.  Each week, paint the cartoon ballet slippers to gather myself but expand myself too.  This "first version" was traced.  After several days of not tracing, I look at this and think "it would be better if the lines weren't so perfect."  I should have sketched it.  That will be the gather/expand exercise on version two.

#241 Black Umbrellas 10/4/19

I've had this jumbo sized canvas board sitting next to my desk for over a month now, waiting for the courage to put something on it.  Tonight was the night.  I went scouting through the internet looking for another umbrella photo.  Found several I liked and chose this one as it fit the rectangular shape of the canvas.  It went down quite fast, plus (again!) I sketched it by hand.  It was quite the limited palette, black, white, brown, blue, yellow and red.  Although now that I type out that list, heck, I could make any color with just those 6, so perhaps calling it limited is incorrect.

The woman kind of happened by surprise.  There was a reddish blob in the photo, very blurry.  As I was sketching it, I sketched the blob loosely to make it look like another person with an umbrella, with the intent they'd be heading the same direction as the main character, ie no faces.  But when I looked at the scribble, I saw an elbow, and voila - the scribble became a woman walking in the opposite direct (but with the umbrella pulled down low, to shield her face, yeah!)  She was quite in-focus at first and that didn't sit well, since she's further away (and it's a rainy foggy day).  So gingerly I took a fresh hard paint brush and blurred her out, a little at a time.  I'm not a fan of the black streaks surrounding her, now that I look at the photo.  As soon as I sign off here, I'm taking those out.  I think I also need to take out the blue near her.  Gotta go!

#240 Flowers in Vase 11/3/19

This is the, as promised, second painting done from a pinterest inspiration.  It is also done on Ampersand.  I think the Ampersand boards might work better if you don't paint alla prima.  Might have spelled that wrong...but meaning wet on wet.  The boards might work better if you let them dry at least overnight between sessions.  But my goal somewhat demands finishing the same day as the start.  Speaking of which, I'm at 240, 60 more to go with only 58 days in the year.  I'll need to double up here and there!  Daily painting will have to be literal!

I was much happier at the end of this painting than I was of the primitive bird.  Again, I sketched it myself.  Even though the colors of the flowers seem a bit muted due to mixing to easily with the background colors I still like it.  My least favorite part is the table, which looks "primitive".  The flowers though, they look impressionistic.  Tap, tap, tapped most of that on, adding more and more on the edges so the flowers would stretch out to fill the board.

#239 Main Street Snowman 11/3/19

For the past few years, the town I live in lines Main Street with an assortment of plywood snowmen during the holidays.  Each year a different assortment is there, spaced every light post or so.  The girl scouts will do one, the local businesses will do one, the churches will do one, etc.  I wasn't quite sure how you got on the list, because some were done by random residents.  This year they asked the Farmer's Market if their individual members might want to do one, and I said "sign me up!"  That's what I worked on today, and since it involved all kinds of painting I'm calling it one of the 300 for 2019.  For $20, the town will give you the plywood cut-out, already primed white, with two pre-drilled holes for mounting.  I was going to go with a raised stenciled design, and rub the top with a third color and maybe string beads around the thing, it was a vague plan.  I went to Walmart to get supplies.  While there, in the clearance section I found a Krylon "old wood" 2-part system and decided that would be good for the under-layer, make it look vintage.  And then I found some all-weather fix-it putty and decided that would likely stick well as the raised stencil design.  Walmart had the Christmas stuff out already, and I found a plaid outdoor bow and a plastic wreath....I decided to go rustic instead girly.  I was ready.  After I turned him vintage brown and got the putty stenciled it looked like I had a gingerbread cookie with sugary icing on top.  So, that's what he became, a gingerbread snowman.  I painted his face with oil paints and my friend Mary suggested that the wreath could go on his head.  He looks great, better than my vague plan was ever envisioned!  We'll see in a few weeks how he stacks up against his snowman competition.  Those girl scouts are pretty clever!

#238 Primitive Bird 11/2/19

I have two more ampersand boards to paint.  The clownfish ones were such a struggle I was hesitant to attempt more with these boards, but I had already purchased them, thus must use them.  I went to my pinterest page looking for inspiration, and it was a toss-up between the primitive bird and the primitive vase of flowers.  Primitive seemed seductive.  It was already a long Saturday of running errands with Dave and I wasn't mentally good for much.  The primitive bird won.  It feels like I've been cheating recently, using ideas from other painters.  But again I sketched it myself, so I soothe my conscience with that thought.  Plus, the idea of pinterest is that somebody posts something they did, and others are supposed to show the results of their similar effort.  I heard there is a website devoted to showing "pinterest fails", someone tried the idea with miserable results.  The bird looked like something that would be fun to have in a child's room, bright colors and easy subject.  I started with all the blue things: bird and leaves.  Then I put in the branches, purple, and smeared some of the purple into the leaves.  Then I grabbed a fresh brush and mixed up some greens and another fresh brush and mixed up some oranges.  The last thing down was the reds for the wing and berries.  It is on a 6x6 inch board, and it turned out OK, I don't think anyone would expect it to show up on the pinterest failure site.  But my mental state at the end of things was just the same as the beginning.  Not the usual state of affairs after finishing a painting where I'm either disgusted or elated with the results.  I might try the primitive vase tomorrow, see if the after-effect is the same.  I'll post my painting under the "tried this?" section on pinterest.

#237 Red Umbrella 10/31/19

Not many trick-or-treaters tonight, it been raining on and off all evening, with forecasts of damaging winds.  Drat, I love answering the door with the treats!  I decided to try a picture I got from Pexels a while ago....rainy day in a city with lights being reflected on the road and a woman crossing the street with a red umbrella.  I took a few liberties in deleting part of the scene, trying to make it simple enough for the 4x4 inch canvas.  It turned out better than I thought it would, given that the deleted parts were replaced with non-descript blobs of color and a tree.  The umbrella, which I consider the focal point, somehow ended up with the top post bent at a weird angle.  I think I intended a small bend, but after I finished and looked from a distance, it's quite a distinct bend.  I should rename it "Broken but Still Usable Red Umbrella".  Again, I opted to sketch it by hand, that's three in a row, it could be a trend of things to come!  The reflections were difficult and I certainly didn't do them justice, but alas, it's a first attempt at a street scene.  I think I may attempt to paint this scene again, on a bigger canvas, to see if I can do better with some of the details.

#235 & #236 Boy at the Beach, Three Women at the Beach 10/30/19

Just back from a lovely trip to Florida, where we babysat our 15 month old grandson.  That boy is just too adorable!!!  We got home, and I was searching for something to paint....I didn't paint at all while we were down there, so I was itching to do a little something.  I settled on two little easel canvases.  A few weeks back I was at an acquaintance's house for an event, and she had a tiny easel painting in her rest room, an original from what I could tell, of 3 women in swimsuits at the beach, back sides only, so no faces and they were all wearing hats.  It was very interesting, plus it was something I could handle, given that I wouldn't have to paint a face.  I googled "3 women at beach painting" and boom, there it was....at least very similar.  Scrolled down a bit and found some kids at the beach, and this one looked like our grandson, all towheaded and whatnot.  So, these are my takes on the two subjects.  The women were fun, I see now why they are subject matter for painters, what with the curves....butts and waists in this case, and if you're not looking to paint someone specific, they can be anyone at all, as all women come in all shapes and degrees of curves.  In this particular painting I started with a red canvas, sketched it by hand (not in the mood to trace a printout tonight), then did the bathing suits, then the skin, then the hats, then the skyline/water, then the beach.  It went pretty quick and my only hindrance was that the blue used in the suits would bleed into the skin.  I wasn't quite happy with the change in skin tone to show the delineation of the arms vs back vs thighs, but the canvas was too small to worry with it, so I left it.

The boy was also sketched by hand.  The nice part about him being at the water's edge was that his feet and hands were in the water, and not visible....so no need to get a semblance of 5 fingers or toes.  And his face is shadowed, so I only added eyes (in this case eyelids).  This one is only 2 inches by 3 inches, so not much space to play with.  But the water and sky turned out fine.  I worked a bit at the beach, with the reflections of things with only a tiny veneer of water on top of the sand.

#233 & #234 Uncle Gene Geometrics Sept/Oct 2019

Have I mentioned my Uncle Gene?  He was like a second father to me, once removed (a joke for those who knew him, as he could tell you proper naming of genetic relations, and would jump at a chance to correct you and educate you if you referred to someone as a cousin who might actually be a second cousin).  He passed away over the summer...my cousins (more like sisters), Lori and Jenny (his daughters) have recently completed divvying up his household - no small task!  I am the lucky recipient of his roll-top desk, which is awesome, and a drop-leaf table - also awesome, but not as awesome as the desk (which has a bazillion drawers and nooks and crannies and locks and secret compartments....it's going to be my Artist Desk, full of drawing supplies).  I also got a bunch of his drafting tools...hence the name of these two paintings: "Uncle Gene Geometrics".  I traced a bunch of the triangles and circle tools and made two related paintings.  Related....hmmmm, maybe I should add "Once Removed" to the title of the paintings!  I've got one tiny spot left to paint....these were a "use what's left on the palette" and they've taken quite a bit of time since I really haven't had much paint left on the palette recently.  I might go over them again too, some of the paint looks too thin.  A tragic tale: they were sitting on the floor, under my easel, and a painting on the easel above them fell off it's cardboard backboard and hit one of the geometric paintings and actually punctured it!  So, they're unsellable....but I wasn't going to sell them anyway.  I'm going to try and salvage it by putting some linen tape on the back side where the hole is.  I think it should be fine, we'll see.  I've got to wait till it's dry enough before I try and fix it.