Home Forums Explore Media Oil Painting Oil Painting – Hall of Fame Oil-from-life challenge, Oct. 2018: optional "autumn colors" theme!

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  • #462747
    Grotius
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        Welcome to October! Let’s paint from life! As always, feel free to post whatever you like — landscapes, portraits, figures, still lifes, whatever — so long as your work is painted primarily from life. This month I’m suggesting an optional theme: autumn colors! Get out those oranges and yellows! As always, the theme is just a suggestion; post whatever you like. Four guidelines:

        1. Please paint primarily from life — not from photographs or imagination. It’s okay to post finished studio works based on studies from life; in that case, please post the original study as well as the finished work.

        2. Please submit something created either last month or this month, not something you’ve done in the more distant past.

        3. Please paint in oils. That said, please feel free to post studies in any other medium, so long as you also post your oil painting(s).

        4. Please list the size of your painting and support. E.g., ‘”8×10″, oil on panel.’

        Optional: Tell us the title of your painting!

        —————–

        Unfinished works, studies, and outright failures are all welcome. There’s no requirement that you invite comment & critique. If you’d rather post without being critiqued, just say so; that’s fine by me!

        You can find older oil-from-life threads in the “hall of fame” subforum of the Oil Painting forum.

        I hope you’ll all consider posting a painting or two! Thanks.

        - Geoff.
        My website and blog: https://www.geoffwatsonart.com/

        #703718
        Grotius
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            I thought I’d kick things off with a work-in-progress that may or may not fit with the theme, depending on how the leaves progress over the next week or so. I was driving along this busy avenue and decided I had to paint it! Initially I was most interested in the shapes of the background buildings, and the light on them, so they may end up taking center stage. Here’s the ink sketch I did before painting. “Wisconsin Avenue,” carbon ink & water-soluble ink wash on paper, 5″ x 8.”

            Then again, the foreground building has interesting shapes and some cool neon, plus pedestrian traffic, so that’s another candidate for center-of-interest. I didn’t realize what it was until I packed up: an Acura dealer. So maybe I’ll re-title it accordingly, depending on how further sessions go. For now, it’s “Wisconsin Avenue,” oil on linen, in progress, 18″ x 24.”

            How much should I refine this? I sorta really like the unkempt energy it has now. I’m worried that painting more opaquely will suck the life out of it. I’d welcome your advice.

            - Geoff.
            My website and blog: https://www.geoffwatsonart.com/

            #703739
            ronsu18
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                thank you for the new thread Grotius!

                just managed to accidentally delete my lengthy (offline!) writing and now have to blurt in a hurry. love the ink! the magenta is like the soul of the city, a pulse underneath the sharp edges. what you then describe is gold, the problem capture and formulation is gold. because of that, there is no problem. from hereon it’s all endless possibilities.

                what’s left is the finishing touches, developing your signature style. i can do a rather bad but illustrative digipulation if you want? thinking minute jabs with brush edge to bring rhythm to the speed, anchor the eye. the low left dark structure will quite possibly benefit from definition, again, minute, suggested. the road area is perfect but what if there was one whisper of pink or blue, the same as in the building? maybe as a suggested shadow under the perfect cars?

                these are no solutions, just possibilities for further work. in one person’s opinion your line on top of the painting would be sweet! with a rigger or even an oil pen on top a dried work. or how about a transfer? draw on film (a cell :wave: ), trace the line with oil on the back of the film, press that onto the painting.

                endless possibilities!

                C&C welcome

                #703719
                Grotius
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                    Thanks for all those ideas, ronsu. Good food for thought! This piece could go in all sorts of directions.

                    - Geoff.
                    My website and blog: https://www.geoffwatsonart.com/

                    #703720
                    Grotius
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                        I’ll be travelling for a few days, so no oil painting for me. I will be taking along my pens and watercolors, though, so I will get my art fix in. I’ll try to post here, but I sometimes have trouble logging in with my iPhone, so if not I’ll see you guys early next week.

                        - Geoff.
                        My website and blog: https://www.geoffwatsonart.com/

                        #703740
                        ronsu18
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                            a super quick study, hour&half, maybe last chance to even remotely nudge this month’s challenge. oil on paper 7,5″x11″

                            [ATTACH]860097[/ATTACH]

                            C&C welcome

                            #703712

                            ronsu, that’s really lovely!

                            Lady Mars Orange Marmalade Stapleford
                            Moderator: OIls, Pastels, Plein Air

                            Be yourself. Everyone else is already taken. -Oscar Wilde

                            #703741
                            ronsu18
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                                thank you! ☺

                                C&C welcome

                                #703716
                                AnnieA
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                                    ronsu, I agree with Jess. It’s a lovely piece, a very sensitive rendering of the scene.

                                    Is it already snowing where you are???

                                    [FONT=Arial]C&C always welcome ©[/I] [/font]
                                    [FONT=Palatino]
                                    “Life is a pure flame and we live by an invisible sun within us.” ― Sir Thomas Browne [/size][/font]

                                    http://s3.amazonaws.com/wetcanvas-hdc/Community/images/29-Jul-2007/85002-sig-thumbnail_composite_2.jpg]/img]

                                    #703731
                                    equinespirit
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                                        Love the energy you have captured there Geoff.
                                        Who can say when a painting is finished?
                                        I might perhaps be tempted to go in with a few more darks as I really like the feel of the darks you have in there.

                                        Thats lovely Ronsu, it has a very peaceful feel to it.

                                        #703742
                                        ronsu18
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                                            AnnieA thank you! i’m glad the soft greys work, i practised them some time ago so now i knew what to do. wish there had been more time=light to paint the left side. it snowed 12cm ~ 5″ today but it’ll melt away. winter comes 16.-17.-18. of october. usually.

                                            equinespirit thank you! it was y ochre, naples, r umber, indian red, ultramarine, payne’s, ivory. (and mars black but i was just testing.)

                                            notice one thing, the birch is painted on top of the sky and yet the “skyholes” don’t look right. they look as if painted on the birch and without understanding. the rule was darker cooler and… one more thing, i forget! it simply isn’t enough to record, you need to construct the optical behaviour of perceived light. or use a 5/0 brush to draw shadows around the groups of leaves maybe…

                                            C&C welcome

                                            #703711
                                            moscatel
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                                                Ronsu, refreshing to see your painting. I heard on news there’s been snowing. Was it very cold to paint this view? I like color harmony and balance in your painting. Lovely work. Well done!

                                                #703743
                                                ronsu18
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                                                    moscatel hi! and thank you! i hope all is well and you’re painting?
                                                    it was quite drafty painting this, sitting in the kitchen looking through the window 😽, fire fizzing, crackling, humming in the stove. it snowed big wet schlops, snowball weather, slip snap and crackle your ankle-weather. the old house is almost windy before snow covers the foundation. fumes-begone weather! 😀

                                                    the greys were born from studying Roos Schuring’s winter plein airs:
                                                    https://roosschuring.art

                                                    C&C welcome

                                                    #703713

                                                    If our fall colors were actually out yet I would have painted them.
                                                    But everything is still green so I painted green.

                                                    6×8 about 2 hours, Central Park over near the Gothic Bridge.

                                                    Lady Mars Orange Marmalade Stapleford
                                                    Moderator: OIls, Pastels, Plein Air

                                                    Be yourself. Everyone else is already taken. -Oscar Wilde

                                                    #703744
                                                    ronsu18
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                                                        awwww. you have trunks. and shadows everywhere and little windows and…
                                                        that is so much in just two hours! the light is beautifully portrayed, composition brings the extremes together, the windows glistening from under the shadowed trunks. very strong mood! i also love the red underpainting peeking through, a little goes a long way enhancing the greens. yes the greens! the way you’ve varied them on the right, giving depth to shadow while shaping is so yummy.
                                                        all in two hours. oh, swoon. how do you paint your shadows? i mean, when, in your planning?

                                                        C&C welcome

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