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How do you get to Broadway?
A long time ago, in 1997, I wanted to write better poetry. I would regularly get together after school with my friend Kevin Vincent. We would go to the grocery store and buy a few apples, and some limes. Then we’d go to my house, eat the apples, chew on the sour limes, and compare […]
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Winnie at the Piano: #2
I tried that painting of Winnie tinkling on the Piano again today. I paid very careful attention to the proportions in my sketch, which helped the painting significantly. However, I am starting to feel like sketching so many details at the beginning results in “coloring” instead of painting. By penciling in every shadow and crease, […]
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Winnie at the Piano
I took this photo of my daughter playing around on the piano a while ago, and I have wanted to paint it for some time. Today, I decided to sketch it out, and give it a go. I don’t paint figures often, so I don’t feel that I paint them particularly well. But I’m reasonably […]
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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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Canton Bridge: #3
I went for another try at that city Bridge. I should probably go out and paint from life, instead of making this up from my imagination, but it’s really freaking cold outside. I wanted this to read like it was painted here in Canton, Ohio. Even though this isn’t a real bridge anywhere in Canton, […]
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Canton Bridge: #1 & 2
I guess I’m on a bridge kick? I haven’t practiced urban scenes very much lately, so I decided to give it a shot yesterday and today. On the first one, I messed up on the perspective of the buildings in the background. On the second one, I messed up on the value, and tonality of […]
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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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Log Bridge: #1
I wanted to practice figure painting a bit more, so I invented a scene, and tried to paint it. My idea was to try to paint a picture of a guy carefully walking across a log. It’s something I’ve done more than a few times fishing, but I’ve never photographed it, so I had to […]
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Tree Sketches
I wanted to explore some ideas for how I might style the trees in this painting that I’m going to do. I think I know how I’ll tackle everything else (at least I have a strategy for how I plan to attack it) but I haven’t decided on a style for the trees yet. This […]
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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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Gervasi Gazebo: #3
I’ve been getting frustrated with a lack of progress again. And this time it’s because I can’t seem to get the effects I want. I’m trying to emulate other painters because I admire their work – and I never get the same kind of results. I know, I know – paint the way you feel […]
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Gervasi Gazebo: #2
I tried to execute my plan on my second attempt. I went off the rails in a few places. I’m following the “five steps” from Tim Wilmot’s video. The steps he recommends are pretty much the same steps I see again and again. Some say: “paint dark values over light values” or “sketch large shapes” […]
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Gervasi Gazebo: #1
When I was at the Gervasi Vineyard a while ago, I took a photo of a gazebo because the light was striking in an appealing way. I wanted to paint this gazebo, so first I decided to take my time to create a strong sketch/value study. I particularly liked this sketch, and decided I would […]
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Dairy Farm: #1.1-3.4
Ok, I’m interested in painting the Dairy Farm that I found yesterday. The problem is, I hate the paintings I did yesterday, and the photo I took for future reference is pretty awful – because the fence cuts right through the subject. I try to take photos quickly when I start because I want to […]
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City Rach: #1
So… on to the first attempt at a final draft. Here’s the recipe I had in my head at the beginning: Mask figure highlights Paint sky in a light, flat wash. Paint the window frame. Warm with a drop of cool in the upper left corners. Paint the wall cool up top, cool down the […]
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City Rach: Compositions
I decided to attempt a few different compositions, one left, one right, one dead center, and one with an exaggerated perspective. Each one of these is as simple as I could make it, just a few flat washes. This helped me practice flat washes, and helped plan out the order I’ll need to use to […]
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City Rach: Deepart.io & Exercises
I messed with the photo of Rachel in the window in Photoshop a little bit until I came up with this modification of the composition that I think I like best. I won’t print this and paint it, I just wanted to get a quick look at how reordering, stretching, etc might improve the photo’s […]
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City Rach: Value Studies
I took this photo of my wife a few months ago when we were in Pittsburgh to watch a live show of My Favorite Murder. It was a rare weekend away for us without kids, and it was very needed. I met Rachel when she lived in Pittsburgh, and as much as I give her […]
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Camping Castles: #1
My friend Branden took a picture of Tyler and I playing Castles of Burgundy on the last day of our camping trip. I liked the photo quite a bit, and decided to paint it. First, I cropped the photo, and edited it to strengthen some of the shadows and contrast, and then made it black […]
