Exploring Options

Now this is what I'm talking about! This is definitely an option worth considering. I hit this one with the watercolor filter and got some real impact going on. It makes the original painting look downright drab. Anyone up for watercolor and wet charcoal?

IMO, this is a job for colored pencils. Not sure which filter I used for this effect but if anyone is interested I can sure go back and find out.

Last night I opened Elements and experimented with my latest painting. I got some interesting and extremely varied results. To tell the truth, the first time I considered painting the birch reference I thought of Nick Simmon's koi technique. His 'sewing machine stitch'(one of many unique techniques he demos on his DVD) and the use of spattering with a toothbrush to add shading and volume came to mind immediately. I will need to think on a much larger scale but I may try it out on a closeup section to see if I can pull it off. I'll need to order some full sheets of HP as well. It sure won't be Arches HP, though. I really should contact that company and let them know the problems I've had...at least with this latest block.

Berries & Birch~Version #1 Completed

SOLD

I spent far more time than I intended on this but one thing lead to another and I got caught up in painting berries, adding twiggy little branches and general overall tweaking. Oddly, the berries turned out to be the biggest challenge. I mixed a combo of pyrrol red and perm. yellow for the orange. Pyrrol red, if you haven't tried it yet, is a potent color and it completely overtook the perm. yellow on the gesso. I waited until the first application of paint was dry, then gently lifted out the berries with a damp brush. The perm. yellow held onto the gesso and the pyrrol red stained just enough to create the shade of orange I was shooting for. I used some of the color mixture from the trunks to add shading and depth to the berry clusters. I created the twigs with the pointed tip of a bamboo skewer soaked in water, then dipped in undiluted tube paint.

Btw, the mystery tree with the berry clusters is a form of Mountain ash.

Berries & Birch~WIP Update

The color in this photo is obviously not accurate but I wanted to show that I've begun the detail work on the trunk and started adding the smaller branches. I had to reapply the masking to the berries with my masking pen. I'm saving them for last. So far my palette has consisted primarily of FUB(red shade), burnt sienna, cobalt blue deep and Payne's grey. I know...it's at the ugly stage.

The background is complete and the masking has been removed. I chose a mixture of Payne's grey and cobalt blue and applied the color by pouring. Cobalt blue is a nice color but it's weak in value so I sprayed on a little Indigo/FUB around the trunk with an atomizer bottle for more contrast. The resulting effect reminded me of stonewashed denim.

The gesso is finally dry and I've applied my masking fluid.

A closeup of the gessoed surface. I chose to try cross-hatching with a 2" brush for the texture element.

I knew when I began painting this it wouldn't be the final. It really should be in a much larger format to look effective but I decided to experiment with different techniques, surfaces and palettes before committing to the final piece so I'm working on my Arches HP block which is only 12" x 16". The comp had to change a little to fit the paper so I sacrificed part of the lower trunk. It's times like these I wish I had a projector. Maybe that'll be next on my wish list.

This particular block of Arches HP doesn't want to release masking fluid well so I coated my paper beforehand with gesso. I also wanted to see how the gesso could add to the piece.

Berries & Birch~WIP

This is the sketch after alteration in Elements 6.0. I selected the shade of red I desired and used the Eyedropper set at size 13 to literally drop in the berries. Next I switched to Brush and added the black and greys. I set the Brush size at 9 & 2 respectively. When I felt I had added enough 'information' I softened some of the dropper and brush work with the Blur feature. Tada!

The initial sketch

Last December I took a photo of the birch tree that grows across the drive from my home titled Berries & Birch. Nearby another tree grows that produces clusters of vivid orange-red berries that stay on the tree all winter, well after the foliage has fallen. I really should know the name of this berry producing tree/shrub(?) being a gardener but trees and shrubs were never my forte. I'll be researching this one and I will find out what it is. What drew my interest was the way the branches of each tree crisscrossed each other and the contrast of the bright red berries against the greys, whites and the bits of black on the birch. The blue-grey winter sky added the perfect background.


Last night I drew a quick sketch from the photo, indicating the placement of the berry clusters using several amorphous shapes scribbled here and there. This morning I refined the sketch somewhat and studied it to see how well the composition worked. I realized without the color of those berries it would be hard to tell what the final result might be. I didn't want to add color to my sketch so I did the next best thing. I put it in Elements.

Fern Canyon~First Landscape

Landscapes...a subject I've managed to avoid for my entire painting 'career' until this past week. I've had this niggling little urge to try my hand at one since I attempted to paint my trillium landscape, which btw is still waiting in the wings. I finally decided to have a go at Fern Canyon because I was so taken with it's beauty. I took elements I liked from both photos (previously posted) and tried to incorporate them into one painting. My goal was to convey the feeling of entering into another world within a world. One that is lush and green and cool. Isn't that what landscape painters do? Try to take the viewer there, wherever 'there' may be and hopefully allow them to experience what the artist experienced?

Searching for Inspiration

Fern Canyon in Northern California.

It's like walking into another world.

The Fern Canyon photos have rekindled my desire to try a landscape. I remember how I felt walking into that canyon even after all these years. So lush and green, I felt cradled and safe there for some reason.

I'm absolutely dwarfed by this giant! It just keeps going up & up.

Me & a tree

The Redwoods

Morro Bay

Trolley scene in SF

Today I got out some old snapshots of my trip along the California coastline from San Diego to Klamath in hopes of getting my creative juices flowing again. These photos sure brought back great memories. San Fran. was the most amazing city I've ever visited and I now know where all the old hippies went after the 70's...to Mill Valley. Jeff Beck's instrumental, 'Girl From Mill Valley' is still one of my favorite pieces of music. The Redwoods simply blew me away. So ancient yet still stately and proud. Walking among them I felt as though I had entered Nature's cathedral. The banana slugs that dwell below these incredible trees made me realize that Nature has a sense of humor, too.

Working Out The Poppy

I put the image of the poppy that I 'twirled' back into Elements and cropped it into a square format. Then I used the Ink Outlined filter set at 17-Stroke Length, 25-Dark Intensity and 37-Light Intensity and got some very interesting results which I chose to save for reference. It was still missing something so using the brush stroke feature I dropped turquoise into some of the deeper midtones to bring in a contrasting color. Looking at the image on screen, I think the turquoise needs to be brighter as it's not showing up well enough. (Btw, forgive my crude brush technique. I'm not terribly steady with my computer mouse.) It's becoming more abstract with every change. The trick for me will be to bring this to fruition with brush on paper.

Just Checking In

My sketch book is anything I have handy that will accept pencil or ink. This is my sketch of Gizmo or Lil 'Mo as we sometimes call her. I'm also scheduled for a haircut on Monday as you can see. :D

I haven't posted anything new on my blog for a week...more(?) so I thought I'd check in. I began working on a new project last Tuesday. I planned another floral, this time on gessoed paper. I was full of wonderful ideas I was sure would work. I wanted to do a spin (no pun intended) on the twirled poppy I created in Elements. Using gold and white tissue paper I found among my Christmas 'stuff', the idea was to embed it in the gesso and manipulate it to create the desired texture and form I envisioned. Also I had a specific finished size in mind (24" x 24" matted and framed) so I needed my paper cut to at least 19" x 19". After cutting my paper I realized I didn't have a board big enough to tape it on so I covered a large piece of cardboard I had saved (I knew I'd need that one day!) with clear contact paper and got everything ready to gesso.

I had to place the papered board on my studio floor because my space is very limited. This was at night when I'm usually the most creative and it was pouring rain outside. I'm terribly messy when I apply gesso and it seems to get everywhere no matter how careful I try to be. In the midst of applying the gesso my neighbor, Joe began knocking on my door and told me I had left my interior lights on in my car. Knowing I hadn't been in my car since the day before, the fear that my battery was probably ready to die was a real possiblity. With both of us standing outside in the rain it was eventually discovered that the hatch on my Suburu Outback wasn't latching properly which in turn kept the interior lights from shutting off. Who knew? Anyway, with Joe's help we solved the crisis, the battery was still ok and neither of us melted in the rain. Of course I got gesso everywhere which had to be cleaned up.

Afterwards I came in and added the tissue paper to the gesso. It didn't cooperate as planned so had to be removed and thrown out. What a gloppy mess.:( Left to create the needed texture anyway I could, I tried my best to do it with my fingers. I felt like I was back in kindergarten playing in the finger paints only the final results weren't as pleasing to the eye. I now have a very large board with an equally large piece of gesso covered paper lying on my kitchen table waiting for me to figure out "what next ?". I'll sort it out eventually and have every confidence I will triumph in the end and produce a lovely floral which I'll post on completion.

In the meantime I managed to catch Gizmo, my female cat holding still long enough to actually sketch. Will wonders never cease! She's the skittish kitty that inspired Undercover Kitty. At 14 yrs. of age, Gizmo has never weighed more than 7-8 pounds and bolts at the sound of a pin drop. Her ears and eyes are disproportionately large for her rather small face and her fur is long and the color of a double expresso. I've never been successful at photographing her so I was thrilled she sat long enough for the sketch. She may very well be the subject of my next painting while I sort out the gesso issue.

Fun With Elements 6.0~Pt. 3

Kinda cool...huh?

Using the slide indicator below Angle you can adjust the amount of twist desired.

Now for a new twist...literally. With the same image I selected the 'Twirl' filter from the effects menu. I'm not sure what I would ever do with the results of this particular effect but you never know.

Fun With Elements 6.0~Pt. 2

Using the same original image I selected 'Solarize' from the effects menu. The results look something like an oil slick on water. I converted the solarized image to black and white and discovered this is a great way to isolate the basic shapes and light patterns in an image. Even though it's now in black and white I was still able to adjust the appearance of the image by using the color slide bars you see at the bottom of the Elements window.

Fun With Elements 6.0~Pt. 1

Even smaller cells! The image almost looks fluffy now.

The same image with smaller cells.

For my first try I selected fairly large cells which created a very abstract effect.


From the effects menu I chose 'Crystallize'. As you can see, the size of the 'cells' or facets can be selected by moving the slide indicator back and forth.



Original Image

In hunting for a suitable reference for my next floral, I ran across the photo of a poppy I took earlier this summer. It's a lousy photo but I saved it because it had some interesting light patterns going on. I took the photo just before sundown when poppies tend to start closing up their petals and combined with the light, created an abstract image of sorts. Last night I put this image into Elements and started playing around.

Maine Coon Kitten~Completed

Maine Coon Kitten on Arches 140# HP paper

Dimensions: 11" x 15"

SOLD

Sorry for taking so long to post the finished piece. The paper was buckled from the poured background so I wet the back down and placed it under a piece of foamcore covered in clear contact paper and heavy books to smooth things out. It took three days to dry because the weather has been so humid lately. Today the humidity has finally come down, the paper is completely dry and I did my final corrections. The colors are a little off and the markings on his head aren't as dark as they appear in the image.

If I had known how much fiddling I would be doing to this one I'd never have done it on HP w/c paper. It just won't take the abuse. As a consequence, it looks a bit overworked IRL for my taste. In retrospect I might have 'rethunk' my palette as well. It would've worked on a more loose style painting but started to look muddy the more I went back in to adjust. As much as I hate retreading old ground, so to speak, I may just have to do this one over again and loosen things up a lot.

Maine Coon Kitten~WIP 3

I went as far as I could on the kitten before adding the background. I'd like some of the fur on the ears and head to extend over the background color so it was time to decide exactly what kind of a background suited this fella. I did a little research on Maine Coon cats and learned that their coats have evolved to accomodate cold weather conditions. I decided to create a winter-like setting by mixing up some winter colors, in this case Payne's grey with FUB, and doing a wash which turned into more of a controlled pour. I tilted my board on a 45° angle and did the left side first with the painting turned upside down. When that was dry I did the same thing on the right side with the board right side up so as not to disturb the paint on the kitten. I threw a bit of salt on while the paint was still wet to add some snowflakes and Voila! Windy winter sky. The results are subtle and not as grey as they appear in the image.

In my last post I mentioned that I wanted to increase some of the values, mostly on the stripes in the fur. There's obviously some overkill in a few areas so I will have to adjust the other stripes accordingly. There's work left to do on the ears and head and some tweaking to do on the exterior of the body.

Maine Coon Kitten~WIP 2

As you can see, I've completed the eyes and most of the facial detail. Now comes the really fun part. I've begun working with this one in a vertical position, holding my brush further down the handle as an oil painter might, laying in color and washing it down with an atomizer bottle filled with water. This produces the effect of soft, fluffy kitten fur. I plan to go back in with more saturated color to define the stripes better in a few places and also to produce more variation in values. The outermost body and head of the kitten will eventually be defined by the background color.

So far my palette has consisted of FUB, burnt sienna and yellow ochre. FUB and burnt sienna make the best warm darks and diluted(with a touch more FUB added)also produces a wonderful lavendar grey.

Maine Coon Kitten~WIP

As you can see, I have a ways to go yet. I don't really want to get into too much detail on this one but it won't be as loose as the others. Closeup of the face. Notice the eye color is so similar to a dog's. Btw, I haven't removed the masking yet.

I'm taking a big chance and posting a WIP that's actually still in progress. I don't normally do that. I have no idea if this little guy will turn out to my satisfaction but I couldn't resist posting a quick update. Last week was a busy one for me. Two trips to the printers that take half a day each, shopping to do(and I hate grocery shopping}:( ), getting work ready to deliver to the gallery...blah, blah. Anyway, not much painting went on around here. I had planned to do another dog but I kept coming back to a reference photo of a Maine Coon kitten, submitted by SNAG on WC. Finally I gave in and started painting it. This one won't be as loose as the others. IMO, it demands a bit more detail and time.



Tracey Costescu(see her blog link on my link list!)kindly gave me some pointers on using the masque pen and I've now made friends with the thing. It sure came in handy on this project because Maine Coons have lots of whiskers and an abundance of hair sprouting around their ears. I also noticed as I was painting that Maine Coons have eyes a lot like dog eyes so the timing on this was perfect. I hesitated to use mask on the catchlights in the eyes. I just don't like the results and avoid it whenever possible. However, I knew I'd be spraying water on this as I went along so I had to preserve the lights somehow. While doing the previous several animal paintings I discovered if I paint around the catchlights first, then apply my masking fluid allowing it to extend a tiny bit over the nearby color, I don't get that really hard edge. The masking fluid will lift some color when it's removed so the result is a softer, more natural catchlight.

Bassett Hound

SOLD

Here's my bassett hound. The reference photo I used is from the WC RIL, courtesy of Bigs. I'm not sure I'm happy with the background yet. It may require further tweaking. I may change the crop, too. Not sure yet. He's certainly colorful, isn't he? This is also painted on Arches 140# HP w/c paper. The dimensions are still to be determined.

Pomeranian~My First Dog in Watercolor

I used a gorgeous reference image of a pomeranian for this one that I found in the WC RIL, submitted by fancycat. I chose a pomeranian for my first w/c dog because I have a good friend that used to breed them and they're beautiful dogs. Very energetic and smart. I had never seen pups born before and was called to help out when one of my friend's females had her first litter. It was an amazing experience! Judging by the coloring in the photo, I'd say this one would be called a Wolf Sable in the pom world and by the looks of his high brushed 'mane' I'm thinking this must be a show dog.

IMO, dogs are much more difficult to paint than cats. Their noses are more complicated structurally and I found the eyes trickier to get right. I think I should practice just painting canine eyes for awhile before attempting another dog. I used a palette mainly of FUB and burnt sienna. The eyes were another story. They didn't show up well in the reference photo so I had to improvise. I made use of a tutorial on WC to help me make them believable. Getting the color correct was hard. There's even some magenta in them although you'd never know it.

Catnapping III~Tired Tonkinese

Here's another in my latest series of sleeping cat paintings. I found the reference photo in the WC RIL courtesy of Crias. Tonkinese cats have beautiful but tricky coloring to duplicate with paint. I finally went with Warm sepia, DS Moonglow, cobalt blue deep and a very, very light under wash of quin gold. I did fiddle with this one more than I would've liked but I kept seeing things that had to be tweaked. My inner control freak was nagging me to distraction this time around and I gave in more than a few times. I think for that reason I'm not as happy with this one as I was with the first two. Constant tweaking and loose style painting don't even belong in the same sentence, much less the same painting.

The background has a more greenish cast to it than appears in the image. I was unable to recover it in my photo editor.

Catnapping II~ Tuckered Out Tabby

Transparent watercolor on Arches 140# HP w/c paper

Dimensions: 15" x 11"

I found another napping cat reference tucked away in my picture albums so I thought I'd give it a try. I'm not sure where I found the reference as I've had it for awhile now. I'm pretty sure it's from the WC RIL. Unfortunately, I neglected to make note of the photographer. I don't make that mistake anymore.

This kitty is snoozing on a stone bench but I decided to leave him hanging mid-air with only a suggestion of the bench seat beneath him. I used much more color this time, as you can see. I liked the angle this one was shot at, the paw being closer to the camera lense so it appears much larger in proportion to the rest of the cat. Some may not like it for the very same reason. I fear I overworked the face and the right(viewer's right) leg. I've found the trick to painting in this style is to get in and get out and DON'T keep going back in to fiddle. The temptation to add unnecessary detail is still pretty strong with me but only muddies up the final result.

Catnapping I~Digby Takes a Catnap

15" x 11" on 140# Arches HP w/c paper

Having gotten a little tired of painting frogs, I found myself wondering what to paint next. I was going through some of my older photos and found one I had taken of Digby, one of my own cats, taking a power nap on the sofa. I love it when cats feel safe enough around me to sleep belly up. It's a cat's way of demonstrating true trust.


After I decided to use this photo as a reference I was stuck for a palette. I had never painted a white cat before and had no idea what colors to use. Except for the nose, I wound up with mostly cobalt blue deep and DS Moonglow, an old favorite of mine. Actually a white cat could be approached colorwise just like any other white subject because white tends to be very 'colorful' if you really take the time to observe it.


I also tried out my new masque pen and wasn't impressed at all. It tended to blob and even blew bubbles at me out of the tip a few times. Very hard to control the application, too. Maybe there's a knack to it I don't know about.


I do plan to paint this again...maybe several times. I was inspired by Jean Haines's cats(see link to her website on my blog list)and her wet and loose approach complete with blooms and drips.


Note: I have a nice new bottle of acrylic gesso(!)so I'll be playing with that again soon.