Thé next stage of this painting. It took a while to find space to return to right brain, a walk by the river and some music helped, but I always find it quite difficult to remember where a painting was headed once the first stage ends and the second go begins. Anyway, this is where this one wandered off to – finding more colour in my local landscape; playing with textures and liquidity of paint, and how to apply the paint – fingers, brush, kitchen paper, knife. I feel though that I lose the boldness & freshness in the return to a painting – does more practice help? I seem to return to painting this view – does it matter if we paint the same view over again. I see & feel something different every time I see it & try to paint it – is this what keeps us hooked to painting?
Thé next stage of this painting. It took a while to find space to return to right brain, a walk by the river and some music helped, but I always find it quite difficult to remember where a painting was headed once the first stage ends and the second go begins. Anyway,...
Not doing this for symathy but my husband had a heart attack on Sunday which meant I had no time to do a portrait. I’ve managed to do this portrait of him today. It’s the first time that I’ve used pastels and found it very difficult as the end of a pastel is not as fine as a paintbrush, charcoal or graphite. BUT i loved the experimentation; scraping with a knife, laying colours on top of each other and trying to get depth. Man About The House on Mixed Media Paper
Not doing this for symathy but my husband had a heart attack on Sunday which meant I had no time to do a portrait. I've managed to do this portrait of him today. It's the first time that I've used pastels and found it very difficult as the end of a...
I’m a bit out of synch with the assignments. -I’ll get back to sketching in a while! I’m trying to get to grips with painting more bodily in right brain, noticing when the moment has passed & having the patience to leave the resultant ‘painting’ to dry & wait for another attempt to coax it into something. First go…
I’m a bit out of synch with the assignments. -I’ll get back to sketching in a while! I’m trying to get to grips with painting more bodily in right brain, noticing when the moment has passed & having the patience to leave the resultant ‘painting’ to dry & wait...
I’ve been sick this week so I’m not sure I’ll be able to do all 3 sketches for this week. BUT at least I was able to do the one with “cold” tones. I used as a reference a picture I took of my dad when I visited them in Puerto Rico a while ago. Most of the time I aim for a more realistic style, so I struggled with keeping things simple (keeping a 30 min time limit helped a lot, tho). Plus choosing the right skin tones was sort of difficult too. Felt like his skin ended up being too yellowish for my liking, but I digress. On a positive note, I liked the lines of his shirt.
I’ve been sick this week so I’m not sure I’ll be able to do all 3 sketches for this week. BUT at least I was able to do the one with “cold” tones. I used as a reference a picture I took of my dad when I visited them in Puerto Rico a while ago. Most of the time I aim...
On grey pastel paper and trying out finger smoothing for the back ground and different irregular layers of. marks in the foreground
On grey pastel paper and trying out finger smoothing for the back ground and different irregular layers of. marks in the foreground
Stock photo of a homeless man on a bench in the park. Using muted, low value colours with a two small high chroma’s – red hat and blue sleeves
Stock photo of a homeless man on a bench in the park. Using muted, low value colours with a two small high chroma's – red hat and blue sleeves
My third study, this one from a “selfie” rather than from life. Wow, this was a real challenge for me. Firstly in trying to stick to the 30 minutes and secondly in the application of the pastel, particularly with small marks. I do feel that I made progress and that the third study was more effective, though I don’t know whether that is because it was from a photo rather than from life.
My third study, this one from a “selfie” rather than from life. Wow, this was a real challenge for me. Firstly in trying to stick to the 30 minutes and secondly in the application of the pastel, particularly with small marks. I do feel that I made progress and that...
This is my second study.
This is my second study.
First attempt at a self portrait.
First attempt at a self portrait.
This is my second study.
This is my second study.
I couldn’t resist using your photo references, Samir—I hope that’s okay! I really love the mood in them; it reminds me of early 20th-century art. Painting these studies was both fun and enjoyable. My favorite part was adding those green accents you mentioned in your demo—they make such a difference! I’ve applied my knowledge of simultaneous contrast many times in landscape painting, but it never occurred to me that it should also be used in figure painting. Thank you for all your teaching! I’m looking forward to the next lesson.
I couldn’t resist using your photo references, Samir—I hope that’s okay! I really love the mood in them; it reminds me of early 20th-century art. Painting these studies was both fun and enjoyable. My favorite part was adding those green accents you mentioned in your...
I have enjoyed using pencil, crayon, candle wax resist and salt on my paintings recently. And here is one where I think I used all of those except the wax.
I have enjoyed using pencil, crayon, candle wax resist and salt on my paintings recently. And here is one where I think I used all of those except the wax.
Oil pastel first attempt. Enjoyed the looseness and speed of pastels and using my fingers . High chroma complementary greens and warm colours
Oil pastel first attempt. Enjoyed the looseness and speed of pastels and using my fingers . High chroma complementary greens and warm colours
I tried again with huge brushes & bigger, bolder marks. It’s the lake where I swim, not far from home & a counterpoint to the gloomy painting posted earlier! I am finding the big brush and slippery paint quite tricky to control, but it was good fun & learning so much about paint & how I like to paint. I think it’s going to take a while for me to get the hang of this. Ps – has anyone used Michael Harding Miracle Medium? I’ve just tried Sennelier Green Oil, but hate the smell of it
I tried again with huge brushes & bigger, bolder marks. It’s the lake where I swim, not far from home & a counterpoint to the gloomy painting posted earlier! I am finding the big brush and slippery paint quite tricky to control, but it was good fun &...
Here’s the painting post panic…..smoothed & brushed & tamed. I prefer the wilder first one, but doing this has been a very good learning process. I often feel I paint what’s expected – to please an audience. I’d find it very helpful, Louise, if you could do a post-painting video showing how you move on from an initial paint session to a finished painting. How do you return to a painting after a few days/weeks of ignoring it.
Here’s the painting post panic…..smoothed & brushed & tamed. I prefer the wilder first one, but doing this has been a very good learning process. I often feel I paint what’s expected – to please an audience. I’d find it very helpful, Louise, if you could...
So…this one, hastily painted in about 15 mins when I was tired & super-grumpy after a night of lambing. I’m trying to be more expressive with big marks & big brushes, but think this was a bit of a mess and I’m finding this difficult to do. To paint with this big marks and make the painting ok to look at!! The next morning I panicked & brushed out & smoothed whole swathes of it & it became the next photo
So…this one, hastily painted in about 15 mins when I was tired & super-grumpy after a night of lambing. I’m trying to be more expressive with big marks & big brushes, but think this was a bit of a mess and I’m finding this difficult to do. To paint with this...
Quick river sketch using Art Graf tablets and watercolour
Quick river sketch using Art Graf tablets and watercolour
Oil 60x 60 cm based on river sketch. Trying to get sense of March before foliage bursts out
Oil 60x 60 cm based on river sketch. Trying to get sense of March before foliage bursts out
Here’s a sketch I did using different materials than I usually do – watercolour, gouache, pencil, crayon & pen.
Here's a sketch I did using different materials than I usually do – watercolour, gouache, pencil, crayon & pen.
Sketch 3, watercolour 21 x 26 cm
Sketch 3, watercolour 21 x 26 cm
Sketch 2, watercolour 21 x 26 cm
Sketch 2, watercolour 21 x 26 cm
Sketch 1 The first of three sketches I did recently using only watercolour (21 x 26 cm). I worked quicker than usual (allowed only 2 or 3 minutes per sketch) and used quite a large brush to take away some of the control and give a more gestural effect. With these watercolours I deliberately stuck to the (mainly earth) colours I’m using in oils as I find this helps me to prepare the oil palette later on. The dark lines were added at the end using a water soluble crayon. I tried to keep in mind things like variation in size and shape of marks; contrasts of dark against light; balancing warm tones and cool tones, although working quickly forces you to decide more by instinct than deep consideration. I hope that will be good practice for painting wet on wet in oils. Please do comment as its so useful to get feedback.
Sketch 1 The first of three sketches I did recently using only watercolour (21 x 26 cm). I worked quicker than usual (allowed only 2 or 3 minutes per sketch) and used quite a large brush to take away some of the control and give a more gestural effect. With these...