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Farm Road: End of Year Four
This year I posted fewer paintings than any of my previous years. There are a few reasons for this. First, I painted less. I spent a good bit of effort this year on practicing drawing. I tried learning more about perspective in particular, because I want to be able to depict the things I’m trying […]
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Proko Challenge: Landscape Thumbnails #2
This is the second post about the Proko Landscape Thumbnails challenge. The challenge was to submit five landscape paintings, each 2 inches wide by 2 inches tall. I started this painting off wanting to paint trees in the distance using wet-in-wet. I tend to do this often, but in my mind, there is this technique […]
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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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Ray Hendershot Exercise: Lighthouse #1
I have been absolutely stuck for the past few weeks. Every time I sit down to paint, nothing comes to mind. Nothing inspires me, I have no intention. But, just as an act of discipline, I paint anyway. The results are nothing to write about. It’s all very ugly, muddy, cliche… just nothing that I’m […]
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Great Tree Off Cantongawa: #1
I am trying more and more now to find my voice. I look online and see paintings that I admire, and I find myself trying to paint like them. But, I don’t find much success with Joseph Zbukvic’s silvery greys. I am never restrained enough to implement Alvaro Castagnet’s flare of colors. I can’t get […]
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Ray Hendershot Exercise, Fieldstone Building: #1
Yet another successful painting from Ray Hendershot’s “Texture Techniques for Winning Watercolors.” I was getting really down on myself recently because the paintings I was making were all turning out muddy and gross. This exercise helped me learn patience. The more I paint through this book, the more I learn about how to rely on […]
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Ray Hendershot Exercise, Clapboard Siding: #1
This weekend I decided I would take my own advice, and paint from the book. I decided to paint from one of the books that I have because trying to learn from my own failures has been pretty discouraging. I’m only about a quarter of the way through Ray Hendershot’s “Texture Techniques for Winning Watercolors” […]
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Poplars at An Imagined Stream: #1
I have long been inspired by seeing Van Gogh’s “The Poplars at Saint-Rémy.” When you see photos of this painting, it looks almost drab, and lifeless. I don’t know if the Cleveland Museum of Art recently had it restored, or if the photos just simply can’t do it justice, but the painting in real life […]
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Nimisila C-6: #12
This is my attempt to paint this scene from Dock C-6 at Nimisila Reservoir. If you are curious about my previous attempts… Attempts 1-4 are here. Attempts 5-7 are here. Attempts 8-9 are here. Attempts 10-11 are here. Number 12: OMG… I think I’m getting close. So I decided to try to follow the recipe […]
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Wave Crash
Ok … GUYS! I’m proud of this one. That means if you don’t like it, shut up. Because I’m fragile. Call me a snow flake, a wuss, whatever. I don’t care. I just know that I like this painting, and I almost never actually like my work. If you tell me why it sucks, I […]
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Ray Hendershot Exercise: Birch Trees
Tonight, I painted the next exercise in Ray Hendershot’s book. I don’t know why Birch trees feel like a very trite subject to me – but they do. I think every painting of birch trees is essentially the same thing – masked off trunks with something colorful or dark behind them. I think Ray Hendershot […]
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Caldwell Hillside: #1
I haven’t painted in a while, in large part because I haven’t felt inspired by the ideas in my head. There is a photo I have had in my recent photos that I’ve wanted to paint. The photo wasn’t great in terms of composition, but the memory of the scene was very strong. I remember […]
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Backrun Exercises
I wanted to explore some exercises to learn more about how I might be able to control and use backruns. What is a Backrun? Call them what you want: blooms, blossoms, backruns, cauliflowers, it doesn’t matter, we are all talking about the same thing. (You could argue that a back run is different. Fine. Be […]
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Cloudy Sky: #4
I decided to try that painting again. I was going to try some exercises with back runs, and water, but before I knew it I was painting. So… here it is. There are some things that I really like here, and some things I definitely want to do differently. But, I think I’m done with […]
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Rocks at Wooster Memorial Park
I took a walk in the Wooster Memorial Park after work one day this past summer looking for something to paint. As I wandered around the creek, I saw a rocky outcrop about twenty feet up a hillside. Just then, my daughters FaceTimed me, and I waved the phone around like an idiot, showing them […]
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Lowery Lake Exercise: #2
I painted a lake cottage from Arnold Lowrys book today. I think painting from a book is a good idea for beginners like me because you get to compare what you did to what a professional artist has done. You can do the same thing by trying to create a “forgery” of another artists work, […]
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Downhill at Dawn: #3
I liked my painting on the 1/16th sheet enough that I decided to try the same thing on a half sheet. I’ve never painted a half sheet before, so this was a little new. The one thing I knew at the outset was that no matter what, I couldn’t let myself overwork it. I knew […]
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Abandoned Shed: #1
I don’t have much motivation to write up on this one. Which is unfortunate because I liked it. But I did take one photo of the techniques I used. Basically, I painted one color. Then, while that was still wet, I dabbed pigment into it to get some variance. Once that dried, I then wetted […]
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Creek Bridge: #1
Tonight, the goal was to paint a creek, paying attention to perspective, and atmosphere. When I started, there was no bridge in my mind, but a bloom seemed to suggest one, so I went with it. I don’t have a reference sketch or photo for this one, I’m just kind of laying down layers and […]
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Fall: #2
Before I start, I should say thank you to Liron Yankonsky for a Video he posted on YouTube recently. The study he did helped me a lot. I really focused on clean washes, and simple composition as a result of watching that video. I decided to paint another autumn tree today. This time I wanted […]
