Twisted Pine - Day 4

Another hour today. Started in on the forest background to the lower right, and did some more work on branches, etc.

Twisted Pine - Day 3

Another hour today, focusing primarily on the background forest in the lower left. I was going to go in with a rubber shaper and blend it all together, but when I stepped back I decided it didn't need it. (At least not yet. Who knows how I'll feel the next time I'm working on it.) I also did a little work on the placement of pine branches.

Twisted Pine - Day 2

It has been awhile! I've been sketching, but between working on the comic, cleaning my house, finishing A Song of Ice and Fire (well, finishing all that has been published to date), and various other things, I haven't had a chance to work on my current painting. I started to lay in some finer details in the pine branches. I spent an hour on this today.

Twisted Pine - Day 1

After I finished working on the Rose piece, I decided I needed to play around and be a little more expansive and experiment with new techniques. So I broke out some cheap Canson watercolor board (which I had never used before -- after I bought them, I read somewhere that they tend to buckle...and I now have first hand experience of this!), dug out our bottle of rubbing alcohol from the cabinet beneath the sink, and got to work. First I blocked out some basic shapes to get the value pattern down:

Then I took a large-ish brush and made a wash out of it with rubbing alcohol:

Then, after that dried (and after I tried in vain to eliminate the slight buckling of the paper), I started to lay down some pastel on top of the underpainting. Now it looks a bit more like the woods, and less like deep red blobs:

I spent about an hour and fifteen minutes on this in total today, not including research and setup. I'm looking forward to playing around with this piece some more!

Resurrected Painting Number 3: Rising Tide

You might remember this one from back in March. I didn't do much to this one -- just cleaned up the clouds a little bit and made some minor revisions. The largest change is in the photo quality! The first was taken with an iPhone -- the second with my DSLR. Here's the previous version:

And here's the revised version:

Resurrected Painting Number 2: Connemara Lake

Here's the first version:

And here's the revised version:

This is one of the paintings that is now hanging at my local wine shop, Vinifera.

Resurrected Painting Number 1: Sunrise

I went through a bunch of my old portfolios and exhumed some of my old pieces. What better way to get over my fear of making mistakes than to work on paintings that are already mistakes? Here's the original:

A few days ago I starting work on it and completely scrapped the mood:

And today, I finished it off:

I am definitely happier with it now than I was when I started, and I think it might just be frame-worthy. Probably not juried-show-worthy, though, unfortunately. I realized this morning that I have an entry deadline next Monday...so I need to decide whether I want to actually enter that show or not, and if I do, I need to scramble to get something done for it!

Sea and Sky - Finished

I've decided that I need to be done now. I spent a half hour today cleaning things up, and it's time to move on.

Sea and Sky - Day 10

I added some complexity back into the waves...might be too much, need to think on it. I also lightened the figure a little bit and played with the reflections in the sand.

It's very close to finished. And even if it isn't my best piece ever, I need to let it go and get something new on my easel! 1.3 hours today.

Sea and Sky - Day 9

I think I am somewhat happier with the figure now. I think. Might be a bit dark, although this photo is definitely not the greatest.

1.8 hours on it today.

Sea and Sky - Day 8

Still more agonizing about the figure. 1.4 hours.

Sea and Sky - Day 7

Just a quick little session today. Trying to adjust the figure so it looks less stiff.

Sea and Sky - Day 6

At long last, more work on this piece. I'm honestly not sure if I want to do much more to it or not. I added more detail in the water, and added more layers to the sand...and then I decided I didn't like it, and smoothed out a lot of the detail work. What's left is something simple and elegant. I think I like the way the sea melts into the sand without a clear delineation.

I need to sleep on it. In any case, 1.2 hours today. Sorry for the slightly grainy photo.

Sea and Sky - Day 5

Ok, just 0.9 hours today...did some more work on the ocean and the beach. I think I can finish this before the end of the week.

Sea and Sky - Day 4

Just 1.3 hours today...I spent much of my day designing business cards (finally). However, in those 1.3 hours I made the major decision to include a person in the landscape. I actually don't think I've ever done that for any of my longer pieces. Sketches, sure. But time-intensive stuff? Nope. This photo came out a little dark. Ah well.

Sea and Sky - Day 3

Man, I like painting clouds. I think that part of the painting is pretty much done now. 2.1 hours today. Next up: the ocean! And sand. And a major decision: whether to put a person in there or not.

Sea and Sky - Day 2

Another hour today, focusing on the clouds and the mountains. I don't think I can use fixative with this piece. It darkened it WAY too much. Maybe if I use white paper, I can use fixative, but with darker surfaces it is no good. Ah well. It was worth a try.

Sea and Sky - Day 1

New piece! Finally! To be perfectly honest, I haven't the faintest idea exactly how much time I spent on this today. If I include figuring out which reference photo to use and setting up the surface and finishing up my pastel cleaning project and all that, then I spent a good three hours (perhaps more)...but in terms of time spent putting pastel to paper? I'd say probably about 1.5 hours. Maybe 2.0. So I'll call it 1.7 for the hell of it, and call it a day.

I'm giving a new surface a try -- this painting is on Richeson Unison pastel board. It's extremely gritty. Good for holding layers; not so great for blending! I am also going to use fixative with this piece, although this photo was taken before fixative was applied. Hopefully applying the fixative won't make too much of a difference, although at this stage it doesn't much matter.

Stream - Finished

Did some more edits later in the evening...it is now done!

Stream - Day 20

And of course, I decided to wipe all that turbulence out and have at it once more. An hour and a half today spent obsessing over this turbulence nonsense. Again. It's getting a little ridiculous; I have to just let it go, make peace with the fact that it isn't a perfect painting. I made it much more subtle. Not sure whether that's good or bad, but however it looks tomorrow is how it will remain...Might work on this some more later today. Not sure yet. Need to let the dust settle, quite literally.