Suppertime? - A Work in Progress

Today is bright and sunny which is deceiving when you are looking out the window as it is the coldest day so far of the winter season with the temperature being -4F (-20C) and a strong wind blowing making it feel like -12F (-24.4C) with the wind chill.














So it is a good thing that after doing barn chores, filling the feeders and shovelling out the walk way that I spent some of the day working on this painting (see posts on 15 Mar 2012 and 31 Oct 2012).














I marked in the main areas of coral on the rock face first and then started working on the under paint.

While the coral was drying I started painting in the dark markings on the jackknife fish and finally completed them before calling it a day.














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

Playing with Sponges - Two Works in Progress

Today it is still snowing. So far we have another four inches more on top of the six inches that were already on the ground from the storm that went through earlier this week.

Using a sponge and French ultramarine blue I put some random marks down on the paper and tied them together by using the end of my brush to mark the paper and allow the paint to run into the marks.

Sponge Work A

With the next one I placed marks almost side by side, turning the sponge slightly each time.

It should be interesting to see what I can make this into, either snow covered branches, or turn it and make it into waves.

I will post these paintings at a later date once I decide what I am going to do with them.


Sponge Work B

Rock Beauty - A Work in Progress

I wanted to do a little more work on this painting which I had started earlier this year (see posts on 21 Mar 2012 and 27 Jul 2012).

My goal was to work on the sponges and perhaps get them completed today.

The base colour is Grumbacher red (naphthol red AS-D) and I added mixtures of burnt sienna for the shadows with a hint of ultramarine blue and cadmium yellow deep for the highlights.















I started with the tallest sponge and painted it in completely, then left a space and worked on the next sponge allowing time for the first one to dry.

I continued to work from one side of the clump of sponges to the other until the main grouping of sponges was completed.

Then I worked on the smaller sponges from the left side to the right (since I am right handed) so I did not get my hand into wet paint and smear it across the canvas.















I found that the small central sponge was too distracting and tended to draw the eye to it so I removed it from the painting.

I will post this painting at a later date once more of the painting has been completed.

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

Posed

It is still snowing and we will probably end up with about 6" (15cm) of snow by the time it is over. But I have nothing to complain about it has been a mild winter so far with very little snow.

Today I wanted to complete this line drawing of a Quarter Horse called Boomer's Ace for returning customer Mrs. Louise Stewart of Sydney, Nova Scotia.

I did a head study of this horse last year (see post on 22 April 2011) and she wanted a full body image she could use on her stationary.

Sea Fans - A Work in Progress

The snow here has held off for most of the day but it is now starting to snow and is supposed to continue through the night and most of tomorrow. We will soon see how much of the white stuff we end up with on the ground.














I am glad that I do not have to go out for anything so I will sit and enjoy the fire in the fireplace and do a little painting.

I wasn't in the mood to start a painting or do anything major so I pulled out this piece (see posts on 20 Oct 2011 and 11 Jul 2012) and decided to paint in the yellow markings on the fish.














Since everything was working on this painting I decided to go ahead and paint in all the black markings on the fish as well.

I will post this painting on a later date as I do more work on each of the fish.

OSWOA - Deep Snow 1

I would like to wish everyone a very Merry Christmas.

Even though it is hard to think about a true Canadian white Christmas when there is no snow on the ground.

Since I had some time this morning before going to the family Christmas festivities I decided to finish this painting that I had started a while ago (see post on 30 Dec 2011) and make my own snow covered landscape.

First I lightly sketched in where I would like to have some of the main trees placed, leaving an open area for a snow covered path.

Using burnt sienna and French ultramarine blue I lightly painted in the background tree trunks.

Then the distant pine trees were put in with the trunk colour and raw sienna.

A blue grey made of the Trench ultramarine blue and burnt sienna was used for the closer tree shadows.

With various mixtures of French ultramarine blue, burnt sienna and alizarin crimson I painted the trunks and branches on the larger foreground trees first.

Next I wanted to put the needles onto the trees and using various mixtures of new gamboge, raw sienna, burnt sienna, cobalt blue and French ultramarine blue.

The middle ground trees trunks were put in using a slightly paler mix of the foreground tree colours.

The needles were a greyed mix of raw sienna, burnt sienna and French ultramarine blue.

Next the growies were added to the bases of the foreground and middle ground trees with mixes of burnt sienna, raw sienna, new gamboge and cadmium yellow.

If you would like more information about OSWOA please go to my post on 12 March 2010.

The OSWOA shown here is an original watercolour painting using Artist quality Windsor & Newton paint on 300lb. Arches 100% rag, acid free watercolour paper. It is priced at $40.00 and sold unframed.

ACEO - Christmas Tree 1

With today being Christmas Eve what could be more fitting than a painting of a Christmas tree?

First I splattered masking fluid onto the paper for snow and some of the tree ornaments.

Once the masking fluid was dry I lightly sketched in the trunk and the main branches for the tree.

Just before I was ready to paint in the background I decided I should mask out the tinsel on the tree first.

After the masking fluid had dried the background was painted in using cobalt blue.

The Christmas tree was painted using various mixtures of French ultramarine blue, raw sienna, Antwerp blue and burnt sienna.

The painting was then aside to dry completely before removing the masking fluid.

Once the masking fluid was removed it was time to paint all the Christmas ornaments on the tree.

First I mixed up a blue grey with French ultramarine blue, Antwerp blue a little burnt sienna and painted the tinsel.

I wanted to have a number of different coloured ornaments so I started to paint a couple of them with cadmium yellow.

Next I changed the colour by adding a little alizarin crimson.

I added a little cobalt blue to the mix for a couple darker coloured red ornaments.

Next I used pure cobalt blue in various places and followed that by adding a little new gamboge for some green ornaments.

I painted the remaining ones with pure cadmium red.

I decided that I wanted to add a Christmas star to the painting and used cadmium yellow since it is opaque and will cover most transparent colours.

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.