My First Horse Head

I came across this drawing that was in some of my Mom's old files that I am slowly going through before they are shredded.

On the back of the drawing is the date I drew it, which was 11 November 1961.

I can still remember when I did this drawing while laying on the floor in the living room, with my crayons and paper in front of the television watching Jon Gnagy "Learn to Draw" on Saturday afternoon.

I had also did another horse drawing of a Bucking Bronco with Jon Gnagy "Learn to Draw" and sent it to the Uncle Bobby Show (which was a Canadian children's show that aired from 1964 to 1979) and that drawing appeared on his show in 1964.

For Christmas that year, Mom got me Jon Gnagy's Learn to Draw kit.

My Mom, who painted wall murals in acrylic and miniature paintings in watercolour as a hobby, always encouraged me to draw and paint. She also made sure that I had all the art supplies I needed.

Thank you for taking the time to visit my blog and enjoy the artwork.

Background 73-75 - Three Works in Progress

A number of things happened today starting with it raining and the temperature rose to 41F (5C), but this isn't going to last for long as the wind came up during the afternoon and the temperature started to drop and we are to have snow overnight.

With my driveway covered in ice due to the thaw, walking on it tomorrow to do the barn chores is going to be treacherous.

The following backgrounds are the created from unused paint from yesterday's acrylic painting.














Background 73

This background was made using Hansa yellow, yellow ocher and a small amount of ultramarine blue.














Background 74

Ultramarine blue, cerulean blue, alizarin crimson and titanium white were used on this background painting.














Background 75

This piece was made using cadmium red, alizarin crimson, burnt sienna and titanium white.

I had plans to complete some of my acrylic paintings at St. Matthews church in Buckhorn with the Tuesday Painting Group, but once Heather and I arrived there we found that there was a leak in their gas heating and they had the doors open so we wouldn't succumb to carbon monoxide poisoning.

Needless to say we didn't stay very long and by the time I dropped Heather off at her house and returned home I was no longer motivated to paint.

But tomorrow is another day.

Sunlit Birches - A Work in Progress

For me today was a busy day at KAGS.

In the morning we had the acrylic workshop with Lucy Manley where we did a forest scene in the winter and the afternoon was taken up with the Executive meeting.

Using raw sienna as an under paint to give a warm tone to the painting which will show through in some areas.

Next with cadmium red the main trees were indicated using a deeper tone with more detail.

Less detail and a lighter wash of colour was used for the further back trees in the forest.

The main shadows were then indicated as well as the thicker forest on the top of the hill.

The darkest colour was indicated with a mixture of ultramarine blue, burnt sienna and alizarin crimson.

The background trees on the top of the hill were painted in using mixtures of Hansa yellow, ultramarine blue and cerulean blue.

The areas of the brightest sunlit snow were put in with pure titanium white.

The sky was a mixture of titanium white and cadmium red.

The background snow which is mainly in shadow was put in with titanium white, ultramarine blue and a hint of cadmium red.

The darkest shadow which is of the large foreground tree was put in with ultramarine blue and white.

The next darkest shadows were of the second and third largest trees using cerulean blue and white.

The remaining shadows were put in though out the areas of high lit snow using various mixtures of titanium white, ultramarine blue, cerulean blue and with a little bit of burnt sienna and alizarin crimson.

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

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

Sailboat 2 - A Work in Progress

I had a little bit of time to work on a painting and I decided that I should work on the last of the sketches I did when we went on the Stoney Lake Boat Cruise last year.

I started work on the outline drawing of Sailboat 2, tightening up some of the details.

Once I was happy with the drawing I transferred it onto watercolour paper.

In order to keep the sails and the boat white, I used a liquid masking fluid on the image and set it aside to dry.

I will post this piece at a later date once I have completed the sky and the water and I am ready to remove the mask to start work on the boat.

Background 72 - A Work in Progress

This background was made with the remaining paint from yesterday.















The colours used on this canvas are alizarin crimson, cadmium red, black and titanium white.

Once I decide what I will paint into this background I will post it at a later date.

Hoturo

Today I wanted to finish this painting that I have been working on for a little while (see posts on 10, 12, 17, 21 and 24 December 2015 and 02, 05, 08, 12 and 17 January 2016).

After looking at this painting for about a week I feel it just needs one more change.

The white line on the bottom of the hull is a little too thick and needs to be thinned along the center part to give the boat a little more shape.

Using pure cadmium red I painted my change line over the white paint.

Next I mixed the darker red colour which was against the white line of cadmium red, alizarin crimson and a touch of ultramarine blue.

Once this base colour was put on I blended it upward on the hull gradually adding more cadmium red to the mix.

Using pure titanium white I removed any of the minor "wiggle" lines of red.

At point I added more white to some of the sail reflections closer to the boat to make them stand out a little more.

Once the paint was totally dry I applied three coats of acrylic gloss medium to the painting to seal and protect it as well as bring up the colour.














I would like to thank returning collector Mr. Jiri Spirk of Lakefield, Ontario for commissioning me to do this painting of their yacht as a gift for his wife Janna.

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

Just Bobbing - A Work in Progress

Today at KAGS the theme for the Still Life class was wood.

We had two different displays set up. The first one was of various carved decoys, some painted and some plain. The second one was of various wooden carvings, bowls and buckets.

I chose to do the one with the carved decoys. I liked the two that were unpainted of a goose and a duck. I added the small painted mallard to the drawing a little later.

When the drawing was completed I used liquid friskit to mask out the decoys.














Once that was dry I used various mixes of cadmium yellow, raw sienna, Antwerp blue and French ultramarine blue to put in the background behind the decoys.

With a pale wash of both blues I indicated the water at the base of the birds.

Using raw sienna I started painting the goose first, gradually building up layers of colour to give the decoy shape.

I will post this painting at a later date once I have completed the goose decoy.