Thursday, November 09, 2017

My New Goal: Learning to Paint in Oils


I'm in the third week of a new portrait painting class, to learn oil painting. This has long been a goal of mine.

In weeks 1-2, instructor Ismael Checo had me use only 2 colors (burnt siena and ultramarine), plus white. Today, I got the OK to put out more color . Yikes! The model ended up looking like he has a bad sunburn:)

Figuring out proportions, mixing colors and using the brush is a huge challenge. Mega respect for artists who can paint in oils. Anyway, we'll see how it goes next time!

Tuesday, November 07, 2017

"Storm Coming" (Pastel, 12" x 16" )


This beach scene, with it's dark and dramatic sky, was a challenge. I actually painted it twice. Still not happy with it.

The first attempt didn't work, so I scraped it down and tried again. The second attempt wasn't much better. I may never frame it or hang this painting, but at least I didn't give up!



Wednesday, November 01, 2017

"Into the Woods" (Spring Landscape, Pastel on Sanded Paper)

After painting a few figures, I decided to work on a simple landscape. I cropped it digitally, since the original 18" x 24" landscape wasn't successful. That's the advantage of working on paper!

See below, to see another cropped image, and the original painting.