Mini Big Clouds Over the Beach- Acrylic 5" x 7"

I finished a small painting today, a smaller version of "Big Clouds Over the Beach." I guess you could call this "Mini Big Clouds." I wanted to see if I could do another one like it since I didn't make notes on colors, brushes or technique on the larger one. Well, if you scale down the size I learned that you need to scale down the brushes. I had a lot of trouble with the foreground water in this one, but didn't on the first one. Maybe I should stick to 9 x 12" instead of 5 x 7." I could probably keep adjusting things, but decided to just quit while I'm slightly ahead. I did coat the canvas board with several layers of gesso so it would be smoother. I think it helped some. There is still some glare from scanning and I probably should try to take a photo, but I'm not having any luck with that either. I tried Carol Marine's instructions for taking photos of paintings, but haven't found a good spot for lighting yet.

Breezy Beach

Here's another beach scene, but I'm not as happy with it as I was with "Big Clouds Over the Beach." It is smaller, 8" X 8" and done on a different texture canvas board. I did the Big Clouds painting on an older canvas board that is no longer available (Grumbacher) and it was really nice to paint on. I probably need to switch to gessoed artboard, but I have a lot of the regular Fredrix canvas panels in all sizes. I need to figure out how to make them smooth so I can use them. I'm working on that. It's a good thing I used the old canvas panel when I did Big Clouds or I might have given up on acrylics. I also need to make notes of which brushes I used for what and what colors I mixed to get the colors I got. 

McIntosh and Friend

 

This was more for practice than anything else. I watched a video on values and read a chapter in "Daily Painters" on values. I'm also still trying to get acrylics to look like oil paints. I learned a few things by doing this "study." It's hard to see values when the apple changes color on top where the light is hitting it. Dark red mixed with white looks chalky not lighter. Backgrounds are hard to paint when the lighting on your subject is coming from a lamp right next to it. Shadows are not as dark as you think they are and a few other things I can't remember right now, but I hope I will remember them when I paint something else again.

Big Clouds Over the Beach - Acrylic 9 x 12

 

I had a difficult time getting back to doing any painting after another trip to visit my son and family over the holidays. I watched several art videos trying to get inspiration and read an art book, "Daily Painting" by Carol Marine. (recommend it). Then I cleaned up my "studio"--half of a bedroom-- and rearranged it some and put together a stand for my laptop so I could look at a photo while I painted. It took me forever to decide what to paint. I'm so far behind on all the ideas I have, but I wanted to do something new and in acrylic paints. It seemed like I had to learn how to use it all over again after I had been using watercolors and oil pastels, but I was determined to be able to use acrylic paints so they looked like oils. I think I may have gotten that result in "Big Clouds over the Beach." At least I was happier with the results since the last time I tried acrylics. The picture is a little fuzzy because the painting was a little too large for the scanner. I tried to redo it, but it is still a little fuzzy.

Little Copper Watering Can

 

 

I finally got a chance to try out my new oil pastels by entering the Daily Paint Works "Copper Challenge." I decided to do a small still life with a small copper watering can. I almost gave up--oil pastels are difficult enough, but the copper was even harder. But I persisted and I think the can came out looking like copper. Not sure about the perspective and flower though.

New Oil Pastels

I decided I liked working with Sennelier oil pastels well enough to order some new colors. I got them about two weeks ago and haven't had a chance to use the new colors yet. Also, I needed a box to keep all of them in (and a few extras) since they were shipped in five small separate temporary boxes. I checked the art supply web sites and couldn't find what I wanted at a reasonable price. So I decided to make one. I had a metal candy tin with a lid that seemed like it would be the right size so I made pleated paper dividers to hold the individual pastels. I used Bristol paper, but card stock or some paper a little heavier than computer paper would do. On the first try, I made the dividers too wide and the pastels didn't stay in place. I also didn't have enough spaces for the new ones and the extra ones I already had.

 

So I took the paper dividers out and cut them down to three inch width and glued the pleats (which made the spaces narrower) and put them back in.Then I added some Styrofoam dividers to further corral the pastel sticks. I could have used a third paper divider section, but I just used some thin Styrofoam strips to make four sections. I tried to organize the sticks by colors as much as I could.

 

 

I had a piece of Styrofoam that fits on top of the oil pastels when the box is closed to keep the sticks from moving around in the box when carried. To the right of the homemade box, is a set of 24 Sennelier oil pastels that I already had. Now I'm all set to use my new pastels, soon I hope.

 

While I was organizing the rest of my art stuff, I made a water color brush holder out of an old plastic desk tray. I used Styrofoam strips again in the bottoms of the sections and stuck the ends of the brushes down into it. It's easier to see what brushes I have--at least the ones I use most.  

 

 



September Seascape

I did the small seascape again slightly larger on oil pastel paper, the smoother side. I was determined that I was going to learn how to use oil pastels in a more realistic style. I watched a few demonstrations on oil pastel on YouTube and then tried again. I think I learned a few things in the attempt. I used Cray Pas Expressionist, Mungyo and Sennelier oil pastels. The Expressionist and Mungyo sets have a nice selection of colors, but they aren't as easy to blend as the Sennelier; of course the Sennelier are more expensive. The secret to getting a smooth painting is blending. I tried a paper blender, paper towel wadded up, a Q-Tip, and my finger. Using my finger works best for me, but I used a latex glove so I didn't have to worry about absorbing any chemicals that way. I also learned that oil pastels do dry some so if you want to go back and do white highlights, it's best to wait a few hours or overnight to do that. I may have gotten too much green in the foreground.  Since I only have twenty-four colors in the Sennelier set I was limited in my choice of blues and greens. I will need to get more of those if I want to do more oil pastels. Not sure about that yet. My inspiration is an oil pastel painter who does animals very realistically. Her web site is petsinpastels.com and her name is Sarah Theophillus (not sure of the spelling). I also like the seascapes of Oriana Kacicek on the Daily Paintworks website, but her paintings are done in oils. I forgot to mention that I did some underpainting with watercolor, but most of that got covered up anyway.

ACEO Seascape

 

Here's a small ACEO to add to my vacation journal. It's a seascape done in oil pastel on a canvas textured paper from an assorted pack of artist trading cards by Strathmore. It's not from the same batch of vacation pictures as Beach Ballerina. It's from this September's trip to Florida. I think I'm going to have to combine photos for the journal from both trips since I didn't get very many photos this time. (I spent too much time and energy trying to keep up with my sons and their offspring at Disney World. If I stopped to take pictures, I'd get lost.) I really like the blending feel of oil pastels, but they are hard for me to control. I couldn't get the white very white if I tried to go over a darker area. I think, if I try this again in a larger size, I would leave areas where I want to put white, sort of like watercolor. I think acrylic paper would work too. The canvas and acrylic paper have a plastic type coating that lets the oil pastels blend without being absorbed into the paper. I haven't figured out how to put this in the journal since it can get smeared. I would have to find something that wouldn't stick either, like waxed paper.

Beach Ballerina (version2)

 

I decided to do a little more detailed painting of Beach Ballerina on better paper (Arches 140 lb. cold pressed). As usual I didn't quit when I was ahead and tried to "improve" the tutu and I think I got it too dark. I tried to lighten it up by wetting the paper and blotting in places but I had trouble getting the white of the paper back. I then realized that I had used an Alizarin Crimson mix for the pink/purple tutu color and, if I remember correctly, that is a staining color. I also learned that if I wait a few days and let the paper dry very thoroughly, I can use a small battery powered electric eraser and lift off some color. I think I should quit at this point before I ruin it completely.