Gemsbok

My Christmas gift to myself was painting this gemsbok that seemed to paint itself. I wish they all went together so well! The photo for this was a free stock photo taken by Andre Moritz on Dreamstime.com:

With so many excellent quality images on Dreamstime I should never run out of reference for any subject, some are only a few $$$ for the license. Since I am currently into close up crops I came up with something I liked for it's design properties, paying attention to the negative spaces.

 

NFS

Bongo

Here is the next painting in my series of 6X6 horned animal crops. I had some fun with this guy and decided to push the colors a little more, I must be getting more confident. Reference for this was provided by http://lormet-images.deviantart.com. 

 SOLD

Lord Derby Eland

After my failed landscape attempt I returned to a subject I usually have success with, hooved animals. I rely heavily on photos shared by others who allow artists to use them for paintings, especially for exotic animals. I love where I live, but the nearest eland is a days drive away, if they have any at the Denver Zoo. For those who aren't familiar with the eland, it is the largest antelope, much like the moose is the largest deer. The male Lord Derby Eland can be almost 6 feet tall at the withers and weigh 2,200 lbs! That is the size of a large bull of the bovine variety. In some parts of the world elands have been somewhat domesticated for both meat and milk, as they can thrive on forage that cattle can not do well on.

Here is the original reference photo, provided by salsolastock.deviantart.com:





To get my crop I set my cropping tool for a square, since that is the format of the painting I want to do, and move the square around until I get something that looks good to me. I try to find something interesting with a strong design element including both the subject and negative spaces.

Here is the painting, in progress and finished:

SOLD

This painting sold to someone on the artist website WetCanvas where I had posted it for critiques. It made me realize that it might be time to offer these paintings via an auction format. The next painting is a bongo, and I'll be trying out a simple auction idea right here on the blog, either tomorrow or Tuesday.

Frustration

I am supposed to be working on my sculpture, but these pastels keep calling to me. I thought I'd try another landscape in a larger size, 9X12. I wanted to see if I could apply what I had learned to something larger and to a landscape. Once again I selected a photo that seemed simple enough to me, only to find it is not so simple. The reference for this painting came from the WetCanvas reference image library, by member Carlanna:

Simple, right? I am sure some of you are thinking "that is not simple at all" and some of you could knock out a painting of this in one afternoon. I thought I was one of you, haha!

The sketch/value study using NuPastel #305:

First layers of color, still feeling pretty confident:

After getting some constructive feedback I tried to make the clouds feel more airy by softening the edges and adding some sky color in. I will admit, I was beginning to feel defeated:

The next day I gave myself one hour to do what I could and then move on to something I could have success with. I also ordered some more pastels, which arrived yesterday, and I think I have enough lighter  colors that I could  do more with subtle gradations on this, when I feel inspired to work on it more.

There are things I like about it. I love my sky color, and the upward sweep of the clouds. To me I feel like I am looking up when I look at the top third of the painting. I left the bottoms of the clouds too sharp because my timer I had set for one hour went off and I was tired of working on it. It is hanging in the living room for now. It was good for me to do this, it was humbling and it made me realize, again, how much there is to learn.

Top Secret

I did another painting after the Sierras one, but it's a gift so for now it's top secret. I feel confident that the recipient will be delighted. I will post photos soon....

With almost half on my November paintings selling (thanks SO much to those who purchased) I decided to buy a few more pastels. Unlike oil painting where you can mix color on your palette, pastels must be layered on the painting itself. Getting started in pastels is more expensive at first because you need a good selection, and those beautiful color drenched sticks aren't cheap! When I first started my pastel painter friend Sonya Johnson gave me some great advice, get some NuPastels, a half stick set of Senneliers, and the Mount Vision Thunderstorm Gray set. They were great to get started with. I added some Unisons, and some Terry Ludwigs (the dark "eggplant" he sells is something everyone seems to use. Today I ordered some more Mount Visions using a handmade color chart I bought from Dakota Pastels. Fingers crossed I finally have the sky blues, sagebrush, and red rock colors I have been wanting.

Some girls like chocolates, some jewelry, but for me this is the shiz :)



UPDATE: here is the finished surprise painting for my niece, her beloved mustang mare "Bug":



Katelyn loved it and promptly hung it up in cowgirl fashion:

Sunrise on the Sierras

The photo reference for this came from WetCanvas's huge reference library, and was taken by member lisilk, who has a ton of wonderful photos uploaded for members to use. I cropped out a section I liked for the shapes of the hills and shadows. I was hoping to apply what I learned from the last painting. I think I picked a better photo to work from, as this one already has several layers to help create a feeling of space:

I wanted to focus on the shapes and not get too carried away in details. This one was fun, but I did get bogged down in the foreground, the color sorta threw me. Is it purple, green, yellow-purple-green?  I am hanging it on the aging wall to see if anything needs to be changed or added for it to be called finished:

June in the High Country

After the success of the last three paintings, all of which sold, I felt I should return to a subject more difficult. After all, this month was for me to try to learn as much as possible. I have a photo from a favorite trail of mine, and many others, that was taken on a friends last trail ride. He had cancer and it was amazing he could still ride at this point but he did, and he thoroughly enjoyed and appreciated all of it. So, I am sure, that influenced my choice. Here is the reference photo:

I had a feeling this would be hard, and that I wouldn't like the results, but I wanted to try anyway. The photo looks simple, it shouldn't be that hard, right? I must be learning, though, because I knew it would be difficult, and I was right. Here is how it looked the first time it was 'finished':

 

There are things I like about it. I think the snow patches came out better than expected, and I like the shadows on the snow patches. I don't like my foreground, and to me the entire painting reads as flat, with no feeling of dimension or space. Can I stick my face in it? I think not. I posted the photo on WetCanvas and got some great feedback, so I adjusted a few things:

I softened and lightened the tops of the mountains. I greyed down the bluff with some purple. The foreground grass was scraped off and redone using orange underneath to make the green pop. Much better, right? I know it's not perfect, but I felt  I learned a lot so on to the next one.