Painting #7: Tangelo Tango

Oil, 6"x 6," completed in 2 sessions

I'm attempting to loosen up and paint a bit faster, focusing on the big shapes, and using a bigger brush.

What I like:
- composition is relatively interesting
- the tangelo--I feel like I achieved some turning of the form
- some of the folds of the dishcloth

What I don't like:
- the lemon: for some reason it was pretty difficult for me
- the rest of the folds
- the background is too green & competes with the subjects

What I learned:
- my first time using Neo Megilp for a medium & liked it
- to knock back the background, gray it down
- take the time to do a quick value study beforehand
- practice drawing folds to get familiar with them
- try to relax, lol!

Onward & upward!:)

Painting #6: February Pear, Oil, 6"x6"

Okay!  First post done in oils.  Pretty quick study.  I blocked in the colors, then refined.  Here it is:

What I like:
- love the color combo of orange, green & blue
- I like how easy the composition was
- the variation of the background orange
- I didn't labor over this one (& perhaps it shows, LOL!)

What I don't like:
- the detail on the tablecloth is too rough, perhaps
- the pear is pretty rough
- it looks like the tablecloth is vertical

But overall it was fun.  I wasn't able to use any medium, so made do with just the paint.  Hmm.  I need to figure out this medium stuff, because I like my paints to flow.

#5: A Riff on a Tahoe Tiger Lily

The actual size of this wildflower we found in Tahoe is about an inch and a half in diameter.  When I took the picture, I didn't realize there was a bug inside it, so of course I had to include it.  As always, there are parts of this I like and parts I don't.

Here's what I like:

composition is pretty good
colors are great
like the highlighting
I feel like I did a better job with shadows on the petals


And what I don't:
the interior of the flower is a bit messed up
There are water marks outside the leaves that I must not have wrung out my brush enough to avoid

Here's what I learned:

How to lift off paint to get the highlights

Not to stick with just aureolin yellow and alizarin crimson, but to introduce quinac gold to get more variation in the oranges

I'm doing a better job of figuring out how to slightly alter the values to get more realistic shadows on the petals

I tried to make the leaves fade more into the background by roughing up the their lines after I removed the masking fluid
----
Hmm..  Not sure if I should've added more background leaves, but I felt because the flower was so busy, the background should be simple

#4: Hydrangea

Just finished this the other day.  There are obvious issues with the composition, but I love the color.  Here it is:

Like:

color
drawing (not the composition)


Dislike:

composition
every petal on each flower is different

Onward & upward!  Still learning...

Painting #3: Stargazer Lily Study

I went a little crazy with the dots, but I like the repetition.  Here it is:

Things I like about this:

I like the background
I like the color
I like the composition

Things I don't like:

Probably too many dots ;)
Some of the background leaves are bad

Things I learned:

I'm getting better at softening edges
I felt a little more in control (!)
Though it sat around for awhile, it went faster
Next time, I won't wet the paper and then do dots--or lines, as they fade into nothingness!!

What I'll do next time:

Plan the background, not do it willy-nilly (like I did here)
Get a photographic reference

Overall, I am beginning to see improvement.  And that's a good thing.:)

Painting #2: Watercolor Iris

So here is painting #2, "watercolor iris."  My irises bloomed for the first time this year, and I took lots of pictures.  I also spent time sketching the irises themselves.  I transferred the sketch I liked best to watercolor paper, and then started to experiment.

Things I like about this:
- Some of the wet-into-wet passages in the background are cool
- There are parts of the petals that do look like they curve
- I really like the waterdrops (they were easy, too:))
- The drawing itself is good
- The composition is good, too
- Some of the veining
- Some of the shadows

Things I don't like:
- I screwed up the wet-into-wet in the background
- I had a beautiful wet-into-wet passage on the back upright petal that I then wrecked by accident
- I didn't get the folds right
- The background shifts abruptly which makes no sense--but was fun to do!!
- The whole thing is way overpainted
- Screwed up the shadows
- The orange detail needs to be better

Things I learned during this:
- I started to really get a feel for wet-into-wet
- I got the hang of veining using a rigger
- I learned how to do waterdrops thanks to Birgit O'Connor's great book
- I need to look at the picture upside down more
- I need to have the photograph close to the painting (so I finally moved the laptop)
- I learned how to lift out paint
- I learned how to rewet a passage and do wet-into-wet again
- I need to better reserve my whites
- I need to spend more time sketching the details before I paint
- I need to have a definite light source (this was taken on a slightly overcast day)
- I told myself to relax and have fun, so there was no pressure

So, overall, not too bad for a newbie.  I'm starting to see a bit of progress.

Painting #1: Groovy Tulips

Wow.  What a roller coaster it has been to come to a close on this.  I didn't like it, then I loved it, and THEN I ended up hating it.  I have battled tears, negative thoughts in my head, and been frustrated beyond all measure because I couldn't see the picture well enough to paint from.  What's that, you say?  Isn't this supposed to be a still life?  Well.. yes.  It started out that way.  But when the flowers are dying and one is nowhere near done, then pictures must be taken and then the complications begin.  Here is what I liked and didn't like about this:
Like:
- the colors
- the funkiness of it
- the composition
- that one son said he liked it
- and the other said, after looking at it,
- "Mom, the 70s called...they want their painting back!"
LOL!

Dislike:
Oh, where do I begin?
- that it took me too long.  I need to limit myself timewise
- most of the tulips are terrible
- not enough variation in the greens (too much sap green, I think)
- bad reflections
- no shadows...even though there weren't any
- bad rendering of the glass vase
- that it's really not done (!) - the greenery, that is, and the tulips aren't fixed

So?  What am I going to do differently on Picture #2?
- limit myself timewise (that's easy)
- simplify my composition
- paint from life, not from a computer screen
- do a thumbnail and value sketches 1st
- switch to oils?  Hmmm... maybe now is the time.:)
'Til next time!