Feb
01
Today was a day for making decisions and adding extra touches……
Lightened the over-all floor color by glazing Naples Yellow over it. Worked on the two paintings hanging on the museum walls.
Decided that the tee shirt was too plain without any design on it….so painted on a Superman logo and added yellow piping into the seams. Worked on the skin tone using Naples Yellow+Cadmium Red Light for lips, cheeks, and ears, added Permanent Blue Violet to it for shadow areas. The Basic skin color was Burnt Sienna+White.
This is starting to look a bit more like Caroline…need to let the skin tones dry and glaze some more color on. Realized that I’d made her shoes too small (ouch!), so corrected the fit problem.
Did ya notice the weird painting in the upper right hand corner? Made a feeble attempt at painting an out-of-focus face in the frame…..can’t decide if it’s distracting…maybe I should just make it an abstract.
Thought about putting this lady in the frame….This painting is titled Daily News by Yasuo Kuniyoshl (1893-1953), born in Okayama, Japan, migrated to the U.s. in 1906, and became a painter, print-maker, and photographer.
Thank God for Photoshop….I cropped the woman in The Daily News painting….Photoshopped it in…and yes, think I’ll paint that woman tomorrow. Wonder if an Cincinnati Art Museum experts will notice that I cropped their painting?
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Posted in Painting
Jan
31
Every month more people find my website by searching for cute butts rather than by typing in my name. I’d like to consider that a compliment…..(hahaha)…. but I know it’s because in one post I said that my nude model had a cute butt. So…..I titled this post Nudes and Plaids in hopes of driving more traffic to my website….isn’t that how it works? Sex sells?
Today I worked on getting those damn values correct again…..lightened the closest walls by painting on Greenish Umber+White. Darkened the baseboards. Spent lots of time on the statue and plinth. Notice that the NUDE statue is a bronze-ish color and the plinth is more greenish.
Painting this statue would have been the perfect time to just do an under-painting using values of Burnt Umber + White…and then glazing over it with Yellow Ocher or Stil de Grain Yellow. Why didn’t I think of that sooner?It would have saved time.
This is my 2nd attempt at painting plaid…still don’t have it all figured out. First I painted all the black lies…and let it dry. Today I thinly glazed white over the entire dress…..adding a blue-purple mixture to the portions which I wanted in shadow. Then I re-painted the black lines into the white paint. Since I was painting wet-into-wet the black lines picked up the white paint and they became grey lines. Next I went in and painted solid black lines where the grey lines crossed over each other. Also went in and painted the white squares whiter where I wanted the dress to come forward.
Does any of that make sense? Is anyone aware of an online tutorial about painting plaid material? I sure would like to find a better way to do it….but maybe there is no easy way.
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Posted in Painting, The Business of Art
Jan
28
This post is for my niece, Caroline, who very graciously posed for photographs March 2009. Sorry that it took me so long to paint you.
Yesterday I worked on adjusting the values of the walls and floor….trying to make sure that they have some variance in value…you never want everything to turn out too medium.
Caroline…this doesn’t quite look like you yet…but I’ll keep working on it. Caroline is now the most erudite kindergarten student that I’ve ever met.…and she’s still cute as a button.
I’m thinking about painting a SpiderMan or SuperMan logo on Josh’s shirt. I’m finding it a little difficult to capture the right expressions on the children’s faces…..have to use really tiny brushes to create the different lines and planes….this would be easier to do if I were painting them life size.
Started mixing Sap Green+ Cadmium Red Light with a little Naples Yellow to make a more neutral green for the Museum Walls. I’m trying to introduce more Red into the painting so that Josh’s shirt isn’t the only Red item.
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Posted in Inspiration, Painting
Jan
26
Painting is really all about getting the correct values in the right places. You can paint a face green…and as long as you get the right values in the right place….people will recognize it as a face.
As long as the tip of the nose is lighter in value and the philtrum is darker in value….then you’ll recognize the shape as a nose. FYI….the philtrum is the medical term for the cleft between the nose and upper lip. Today’s painting session was all about painting in the background behind the figures.
At this point probably none of the values are correct…everything looks a little too medium in value. However, now that I have some paint behind the figures…I can start lightening and darkening the values of the paint as needed.
Probably need to paint some type of design on the front of Josh’s shirt. It said Oshkosh Raiders…..but unless you’re into airplanes you probably wouldn’t know what that refers to. Could put a sports team on it…but that would link it too much to a specific city. Maybe a T-ball sports name…..
Poor Carolina…..she was the last thing I painted on today… I was pretty tired by the time I got to her…so didn’t spent much time painting her. I was happy with today’s efforts…..painted thick, got lots of paint on the canvas, and made some composition decisions. I think that adding some walls at different angles, and having some paintings hanging on the walls will help to establish the Art Museum location….as well as add some visual interest, and balance out the composition. Could have just painted a blank wall behind the statue…but hopefully this will add to the story line.
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Posted in Painting
Jan
24
Today I painted a plinth. Definition of Plinth: lowest part of the base of an architectural column. Learned the word when I was in Trafalgar Square in London……the statues there stand on plinths. And there’s the famous Empty Plinth. It’s the fourth plinth which has no statue…although lately they’ve been rotating displays of artworks there…which makes it no longer empty. Enough trivial knowledge?
Painted the plinth…then repainted the statue more of a bronze-ish color. And now I’m totally stumped on what color to paint the floor and walls. Think I’ll sleep on it.
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Posted in Painting
Jan
23
Started on a new painting over the weekend…being an artist means that you basically work 24/7. My husband watched football games and I went to my studio to paint…..and we both enjoyed ourselves!
The canvas is 24×30″ and this is the result of two painting sessions….I’m really liking it so far. This size canvas seems to be perfect for me to work on…it’s small enough that I should be able to finish in a week or two…yet it’s large enough that I can actually paint in all the detail that I like. Working on those 16×20″ pieces was difficult for me…I think they actually took me longer to finish because of their small size.
I’m been tending to paint the skin tone too light……so I mixed up 5 values of Burnt Sienna+Naples Yellow+ White and used the middle value for the main skin tone. Also used mixtures of Naples Yellow+Cadmium Red Light+White and added Permanent Blue Violet+Raw Umber to that mixture for the darker tones. For some reason lately I’ve been starting out painting the skin tones. This time I started with the eyes….if you can nail the eyes then the rest of the painting just flows.
Painted in the black portion of the plaid dress first. I wanted to get the flow of lines established first….when it dries then I can paint over it with values of White+Cerulean Blue+Permanent Blue Violet to define the shadow areas. Once I have the depth established….I’ll paint over it again for the black portions of the plaid. This is my second attempt at painting a plaid dress…..I gave up on the first effort and just made it a striped dress. This time I think I have a better understanding of how to do it….I fervently hope.
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Posted in Painting
Jan
23
Eve Hearing The Voice is a statue by Moses Ezekiel (1844-1917) who was an American sculptor who spent most of his career in Rome. He was born in Richmond, Virginia, was the 1st Jewish cadet to attend the Virginia Military Institute, and was a highly decorated soldier in the Confederate Army during the Civil War.
Apparently this statue was just sitting in someone’s back yard (I’m sure it was a very wealthy someone) and they decided to donate it to the Cincinnati Art Museum. Since the Art Museum wanted to display it indoors…they sent in to Jensen Conservation for cleaning. Pressure washing didn’t clean it enough…so they bead blasted it. That means they blasted it with tiny glass beads which clean it, brighten it up, and give it a satin finish without any dimensional change.
I’m finding it very interesting working on my Art Museum series of paintings…soon I’ll know enough about the Cincinnati Art Museum collection that I could be a docent! Yeah, volunteer work….another way for me to spend time not to make any money…..
This is the idea for my next painting. I’ve had the photos of these two kids hanging on a bulletin board in my studio for several years. The little girl is my niece, Caroline Boehmer. and the boy is the son of an airplane friend of ours…his name is Josh. I’m glad that I waited to paint them…I really like this composition and storyline. The looks on their faces are priceless.
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Posted in Art History, Inspiration, Painting
Jan
18
Robert Lange is one of my favorite artists….his paintings are always fresh and original. For his latest show he’s created twenty round paintings. Yep, 8″ round paintings.
They look as though you’d taken a photograph in a mirror using a fish-eye camera lens. Can’t believe the bold colors and all of that detail he managed to paint into just a small 8″ round canvas. You can see more of this series he’s titled The Observer on his website www.robertlangestudios.com. And if you’re ever in Charleston, South Carolina be sure to visit his gallery in the French Quarter.
This is still one of my favorites.
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Posted in Art Shows, Inspiration, Painting
Jan
17
Finally decided on a good name for my most recent painting……Painting Is My Passion. Definitely fits into the theme of Red for the art competition being held by Pop Revolution Gallery in Mason. Took some reference photos of paint cans and brushes that will be used in the painting.
It’s been a week since I used a palette knife to paint in the background…and the thick paint is still not totally dry.
Decided that the top right hand side of the painting wasn’t quite right…..the swirls of paint lead your eye out of the painting too much.
Kept painting and re-painting the upper right hand portion……I was trying to create a swirl where the lighter colors swirled into a darker one. However, instead of a circle I had an oblong, decided that didn’t look right….and eventually ended up painting a dark red circle around her head. This is one of those cases where I could have completely screwed up the painting….and it looks like I did. It’s rather difficult to correct a palette knife painted abstract…..it’s better if you get it all right the first time.
After supper I went back into my studio and tried to very carefully remove the dark red paint circling her head. …still managed to smear it on her face…..again. Using a palette knife can be very tricky. What do you think about the brush she’s holding? I wanted it to be large….but it looks awfully large. Guess if I had to ask the question…then I already knew the answer.
If I ever do a painting like this again……I think I’ll do the palette knife portion with acrylic paint. It will dry faster and I won’t have to worry about smearing it…or about it peeling off if it doesn’t dry correctly.
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Posted in Inspiration, Painting, Tools of the Trade
Jan
11
Wow, who knew painting could be this much fun??? Spent the morning working on the realistic portions of the painting…and the afternoon using a palette knife…..
What’s funny is that I really felt like I’d been BOLD when I painted the figure, floor, and paint cans……but it’s definitely TIMID looking next to the abstract painting in the background. What can I say? Working with a palette knife is fun….and fast. The only problem I had was when I tried to paint close to the figure….I ended up getting green paint all over the face. Now I just have to hope that the background dries quickly enough that I’ll have time to work on the rest of the painting before the competition deadline.
Thought: Maybe I should be an abstract palette knife painter. It feels much more like play when I use one.
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Posted in Inspiration, Painting, The Business of Art, Tools of the Trade