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Bluebirds & Random Drawings
I honestly don’t feel like writing about these, because I just typed a metric tonne about that Homer drawing. But I also want to publish these paintings, because I want to document my progress. Like I said, I’m really tired after working all day, then painting, then writing a ginormous blog post… I want to […]
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Drawing Practice
I have decided to put a more concerted effort toward being a better draftsman, because of all the things I have tried, nothing has improved my paintings more than practicing drawing. I don’t know “how” to practice drawing. I have seen a thousand videos of people drawing. I’ve watched dozens of tutorials explaining perspective, edges, […]
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Monarch Butterfly: #1
Well, I am often too hard on myself when it comes to my paintings, but today, I finished a painting that I am happy with. Actually, I am very happy with this painting. I’ll go so far as to say I’m proud of this painting. One of the things that I think makes this painting […]
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Tufted Titmouse: #1
My friends Tyler and Shanti want a tufted Titmouse painting, so I went for it today. I didn’t bother taking any progress photos because I wanted to focus on the painting itself. I find that when I’m painting I get all worked up thinking about what am I going to write about on my blog […]
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Bluebird: #2
I have been feeling stuck in a bit of a plateau for a while now. I decided to take a break from painting for a bit because my lack of progress was troubling me. I then watched a video on YouTube that convinced me that I need to put more effort into understanding construction and […]
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Bluebird: #1
Ok. I have excuses. This is a painting of a bluebird. First things first: it’s awful. Ok. Fine. Now that the self defeatism is done with: what can I learn? Well, three big things jump out at me: 1. The composition is flat flat flat. I liked the effect I got with one of the […]
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Red-Bellied Woodpecker
The next painting in the series of bird paintings for my friends Tyler and Shanti is a Red-Bellied Woodpecker. I LOVE seeing this guy show up at my bird feeder, so I was pretty excited to paint him. One thing – in case you don’t know. The red-bellied woodpecker has a red head, yes. But […]
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Barred Owl: #1-4
My friends Tyler and Shanti asked me to paint some pictures of birds for them. I agreed to do so, as long as they agreed to just tell me that the final paintings were good, regardless of their true quality. (Kidding, I didn’t make them agree to anything.) The first (largest) painting they wanted was […]
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Buttermilk Falls: #3
I hate this painting. No… I loathe this painting. This painting actually made me mad at it when I was finished last night, because I knew it was ruined as soon as I laid down the first wash in the sky. I kept going likes dummy, hoping it would somehow fix itself. It didn’t. I […]
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Buttermilk Falls: #2
I bought the game Parks the other day, and was inspired by the artwork in the game. The cards contain images styled after the WPA posters for the National Parks that were created in the 1930’s. I was enamored by the designs and imagery, so I decided to try making something that fit into that […]
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Chickadee dee dee dee dee dee dee dee
I have always enjoyed watching birds. I’m not a “bird watcher” but I really do get a kick out of watching the greedy little bastards slobber at the bird feeder. I remember a field trip I went on as a kid. We went on a hike through the woods with a tour guide from the […]
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Sansa at the Window: #1
Well, after all that work, I can’t say I’m exactly happy with how this came out. But, there are some things in here that I’m proud of. The thing I don’t like, unfortunately, is the cat. The left shoulder doesn’t look connected to the right shoulder, and that disruption is enough to make it feel […]
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Sansa at the Window: Studies
I have been having trouble getting the results I want lately, and I decided this might be due to the fact that I haven’t been doing studies of my subjects before trying to paint them. So, I picked a photo on my phone that I thought would make a good painting, and set to do […]
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Along Came a Spider: #1
I don’t have much to say on this one other than I painted very carefully, with multiple layers. I started with a near yellow neutralized with a smudge of Yellow Ochre, and added layers of progressively darker values pigments. I used Naples Yellow and Chinese White at the end in a few places to add […]
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It’s all part of the journey
I have to remind myself over and over… you are only a year and a half into this. I’m a sophomore in high school… I should expect to paint like I’m sixteen. I have been running into a slew Of failed painting again. I’m not sure why exactly. For some reason I’m no where near […]
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Glitter War: Final
I bit the bullet and just went for it today, and painted that Glitter War painting my brother asked for a while ago. He lives in North Carolina, and they are in town for Christmas, so I figured if I paint it now, I can save myself from having to mail it. This painting has […]
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Glitter War Studies: Pegacorn
My brother asked me to paint a picture for his daughter, with two princess castles caught in a glitter war with flying unicorns and rainbows. I did a few studies on it last week, and over the weekend I painted the Pegacorn as a draft. I want to experiment with how to paint that because […]
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Glitter War: Studies
My Brother asked me to paint a picture for his daughter like the illustrations I did recently. I’m pretty intimidated to paint something for him to be honest, because he is such a talented and accomplished artist. (Did I mention he’s the lead VFX artist for Epic’s Fortnite?) Anyway, I took him up on it […]
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Cows on Zuercher Rd: #4
I painted this one ala prima (which means I didn’t sketch it, and I painted it in one sitting.) I did this because I felt my last attempts were constrained by the sketch, and disjointed by letting the layers sit too long before coming back to it. I think doing it this way opened me […]
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Cows on Zuercher Rd: #3
Well, time to try it for real. First, I sketched it. I’ve written so much here and here and here about this painting that I’m ok just going for it this time. I’m not going to over think it. I’m not going to stop and photograph every brush stroke. I’m going to try to put […]
