“Two Weeks.” I have visions of the huge and tall person in the movie Total Recall when the head explodes while going through customs. I decided to do a portrait, of course, I wanted to challenge myself because I thought I needed the practice. Finishing it in two weeks was a joke! For what it is worth, I just finished it. Remember, that always comes with the caveat of “I’m going to futz with it for a while longer until I’m satisfied…”
(more…)Posts Tagged ‘oil painting’
Advanced Painting Atelier Week 10 & 11 Split-Complimentary Color Figure Painting
Sunday, February 23rd, 2020Advanced Painting Atelier Weeks 5 – 7 Master Copy
Saturday, February 15th, 2020The next thing we had to do for our Advanced painting class was to do a copy of a Master Painting. I chose Miranda from “The Tempest” painted by John William Waterhouse.
I chose this painting because I thought I needed to practice putting my subjects firmly in a background. Most of my paintings are portraits, not complete paintings with a foreground, middle ground, and a background. The first thing I did was to crop the painting because I only had three weeks to complete it.
Here’s a picture of my cropped image and the beginning of my underpainting. The finished size will be 12 x 16.
Here it is much further along.
Here’s my final. It needed a lot more work and this was what I could finish in three weeks. I learned a lot. You can absolutely learn to paint like another artist. I spent a lot of time figuring out how Waterhouse created his brush strokes, how he layered paint to get effects or certain colors. I figured out that he drew/painted the figure without the dress first, I could tell by the shape of the legs under the skirts. A lot of what he paints is very loose, and that is difficult to copy. This needed probably about another 15 hours for me to be happy with it. It turned out to be a great learning experience.
Dreaming of Home Complete!
Friday, September 14th, 2018
Dreaming of Home, oil on canvas 24″ x 30″
This is my first painting from working under the tutelage of Rose Adare. I have learned so much, and I have so far to go! There is so much I love about this painting. Papa goose looks toward Maui, as though he longs to go home. Mama is keeping an eye on us, protective of her goslings, and the two babies mirror their parent’s poses as children do. The name of the painting came to me long before the mountains appeared in the background. I didn’t know why, but that was the name of this painting, Dreaming of Home.
Dreaming of Home
Saturday, July 7th, 2018As I work on paintings, they get working titles. This gives me something to file them under besides “current painting”. Sometimes the titles stick, and sometimes they don’t. This painting is about a family of Nene with the father looking out to sea while the mother keeps an eye on the observer. The babies mimic their parents’ poses. I’m still roughing in the basic colors of the painting, so please be patient with me.
Often I combine elements of different photographs to create the vision I’m looking for.
Kilauea- Work in Progress
Friday, March 5th, 2010I have 3 paintings that are in progress right now, and only time to photograph one of them this morning before I head to the bakery.
This is Kilauea, and I’m getting close. I still have to add features to the sky (read clouds) and now is the time to tweak what I need to tweak. As part of that, here is the painting in color, and another copy as a tonal picture:
My goal in looking at the black and white picture is to not be distracted by the color. Does the painting flow? Is there enough contrast to be interesting?
I’m a People Person
Sunday, November 15th, 2009I never realized it until now. I love painting people. I did a self-portrait a couple of years ago and really enjoyed the experience. You look at your self critically: emotionally, physically, and finally, as a subject for a painting without the baggage. Painting myself, I finally understood why some artists paint themselves over and over again. Rembrandt painted between 50 and 60 self-portraits through out his life.
It wasn’t until I did my hula dancer last month that I remembered how much I enjoy painting people, so, I decided to do a series of hula dancers. I figure that once I finish 6 of these paintings, I’ll be able to paint anything!
Here’s number 2 in the series:
