Painting Loosely

February 5, 2014

Painting loosely is something I work on in my paintings.  I wish I could remember who said this, but it has stuck with me  - "loose brushwork requires good drawing".    That one statement really made a difference in my approach.   I spent more time on getting the perspective correct and the drawing than I did on the painting.  Well, maybe I am exaggerating, but it took some work to get the drawing right and it is probably not perfect. 

This is a 6 x 6 and I am considering doing a 12 x 12 of this. 

Painting Loosely

February 2, 2014

These are all reminders to me about painting loosely.  It is a look that I like and includes thinking about abstract shapes and pieces of color. 

Things that have helped me to paint loosely, keep bold brushwork and bright color:

     Maintain darks in the painting  (Dream Tolle Perry's class helped me with this) because of her use of a dark transparent underpainting. If you use the "search button" top right corner of this page, I summarized her class in an old blog posting. 

     Use deliberate brushwork and lots of paint

     Keep colors clean

(These would all be good topics for future blogs.)

Here is my latest painting where I put a lot of what I learned in Dreama's class to work. 

I try to stick to the process of doing a drawing,  a study (as many as I need to perfect the color and composition) and the final painting. 

Step 1:  Thank you to Nancy Bradley for letting me use this photo.  She is such a good photographer.

Step 2:  Study (6 x 6)

Step 3: Final Painting ( 12 x 12)

The biggest change was in the colors.  Notice the accents of complementary color on the leaves and shutters especially, another technique that Dreama taught us, taking advantage of color theory and just for the pure joy of colors you love. 

30 Day Challenge

January 31, 2014

Thank you to Leslie Saeta for doing another 30 day challenge.  If you have the chance, look at this link to be inspired by the work of so many artists.  You can look at their blogs and be inspired all over again.  

I confess to not doing all thirty, maybe only 1/3 of that.  If it were not the challenge, I might have spent the month of January just trying to organize my studio and be distracted by other things. 

Here is my mini-challenge.  I learned how to do collages from Leslie's marketing challenge.  Go to "ipiccy" to make your own. 

 

This month I've been adding more paintings to ETSY and still trying to improve my photos.  At least I stopped using my phone for pictures and use my little camera.  I'm not doing that well on using a big fancy camera.  (the picture of the apples posted  on ETSY recently is one of the worst).  I 'm giving myself a year to improve. 

Learn to Paint

January 30, 2014

Part of my reason for having a blog is to include lessons and exercises that will help someone learn to paint, but with blogs that information gets lost in the archives.  I was thinking that a "search button" on my blog would help with that problem.  I hate to admit this, but I  installed one awhile ago, but forgot that it was there.  I moved it to the top right of this page.  I checked it out and it really does work.

There are  lessons embedded in old archives. 

Search for:

value
color mixing
how to start a painting
demo
color boards
exercise
Temperature
Edges
painting loosely

 (other search words work, but I know these do)

The topics are on one of my pinterest boards, too.  (Click on "pinterest")

Emphasis on loose brushwork - listed on Daily Paintworks

(This reminds me of the wonderful pies my mother used to make.  The napkins belonged to my grandmother.  It is a very sentimental painting for me.    My daughter-in-law has tried to teach me to make pie crust.  She makes great pies, too, and so does my son.  I am better at eating pie. 

Accidental Still Life

January 28, 2014

I brought this box home from my studio and had nowhere to put it so I placed in my light box.  I needed a subject to paint for today and was thinking of the ginger jar and just placed it in front of the box and there is was, a composition.  I liked the way the black balanced out the ginger jar and created just enough interest.

 

This experience told me to always be on the lookout for a composition, it could be right in front of you. 

Daily Paintworks Challenge and 30 Day Challenge

January 27, 2014

I haven't done that well with the 30 day challenge, more like the 10 day challenge, but this painting covers two challenges, both 30 and dpw and that must count for something. 

My own challenge is concentrating on abstract shapes and values.  The paintings I am happiest with always include that approach. 

Daily Paintworks Challenge

 

This is one that I painted awhile ago, but I have always liked it because of the abstract quality, editing out detail.   I'm gradually adding all my paintings to ETSY

January 24, 2014

I just listened something on  youtube, first seen on Facebook, that was very encouraging, especially when it comes to learning to paint.  I'm putting the link here. 

The topic is about how it doesn't really take 10,000 hours to learn something new.  It takes 20 hours to learn something new. 

The speaker breaks it down into four steps:  (of course, I was applying all this to painting as I listened).

1.  Deconstruct the skill.

2.  Learn enough to self-correct.

3.  Remove practice barriers.

4.  Practice for at least 20 hours.

LEARN to PAINT or anything you want to learn.

Thank you to the author, Josh Kaufman, of the #1 international bestseller, 'The Personal MBA: Master the Art of Business', as well as the upcoming book 'The First 20 Hours: Mastering the Toughest Part of Learning Anything.' Josh specializes in teaching people from all walks of life how to master practical knowledge and skills. In his talk, he shares how having his first child inspired him to approach learning in a whole new way.
https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=5MgBikgcWnY

I'm still learning, but I know I've put in 20 hours.

Painting the same thing twice

January 22, 2014

Daily Paintworks Challenge Take #2

The DPW challenge offers ideas and lessons at the same time.   I was happy with the first one of "Max" that I did, but wanted to experiment with more intense colors, stronger values and even more color.  Last year I took a workshop from Dreama Tolle Perry who paints so beautifully and often includes her cat in her paintings. 

I included a summary of what I learned in her class in older blog posts (April or May of last year).  I decided to follow what I learned in her class by using a transparent layer first,  concentrating on big brushwork, and using lots of color. 

 

  Which one do you like better?  Please leave a comment.  I removed the "roboty thing" so it's easy to leave a comment. 

Challenge at Daily Paintworks

January 20, 2014

I remembered to do the challenge on Daily Paintworks.  It turned out to be harder than I thought.  I spent most of my time trying to get the eye right.  Once I got the darks in, it turned out all right.
I decided to stick with the tertiary colors doing this one, a favorite color scheme of mine, used even to make the black.  I just used the three colors magenta, blue-green and yellow-orange.  (more about that on earlier blogs)

Here is a link to the challenge so you can try it.  The photo is provided and it is a good lesson in understanding value.

Link

Available at Daily Paintworks or ETSY - 6 x 6 - oil on panel

30 Day Challenge

January 19, 2014

Now that I finally got my studio organized I'm back to doing a painting a day instead of one a week. 

6 x 6

Available at Daily Paintworks

 

Yesterday's painting was from a photo that I have been saving for over 30 years.   It is of my son who is now 36.  He was taking his first train ride and concentrating very hard. 

 

 

I want to paint bigger and keep things loose.  The art of Anne Blair Brown has been helpful to study.  I would love to take a workshop from her, but most are too far away for me.  Quang Ho's DVD is really good at learning to stay loose and pick the spots that need detail.