Post Your Dailies here...120 Paintings

[LarrySeiler]

Originally Posted by CaKatt

Haven't posted this week. Been a bad week for pain here, mainly due to a car accident many years ago. Finally took it up again with my Dr. and we will see what comes of it. It is good to hear that I am not alone in feeling well enough to paint at times.

Attached photo is of two projects, numbers 6 and 7. The top strip is my 10 value study I worked up after seeing what Larry had his students do in class.

There are folks that talk a talk...but lack discipline, genuine passion to succeed. Folks that are dealing with chronic pain issues, health...believe me, I do know. My wife has been on SSDI twelve years now...fibromyalgia the big culprit. Myself 100% disabled from the military...(Vietnam Era)...upgraded this past year from 30%...

You might hear or read my pushing myself...(and my wife will likely tell you I'm nuts or not respecting what limitations I supposedly have) but I'll never make judgments on others and their plights. Be kind to yourself. Set reasonable goals...with just enough out of your comfort zone where learning is the goal, but not comfort zone where health is concerned.

Yes...seems the BIGGEST most COMMON culprit to most work (90% of the time)...are issues with values.

Breaking main color groups into a dark, mid, and light value...and locking your attention to it is most critical to becoming a good proficient painter. Advancing from there are applying midtones.

Only when these have been n'er mastered would I in all reality encourage concerns with other areas of painting. Yes...brushwork is important, expanding the knowledge of color, useful...but you will not step into that echelon of true advancement if your understanding and practical application of good strong use of values be weak...!!!

Good to see you made your values strip!

[Tresgatos]

Yellow Iris Portrait.

Robert - I like your veggies -Lovely color combo

My yellow Iris are blooming so I was able to cut a stalk and bring it inside to paint. This is on 11 x 14 canvas board - Did the background first and let it dry then did the painting. Used Winsor & Newton water soluble oil paints.

I see I didn't quite crop the photo as well as I should have - the colors aren't quite true to the painting and I had to try to adjust them in Photoshop 7.

Constructive Critiques welcome.

Barbara

[Tresgatos]

Tulip Design from live tulips that are almost ready to fade away.
Pen and watercolor on Bristol paper

Barbara

[CaKatt]

Barbara, Love the shapes and the lovely soft colors in the iris portrait. The tulips made me smile. Beautiful line work in the leaves and cool perspective on the flowers.

Thank you Larry, Doug, Robert for sharing your struggles. It has encouraged me. For many years I have looked forward to having an 'empty nest' and spending more time painting and improving. These last months been so discouraging as I hit a physical wall and I adopted the mantra, "Work smarter, not harder" I hope that you do not mind that I keep you in my prayers.

For myself I have been thinking and reconfiguring my studio space and I think it is helping. I am able to paint longer without pain (YAY!) Unfortunately I am frustrated by my painting.

Larry, you said: Yes...seems the BIGGEST most COMMON culprit to most work (90% of the time)...are issues with values.

Breaking main color groups into a dark, mid, and light value...and locking your attention to it is most critical to becoming a good proficient painter. Advancing from there are applying midtones.
(Sorry, I'm not sure how to show a repost. Will have to figure that one out) Main color groups? Do you mean masses, as in a mass of trees or a hill. Are mid tones different from mid values?

I am self taught and I am always looking for learning sources. Where can I find this information?

The following painting is what I have worked on for the past couple of weeks. It is a very different painting for me in that there is no direct sunlight and right now that is really bothering me. I've also altered a couple of details from real life in an effort to improve the painting, which I'm not used to doing and I'm not sure I've done a very good job of it. I see the foliage still needs work (It's amazing how seeing a painting on screen makes the errors pop up). After seeing Larry's comments on getting values down clearly I desaturated the photo and see a few more spots that need work. There is hope for it yet. Any other suggestions?

#9 Kitchen Window, oil on panel, 11"x14"

[Tresgatos]

Hi CaKatt - thanks for your feedback. I had made two attempts to paint the tulips that bloomed in the pot I purchased last week and I wasn't happy with either one (one in oil and one in watercolor - didn't bother to post them). Didn't finish working on either one. So last night I really wasn't up to attempting another serious painting and tried a design instead. It's kind of a fun quirky piece before the plant utters it's last gasp.

I'm not accomplished enough to give any real constructive feed back except to say that I agree with you on putting in some direct sunlight on one wall or the other. Although it appears there one wall is somewhat lighter than the other and perhaps it would be the one wall you would want to add sunlight to?. How much, etc. not sure?? Right now I do like your painting a lot.

Barbara

[Tresgatos]

The petals on the tulips make such interesting shapes as they fade away. I did do another one from the live plant that is dying. Not sure what to do with the bulbs when then are done. Tried some outside from last year and all I got was leaves and a few tiny blooms that never really opened. I live in the desert and so guess it is way too hot over the summer. I'll have to do some more research.

So here is my second design on an 8 1/2 x 11 inch Smooth Bristol paper, pen and watercolor.

Barbara

[CaKatt]

Barbara, Love your pen and inks and to see the progression of the flower blooming and fading. Would love to see what you would do with iris in pen and ink.
Katt

[firesignart]

I have been immersed in a web design course so I have not been painting. Finally it is over and I plan to paint every day! Here is one that I did inspired by the challenge on www.dailypaintworks.com with a limited pallet of cad yellow med, white, black, ultra marine blue, alizarin crimson.

The painting shows a bit more yellow than the real one which reads more as white. 6"x6" acrylic on linen

[firesignart]

sorry this is closer

[CaKatt]

Firesignart, I like the texture of the paint in the first post. Nice work.
A couple of quick plein air studies. The one on the left is using a brush for the first time in years and really struggling. I had also laid down a coating of Bob Ross liquid white to start to see how it went. Bleah. I won't use it that way again. It muted everything out. also did not have a clue as to what to do with the background.
In the second I managed to set up one of those still life black boxes with a light that Larry showed in Foundations class. Someone help me out and tell me what they are called. It made a big difference. Used both palette knives and brushes with attention to shape, negative spaces and foremost value. Still need to desaturate and see if the value holds.

#10 and #11 5"x7" oil on panel

[callady]

I've thought for awhile that I NEED to paint something daily so here's my first one. 9 x l2 in pan pastel and stick pastel. My epidendrum/epiphillium is starting to bloom....can't remember the correct name....sorry. I started out very precise but with music playing I got carried away. I think that's why my pan pastels always are messy looking!

I would appreciate constructive criticism so have a go at it.

[LarrySeiler]

Originally Posted by Tresgatos

Barbara

Barbara...

the neat thing with the near abstract background...the hint of other flowers, etc., is that it causes the flower front and center to feel like its sitting in our laps! Its a real lesson in painterly realism...and what can be got away with as an illusion! Very nice.

[LarrySeiler]

Originally Posted by Dougwas

Here is #23.



Doug

Pretty decent work, Doug... a reminder I suppose, a caution (?)...and that is what makes a painting stand out from others is variation. Not a gazillion things that vary or are added, as where everything is shouting nothing gets heard, but...surely in an image bombarded world...we have to have juxtaposition...variation..



here...each area of space is a horizontal that exists on its own, none invading another.

Its possible, that a reference photo, or a location set up on...is accurately represented by such...but, if the aim is to produce images that compel the viewer to stop in his/her tracks and take the work in...then one space needs to invade another...

[LarrySeiler]

Originally Posted by robertsloan2

Storm over the Hills
8" x 10"

I like the compositional design of this one Robert...and distribution of mass/weight...space. A nice piece...values, contrast!!

[LarrySeiler]

Originally Posted by CaKatt

Larry, you said: Yes...seems the BIGGEST most COMMON culprit to most work (90% of the time)...are issues with values.

Breaking main color groups into a dark, mid, and light value...and locking your attention to it is most critical to becoming a good proficient painter. Advancing from there are applying midtones.
(Sorry, I'm not sure how to show a repost. Will have to figure that one out) Main color groups? Do you mean masses, as in a mass of trees or a hill. Are mid tones different from mid values?

As an artist...I know folks will intimate or use the word "tone" to describe a number of things. As an instructor...I think much differently about tone. Here is a past Wetcanvas post I think you'll find interesting as I share a "tone wheel" and would be a good thing in a future webinar to spend some time on...

http://www.wetcanvas.com/forums/show...3&postcount=95



Values...if you get a sense of what this tonewheel is showing, is much different...

There is hope for it yet. Any other suggestions?

#9 Kitchen Window, oil on panel, 11"x14"

I really like this...and my thinking is, this could be a subject of varied moods...like Monet's haystacks. The distant wall in deep shadow with the wall on the right brightly lit. As is more subdued light...even a nocturnal.

Very very fine, IMO...!!!