A quick pen & ink sketch of my grandson Avery laying on the back of our couch. Did a painting from this sketch.

Improving

I've posted these two paintings to illistrate a point... The bottom piece was one I did about 5 years ago from a photo I took in the Florida Keys. It was one of my first painting efforts ever, done in acrylics. The top piece is an oil painting I did last week in our class, from a photo Jerry took in Hawaii. I think I've improved somewhat, and can attribute that to 2 things: first, taking some art classes, and second, doing lots of paintings!

There is simply no substitute for either of these methods to improve, as has often been pointed out to me, no one creates in a vacuum. To get better you MUST view others' art, get feedback, create together, THINK about how others do it. But even more important, you MUST draw, draw, draw, and paint, paint, paint.

Self Portraits.

After the classes in portrait painting, I've been all into portraits, but have only myself as a model. So... last week I took a mirror into my studio and did a couple of self portraits. These are 2 of them which look a little bit like me. I have found that I am much more comfortable doing portraits from life than from photo, which surprises me.

I have also been doing some sketches from my living room window. Check out Urban Sketchers - Indianapolis for some of these!

Shannon

My beautiful daughter-in-law posed for us when Susan Mauck stepped in for Jerry's oil painting class. She taught us her portrait painting techniques, and after one week of dismal results, I was able to paint this the second week. Although not a very good likeness of Shannon, I'm please with the painting overall, and really excited to practise my new portrait painting skills!

View From My Studio

I'm Back!

Our computer is up and running again, HURRAH!!!! I now have a backlog of images to post, but will try to go slow, no need to bombard you with everything at once!

I did this painting recently of my view out the window of my studio. Remember, this is mid-winter. The day was gray, but not completely overcast, so there is some lights and shadows contrast on the buildings, but the color is very low-key, with not much detail visible. I think I've captured the feel of the view I could see.

Down, Not Out!!

For anyone following my blog, it must seem that I've fallen off the face of the earth.  No, I've just fallen off the world wide web.  Thanks to a nasty virus, my computer crashed last week.  It is now at the computer hospital being taken care of by the geek squad.  No access to my photos or the internet.   Currently I'm on the computer at work (the hospital) in order to have internet access.  Hopefully, in a few days we'll have our own baby back, complete with photoshop elements and my saved artwork!  Until then,  happy sketching to all!!!

Finished At Last!!

It's done!  The differences from the last time I posted this painting are subtle, but I think they make a difference.  Notice the sky...

Now, on to something new, maybe a skyline of the city?...