Tag: sunshine

After the Snow

There is a lot more “ink” these days than beer or yarn, but as far as those go, there is a lot going on in the background. I guess I will need to post some of my knitting projects or sewing projects (“yarn”). Cooking, too (the “beer” part). Paint (“ink”) takes up most of my time, though.

I am continuing with the oil paints and just love the sensuality of mooshing it around on a canvas! I also like being able to work on my sense of contrast – lights and darks – as I have done with a few pears.

When I am finished with a painting, even though I use low odor solvents, the smell lingers, more so when the house is closed up to keep it warm. Because of this smell, I have some drying shelves set up in the garage, which is pretty cold. It takes a long time for the paintings to dry unless I use Gamblin’s Galkyd Gel, and then they dry almost overnight.

Now that you know this, I painted this painting about 2 weeks ago using linseed oil as the vehicle as well as Gamblin’s solvent-free gel, but not the Galkyd. Drying time is very slow. I just got some walnut oil mixed with alkyd by M. Graham, which should speed up drying time and, I hope, give that lovely ooziness that makes oil paints a lot of fun. Maybe I will check that out later today.

I chose this subject to work on a few things: values, color, distance, depth, contrast. Overall, I am pleased with this painting. I like the brighter yellow between the tree branches on the right as I think it leads the eye in. Someone on a forum said it was too bright and might need to be dulled down a bit. That is something to think about, but my magpie self likes that but does see what the person means. But how much should that yellow-orange be dulled, and so on. Maybe I will play with it in PS.

Above is the desaturated image. I do this to look at my values. Success! Isn’t it interesting to note that the bright yellow-orange becomes a middle grey when in black and white?

I have a couple of other paintings out in the garage drying. I’ll get those out in a few days. Scanning a painting is far nicer in result than photographing as there is minimal glare. The only problem with the scanner is that sometimes the software does not like to merge the sections – luckily I have a few different ones as back up and seem to work quite well.

11×14 oil painting on cotton canvas panel; scanned on Epson V600 at 600 dpi and 48 color bit depth.

The Forest Track

Today is my fifth painting with acrylics. I felt confident enough to choose a more complex subject, using (of course) another YouTube video. I am learning a lot by following videos, especially ones that suggest brushes and colors, as well as explain techniques.

This painting is done on Fredrix canvas pad paper, 11×14. The canvas, though already gessoed, was gessoed by me. I like that step and feel it is a good way to begin a painting, much like grinding ink prior to doing sumi-e. There is a meditative element to it.

Murray Stewart, whose video I followed, painted his underlying canvas with burnt sienna. I used red ochre and found that the color is just yummy! I live where red soil is known, so it was like seeing an old friend. That said, from there I pretty much followed through the video. About half way, Stewart mentions that the basic work was done, and details were what were needed to finish the painting. I agreed, but watched through to the end.

I have been using titanium white for mixing colors, but decided to use zinc white, as I do with gouache. For gouache, and mixing colors, it is great, but the titanium is a much better choice for mixing colors in acrylics. I am not quite sure where I will use zinc white in acrylics, but I am sure I can do some research.

This video presented me with a lot of material I enjoyed learning: making sun beams, using a fan brush for foliage, dark against light and light and against light effects. More, too, simply by doing. While painting, I found that dipping my brush in water prior to picking up paint made for better painting. The brush wasn’t sopping, and the water in the brush gave enough moisture to allow pure pigment to be spread around. I also found that this helped with glazes.

So, here is Stewart’s video – he did a good job, and he is pretty darn funny, too!

Storm Above the Pedernal

Another painting on the reverse of another, again employing dampening the paper before commencing. More hake brush wet-in-wet. I wanted to catch the brilliance of the land beneath the storm as spots of sunshine break through a fast moving storm. In the Southwest, this is common and exciting to see – sometimes the landscape shifts in seconds.