Jumping 1-3 - Three Works in Progress

Another cold day with the temperature at 4F (-15.6C) with the wind chill making it feel like -8F (-22.2C).















Jumping 1

It is an unpleasant day outside and it was much nicer to be inside by the fire. Fortunately, I found a program featuring stadium jumping on television.














Jumping 2

With pencil and sketchbook in hand I chose to try and capture some of the horses going over the fences.

With the way the cameras followed the course I worked between three different sketches trying to capture the position of the horses in the different directions and angles.














Jumping 3

It was an interesting exercise; using bits and pieces of a number of different show jumpers and it has given me three sketches to complete at a later date.

All of them have the potential to become paintings and if they do I will also post them.

Red Candle - A Work in Progress

Junkyard has finally returned, although he has shed a couple of pounds he is alive and his leg seems to be healing. He has become a lot shier but I was still able to touch him before he ran away, so I put food out for him and he did eat.

The morning started off overcast, but with everything coated in white frost. The trees were a wondrous sight to behold and I wanted to stay home and take photographs, but I had to head down to KAGS for the still life class.

The theme for the class was candlelight.

We had two different displays set up. One was a single amber coloured glass candlestick with three pears.

The other was a collection of various candle holders in everything from glass, porcelain, clay, stained glass, crystal and brass. I chose to work on a single candle in a holder of crystal and pewter from the collection.

I will post this painting at a later date.

After the class I sat the "Free Expressions" show in the Gallery.

When it was time for me to head home the weather had warmed and it turned out to be a fairly nice, sunny day with the temperature climbing to 24F (-4.5C)

Thank you for coming to look at my artwork.

ACEO - Happy Hippo 1

Today I wanted to finish is little piece that I had started a couple of years ago (see post on 17 November 2013).

I tidied up the arm and leg on the right side and added a little more hair on his head.

First I put down a wash of burnt sienna as the base colour of the wooden floor.

Then I added a little French ultramarine blue to darken the colour and using a dry brush I added in the wood grain using horizontal strokes.

For the background behind the hippo I used a mix of raw sienna and new gamboge.

Once the background was dry it was time to paint the hippo.  I started with alizarin crimson for the inside of the ears and then added a small amount of new gamboge to paint the muzzle. I then put in the mouth with alizarin crimson.

For the main parts of the body and the head, I used alizarin crimson, French ultramarine blue and a small amount of burnt sienna.

To the body colour I added a little more burnt sienna to darken the colour and painted in the hooves.

Using the hoof colour I made it almost black by adding more of the blue and burnt sienna and painted the hair, eyes, and nostrils.

With pure Antwerp blue I painted in the scarf.

Lastly, using cadmium yellow I put in the highlight on the hair and on the edges if the eyes.

If you would like more information about ACEO please go to my post on 11 March 2010.

The ACEO shown here is an original watercolour painting using Artist quality Winsor & Newton paint on 140lb. Arches 100% rag, acid free watercolour paper. It is priced at $20.00 and sold unframed.

Skies - Three Works in Progress

Today I was at St. John the Baptist Anglican Church in Lakefield giving a class on painting skies to the Lakefield Creative Arts Group.

They wanted to learn to paint skies at different times of day and clouds formations.

To make it easier for the class I decided to use a limited palette of French ultramarine blue, raw sienna and burnt sienna for the first painting of a sunset.

The sky and water would be painted wet on wet.

Each student first mixed a puddle of the three colours on their palette and then the paper was thoroughly wet with water. Once the glow had left the paper pure raw sienna was swept into the sky area leaving some sections of white paper.

A thin line of white paper was left to indicate the horizon line.

Sunset Silhouettes

The water of the lake was put in with horizontal strokes to make it appear to be a flat surface.

Burnt sienna was used next and brushed into the sky in various areas and allowed to mix with the raw sienna creating a subtle orange glow in the sky. This colour was also painted into the water, again using horizontal strokes.

Finally, French ultramarine blue with a touch of burnt sienna were brushed into the still wet sky and water. It was set aside to dry.

The morning sky was again painted with a limited palette of Antwerp blue, alizarin crimson, French ultramarine blue and burnt sienna.

The colours were prepared in the same way as the first painting, with the exception that the French ultramarine blue and burnt sienna were premixed for a warm grey,

Going Uphill

Once again painting wet on wet Antwerp blue was applied to the paper leaving the bottom of the paper white for the snow and some areas of the sky white for the other colours.

Next alizarin crimson was brushed into the sky and a pale wash was put into the snow area with slightly curved lines to give the snow covered hill a little shape.

Lastly the grey clouds were put into the sky covering some of the pinks and blues already applied to the sky. This painting was also set aside to dry.

The last painting was to be mainly of clouds. For this one we wanted a little more control over the colour as it was applied so the paper wasn't wet as much as for the first two pieces.

Only three colours used for the sky, they were French ultramarine blue, burnt sienna and raw sienna.

Gathering Storm I

The paper was lightly wet and the horizon line washed in using pure raw sienna.

Various mixtures of French ultramarine blue and burnt sienna were made on the palette, some more to the blue shade some more to the grey shade.

The clouds layers were brushed in using the different mixes, keeping some areas of the paper white and allowing the colours to blend on the paper as well. This painting was then set aside to dry.

After the lunch break. We started again on the sunset painting by lightly sketching in with pencil the distant island and the closer island, rocks and trees.

Using a mix of French ultramarine blue, burnt sienna and alizarin crimson to create a warm dark black the far shoreline was painted in first without a lot of detail.

Next with a little more detail the distant island was painted in and reflections were painted into the water below the island.

Work was started on the closer island before we ran out of time. I will post the continuing progress of each of these three paintings at a later date.

Winter Pine - A Work in Progress

It is a little warmer at 10F (-12C) with the wind chill it feels like 1F (-17C), but at least there isn't supposed to be any snow until late afternoon.

It is back to KAGS for day two of the John David Anderson workshop.

Today's painting will be another snow scene, this will feature the many subtle colour variations both warm and cool that can be found in white snow just before sunset.

For a change we used Cobalt blue for the under paint to cover the canvas.

Using a thicker Cobalt blue the horizon line was painted in, the lone pine tree and the darkest shadows in the snow.

Various mixtures of Cobalt blue and Titanium white were used to indicate the sky and the tonal values of the snow drifts on the hill.

I had to rework the distant shoreline, change the tree to make it look more like a windblown pine tree instead of having it look like a Christmas tree and rework the sky.

I will post this painting at a later date once I have started painting in some of the many colours in the snow.

Thank you for taking the time to visit my blog and look at the artwork. I hope you will return often.

Frozen Marsh I - A Work in Progress

It is 0F (-18C) and with the wind chill it feels like -18F (-28C). There is still no sign of Junkyard and I am starting to think that something has happened to him; but I am hoping that I am wrong and he will show up again.

Today is the first day of the John David Anderson workshop at the Kawartha Art Gallery and Studio.














In the morning we started by under painting the canvas with a thin layer of French ultramarine blue. Then with thicker paint we blocked in the basic shapes of the painting establishing the rock, the trees, the first line of reeds and the distant shore of the marsh.

Next the darkest darks were painted in, then the mid tone values and finally the lightest colours were painted.














After the lunch break it was time to add more detail starting with the background dead trees in the sunlit area.

Some of the brighter colour was added into the closer area of weeds on the edge of the marsh and shadow and colour onto the closer trees.

I will this post this painting at a later date once more work on it has been completed.

Koi 1 and 4 - Two Works in Progress

Well it is finally getting warmer, today is 8F (-13C) and with the wind chill -8F (-22C) which is much more tolerable than the cold that we have had over the past couple of days.

Today I had to sit at Art on Kent instead of on my usual Saturday as tomorrow I have a class at KAGS with John David Anderson.














Koi 1

With it starting to snow shortly after I arrived not many people came in, most probably preferred to go home and spend their evening in the comfort of their home. So I worked on a couple of the drawings of the koi I had started last year (see post on 06 and 18 July 2014).

Once I had tightened the details on the sketches it was time to paint in the background.














Koi 4

On the first one I painted the background using French ultramarine blue and on the second one I used Cobalt blue.

I will post each of these paintings at a later date one I have completed the koi.