Susan's Musings (on the muse) and Painting Tips

How to paint Orchids and Tapestry

2009-12-05T12:46:00.001-08:00

Ok, Ok, I know it's been a long time since I published. But, hey, I've been studying at an atelier in Seattle twice a week and teaching all day on Wednesdays. That leaves me four days in order to be a wife, clean my house, paint two days and do homework on the fourth. I'm out of breath just thinking about it. But I'm making up for it - I've got a nice long lesson for you.

In fact, it's so long, I've opted to put it on my website so that I could organize it better for you and make it go faster for myself. It still took me three hours to put it all together, so cut me some slack. The painting took about four weeks. Here's the finished piece, now just click here for the lesson. If for any reason the link doesn't work, go to www.susanspar.com, click on the link for "Student's Atelier" and then on the link for "Oil Painting Lessons and Still Life" and then on the link for "Lesson IV: Balance. Orchids and Tapestry". See you at the web page!

How to Paint a Magnolia Spray

2009-07-29T16:29:00.000-07:00

Summers are always a very busy time for artists. It's when things really come alive in the art community. Art fairs start happening, galleries are all a buzz, art walks get under way and studios open their doors for tours. And that's exactly what I've been up to. Since I started attending atelier with Tenaya Sims six months ago, I've barely had time to paint let alone put together a lesson. And then when summer came along, well, the first paragraph says it all.

Thanks to Facebook, I've recently been connecting with old friends and one of my teenage buddies just commissioned a small painting from me. So I thought that I might as well kick off a lesson while I painted. This time I remembered to set my timer so I could take photos at regular intervals.

OK - here's the set up. My friend just wanted a spray of Magnolias without the attendant vase. Schucks! I really love painting vases, but alas, it was not to be. So the vase in the lower left hand corner will not be included in the painting. For the sake of expediency, I'll not be capitalizing the names of the paints. Now remember, the photo is for the sake of this blog. I NEVER PAINT FROM PHOTOS FOR FLOWERS! I emphasize this because it's something I'm adamant about. In fact, I almost never use photos except for the occasional landscape and then only because my bad and aching back doesn't allow for a lot of plein air junkets anymore.

I started with a sketch of the spray on a gessoed panel and then fixed it with spray fixative. Krylon spray will do for this. I followed up with a tone of raw umber - my preferred tone for floral underpaintings. Then I lifted out the lights trying to pay attention to where the shadows fell. I didn't worry too much about the stems as I paint them in last and can find them by just looking at the setup.Next I laid in a background of raw umber mixed with some cadmium yellow light, naples yellow and a tad of titanium white.

As always, I started laying in the shadow shapes keeping everything soft and not too sharp. The shadows were at this point a simple mix of ivory black, cadmium yellow and white - maybe a touch of ultramarine blue. The blue is sometimes a nice touch but not always necessary as ivory black is actually quite blue in tone. As a matter of fact, many of the masters used it before lapis blue became widely available. It's a credit to them that they managed, through a solid understanding of color theory, to make it look so blue.

The reddish tones were added by the judicious use of a little Pouzzouli Red (more about this color later). The yellow tones by the addition of a mixture of yellow ochre and white.

Of course the lights came next. Cool offsets warm and vice versa. I also used some of the background color to tie in the flowers with their background so they looked airy and not pasted on. Relative to the lights, the shadows are slightly cool. Thus the use of naples yellow and titanium white to make a warm white mixture is the trick here in making the lights pop. But here's another interesting and conflicting point - just to confuse you. Had I mixed a very small amount of ultramarine blue in with the white instead, it would have worked well also. That's because the cadmium in the shadows would have played off against the cool blue. Still, I like the way naples yellow brightens whites and I save a cool white for when I really want to throw a zinger in.

At this point I wasn't laying the paint on too thick. I wanted to keep my edges soft and add the globs of paint that would give sharper edges to the blooms after I decided where they were necessary. Things look relatively flat at this point, but hold on to your paint brushes. Things will start to improve shortly.

Here I've started to paint in the smaller flowers and buds. You can see that I've also started to add some thicker paint. Notice that I do this on the petals that are coming forward in the flowers. In order to push the ones in the back ground back, you paint those petals flatter and thinner. Thick accents thin just as warm accents cool.

Here's a closeup of the flowers.

Now on to the leaves. I generally don't carry a green on my palette but for for magnolias it's helpful to use a little thalo green. Now this is a very cool green because of a blue tint. Thalo is also a chemical color - not a natural pigment color. As a result, it has a very strong tinting strength and should never be used straight from the tube or in large amounts. I toned the thalo green with alizarin crimson which darkened it without warming it too much. Alazarin has blue in it and is a cool red. The use of cadmium red would have made the mixture too brownish (green/blue and red/orange cancel each other out). This cool mixture helped immensely when I got to the back side of some of the leaves which were a warm orangey color. Again, the play of cool against warm makes these leaves stand out.

The highlights or lighter passages on the blue/green leaves were done with a lightened background mixture.

For the orangey/brownish or golden leaves, I used a mixture of yellow ochre and touches of either naples hellow for the lighter parts or burnt umber for the darker shadows. As always, I laid in the shadows first!

Here's a closeup of the leaves.

Lastly, before I put in the stems, I punched things up a bit. The central flower was lacking color, so I warmed up the blossom by laying in touches of warm reddish tones. The color I uses is Pozzuoli Red from Rublev. It's a natural pigment but very close to burnt sienna, except it's opaque rather than transparent as is burnt sienna. However, burnt sienna should work equally as well. A bit more yellow ochre in a few places and some pinkish tones from a mixture of cadmium red light and white, and the color was right.

But I still wasn't finished. At this point, I sharpened some of the edges, deepened some of the shadows and thickened some of the lights. Then I added the center of the bloom with stamen.

The finishing touches came with the stems. These were executed with mixtures of alizarin crimson and Pouzzouli Red for the darks and touches of the leaf mixtures for highlights and some additional darks.

Here's the final piece. Hope you like it....hope my friend likes it.

"Magnolia Spray", 11" x 14", Oil on Panel

FLORAL PAINTING WORKSHOP

2009-04-17T13:45:00.000-07:00

I'm done! My new studio is finished and ready for visitors. I'll be hosting my first workshop in the new studio and you're invited!

OIL PAINTING FLORALS WITH ATMOSPHERE AND LIGHT
Ala Prima with Susan Martin Spar

Tired of struggling to make a rose look like a rose or make a sunflower shine? Do your flowers look stiff or pasted on to the background? Having trouble choosing a background color?

This workshop is designed to help you
paint soft, lilting and believable flowers
that breathe.

Learn to paint the “air”
around your florals and give them a
feeling of atmosphere and light.

You will learn to:

Design a composition that works to bring the
viewer’s eye to your focal point.

Paint a flower convincingly in just a few brush strokes.Tie your painting together with color harmonyPaint your flowers in reflective and transparent receptacles.

TO FIND OUT MORE, CLICK HERE!

Oil Painting Lesson for Peonies and Asian Vase

2009-01-15T09:05:00.000-08:00

Here's a close up of the leaves and table flowers. It's not that noticeable in the photo but I've been enhancing some of the blooms by deepening color and scumbling lites in a a few places. Tips of the petals have more color in them and I've added this in a few places. Often things that are not at first noticeable to you, become more so as time goes by. These less obvious statements can be brought out in later passes.

There's a bit of reflected pink on the side of the vase where the flowers rest against it. I've added that as well. Notice there are no shadows yet on the table top. Generally these are added even before I start a painting, but I opted to use a glazing method to put them in afterwards. I wanted to develop the leaves a bit more before I do that.

So here I've started to add some of the stems and more leaves. In order to differentiate the ones in front from the leaves in back, I've lighted some of the edges on the leaves. I'll refine these even further in the last session.

Notice the cast shadows from the leaves on the table cloth.

I felt that the peony on the left side was a bit too lit up and it was stealing the show from the larger one which is the main focal point of the painting. Even though I loved the way that other peony looked, it's never a good idea to sacrifice an entire painting for the purpose of preserving a single passage. So I mixed a glaze of the Quinacridone Pink with some green and started to knock it down a bit.
Now that the pant is dry on the other flowers, I'm free to add some modeling to some of the petals by adding more lights and darks. The lights are added with mixtures of titanium white which has high tinting strength and small amounts of Naples Yellow or the Quinacridone Pink - depending on what I'm after. If I add a white/yellow mixture, the petal will round outward. If I add a the pink, it will tend to retreat a bit. Not as much as if I cooled the mixture with green, but just enough to turn the petal away from me.

I've also done some more darkening on the apple on the left. The stems and leaves are easier to view here.

Oops. Camera is a bit tilted here. But I think you can get an idea. I've mixed some Ultramarine Blue with some umber to tone it down. A glaze mixture with the use of Maroger Medium was combined and then using a soft sable, I started to lay in the lines for the blue design on the vase. I'm careful here to maintain the structure of the vase which is not quite round, but slightly squared off. The design helps to describe the form.

The paint under the glaze is completely dry so that it's safe to put the glaze on, and if I make a mistake, wipe it out with a brush that has been wet with thinner.
I took the time here to work some more on the petals of the flower resting on the table. I've darkened some of the leaves and created stronger cast shadows from them on the table cloth.

Here I've added more details. The design the top of the vase is done by making a mixture of shadow white with a touch of ultramarine blue. Remember this part of the design is in the shadow.

I've also refined the shape and thickness of the blue lines and darkened the shadow under the vase and some of the other objects on the table.

Viola! Finito la comedia. Or, in other words, done! Much nicer when you get to view the whole piece in one shot.

The final design is in. I've heightened the lights on the vase in a couple of places by scumbling in some lighter mixture here and there. The table top is a bit more lit up where the apples are. I'm also finally happy with the peony that is drooping off to the left. It no longer steals the show and tucks back nicely with some atmosphere around it. I've darkened the table cloth toward the bottom of the picture as well.

Well, the painting is done, signed and for the most part, both the client and myself are happy with it. Hope you like it too. Thanks for stopping by. Remember, in order to see the whole lesson in one easy read, check out the lesson on my website by clicking here.

"Full Bloom"
18" x 24", Oil on Canvas

2009-01-15T09:02:00.000-08:00

Darn! Hit that button by accident! We'll pick up where I left off.

How to Paint Peonies, A Commission, Final Session

2009-01-15T08:54:00.000-08:00

It's been a few busy days. My studio is much further along than the last time we spoke. :-) and I've attended my first atelier class with Tenaya Sims. A terrific day! But I'll save that for another time. Let's get started.

In the last session I stated that I wanted to revisit the background. I felt it was too busy and so the first thing I did upon opening this session was to oil out with Maroger and then repaint the background. I mixed a new mixture with Raw Umber, Cad Yellow and a touch of Cobalt Blue to cool the mixture. It looks a bit warm here but that's the light. As my windows are now completely blocked off with plywood (they took them out to put them in the new construction), I didn't have any cool natural light to balance the overheads. I think in later photos, it's true tone will become evident. Anyway, it looks better. Don't you think? All those swirls in the background were just too distracting. This is just the right amount of atmosphere and light.

I've added some twigs here for interest. Remember that straight lines are much more attractive than lines that are curvy. In this case, the straight lines form a nice contrast to the curves of the petals and help to create directional lines for the composition. These were done with a palette knife. A little trick I learned at the David Leffel workshop. Slide the edge of your palette knife through the pant and then carefully set the edge against the canvas and pull the knife outward in the desired direction. It does take a bit of practice, but it's well worth the time investment.

2009-01-09T18:20:00.000-08:00

Just a note to let you all know that I'll be holding off on publishing the last couple of lessons on this commission piece until after it's finished. I feel it's only fair that the customer be the first to see the finished piece. There have been lots of changes since this morning and I'm quite happy with the way things are turning out. Stay tuned. I'll publish again in a few day or quite possibly by Sunday evening.

How to Paint Peonies, Day Four

2009-01-09T09:12:00.001-08:00

Today proved to be a trying one. I had contractors, engineers and inspectors banging all over the house and the constant interruptions had me banging my head against the wall and sniffing paint fumes in a vain attempt to escape it all.

But in spite of all the craziness, I did manage to get a few things accomplished. I had the curtain on the French door behind me open and so had a bit of cool light to paint by. Hence the bluish tint on the left side o the canvas. That shouldn't prove to be too much of a difficulty here as I'm illustrating the last of the flowers in this picture.

I re-entered the painting by first giving a slight blue glaze to the background to cool down some of the yellow tint in the umber background. I'm still not sure of the tapestry look and may decide before painting in the leaves to just make the background solid. It feels a bit distracting to me.
After glazing the background, I finished off the last three flowers. These are still not quite done at this point and I'll get back to them before the close of the session. It's difficult to work out all the values on the flowers until their surroundings are painted in.

Time for the apples. I started with their shadows by mixing in a bit of burnt umber and a touch of yellow ochre for reflected light. Then I was on to the shadows of the apples. I started with raw umber and some Cadmium Yellow Light mixed in. This was further toned with a little Cad Red Light. I mixed this lightly with some toned down Thalo Green for the more colorful spots on the apples. A touch of Yellow Ochre and white for the reflected light becomes evident in the next photo.

Note that an object's truest color will be on the turning edge just as the light on the object turns to shadow. The core shadow follows this. It's easiest to remember this by just noting that light washes out color and shadow obscures it.

The lights are added in here with some Cad Yellow Light, white and a touch of umber to tone the brightness (although that's hard to tell from my camera). The reflected lights are more evident here.
I've also painted in the table top, although this too will be brightened eventually. A bit of Yellow Ochre and Burnt Umber with some Naples Yellow lights up the table.

The top right hand corner of the background looks a bit warm here. Some of that may be due to the fact that the cool light from the door behind me is not falling on that portion of the canvas.

In either case, I'll need to reassess in the morning with natural light coming in evenly. I have a skylight just outside the old studio that can be used for this purpose. I use two color corrected Ott Lights additionally, but find that the skylight is best for this. I will be such a boon when the new studio is finished. I have a seven by five foot arched north light window in it. Perfect for this sort of thing.

I've started to put in the shadows for the table cloth. Notice that I've painted out the leaves here. I know where they're going and have decided that it would be best to paint them in over the table cloth. This is always a last minute judgment call for me as I often paint them together with the cloth and background. I've been taking my time here so things are developing a bit differently. Shadow color is a bit of black, Cad Yellow Light and white. I've warmed it a bit with Burnt Umber.

I simplified the table cloth and reworked it several times before I felt I could leave it for a bit and move on to the cut apples. Like everything else, I'll revisit it several times during the next painting session. The cut apples were done much the same as the larger ones. Note that I've gone back and darkened the interior of the other apples.

The lighted table cloth is done with Naples Yellow and White. This is just a slightly warmed mixture of white, not a cooled mixture of yellow. But the temperature difference is enough to make the table top pop. Additionally, I took small amounts and used it on the flowers in a few places where I wanted the light to sparkle on the flowers. That warm light really works against the cooler pink . I know it sounds strange - but remember temperature is relative. My pinks are cool pinks and the white is a warm white.
This is perhaps the best representation of what is happening in the painting thus far. The color is a bit softer in this photo and the contrast not as sharp as in the others.

I deepened the shadows around the flower at the bottom that is drooping off the table edge and heightened the edges so that it stands away from the table cloth. The table cloth and the back of the table itself are softly inferred in the background. A little light peeks in behind the cut apples. I've also taken some Quinacridone Pink glaze and brushing it into the tips of the petals.

There's much I need to do here and I have only three days before they tear into my studio rendering it unusable for a few days. So tomorrow is another day. It's midnight and I've posted this first to my website so I'll copy it over to the blog in the morning. Nighty night.

How to Paint Peonies, Day Two

2009-01-07T19:58:00.000-08:00

Well thanks for checking back in today. I actually painted this lesson over two days starting with the background yesterday and continuing with the flowers today. Here we go. If you'd like to read this lesson in a more consistent manner that flows from top to bottom without having to skip around blog style, click here.

The background was the first thing I started on with color. I generally choose an umber background for pink because the slight green tint sets off the pinks in the blossoms nicely. This mix was done with a combination of Burnt Umber and Raw Umber plus a bit of Cad Yellow Light and Naples Yellow. The lighter tones were done with a bit more Naples yellow. I was looking for a light feeling of tapestry here. As the painting develops I continue to work the background. I like to have it slightly wet as I work because that allows me to fade flowers into the background. Again - I apologize for the glare. Not much I can do about it under the circumstances. Each time I pause to take a picture, I have to turn lights on and turn others off. It's a bit tricky and breaks my concentration so I try not to have to do too much in that arena. Also, what looks fine in the camera, often looks quite different once I download the picture.

I worked some darker umber and Ultramarine Blue into the background on the lower left hand side and into the shadows on the tapestry.

For the vase, I used my usual mix of black, Cadmium Yellow Light and white along with a touch of the background color. For the light struck area, I used Cremintz White with a touch of Ultramarine Blue. Some of the shadow color was added as well. This is only a preliminary under painting for the vase.

I vowed this time around that I would try to give more step-by-step on the flowers - so here goes. I used a shadow color which was mixed by combining Quinacridone Red and Cadmium Red Light plus a bit of Cremintz White. The Cremintz White is a very thick impasto white with low tinting strength. Good for low tints and where you don't want to wash out the color. It's also lovely for building impastos.
I brushed this color combo into the areas where the darker richer interiors of the Peony face away from the light. I used a bit of Cadmium Orange to place warmth into those shadows.

When I mix these colors, I try not to over mix them with a palette knife, but instead use my brush and whip them up a bit to where they are delicately blended - like making muffin batter. Too much mixing and the muffins go flat.

For the reflected lights - always a tough call - I used a bit of Quinacridone Pink which has more blue in it. This was mixed with a bit of background color that had been lightened with touches of white to gray it a bit. Shadows are always deeper near to the object which casts them. So I brushed a bit of Raw Umber mixed with Ultramarine Blue into the shadows closest to the Peonies. The vase is still very simple at this point. I'm only suggesting the shape at the bottom where the shadow curves a bit. Later, I'll place some background color to deepen shadows and bring atmosphere forward into the painting. I've also deepened the shadows on the tapestry in the background.

Here's the close up. You can see the brush work is kept light. When painting the inside of a flower, you have to figure that that part of the bloom is receding from you and paint it thinly - just as you would shadows.

Here I've started to put in the highlights on the lit side of the flower. The paint is quite thick. I'm using the same color that I used in the interior passages but lightened with Cremintz White. I'm using a 1/2" DaVinci Filbert Bristle brush. Bristles are best for impasto work because they are just stiff enough to hold the paint.

For the initial strokes I used a 1/4 inch brush but decided that it looked too picky so I changed to a larger one and went to a technique that I'm comfortable with.

I didn't have anyone to take a picture of me laying in the petals so I'll have to describe the technique. After I've loaded the brush, I lay the bristle's at a 30 degree angle to the canvas and starting at the center of the bloom I make the petal using one stroke by pulling the brush outward to circumference of the flower. I apply more pressure at the start of the stroke and lift off the brush at the back end of the stroke. This is a little tricky and takes some practice.
This stroke is more evident in the last two pictures.

Notice that the lights are bright, but there's not enough punch or contrast between them and the shadows. This is because Cremintz is a low tint white. I'll fix that in the end by using a bit of the same color mix but with Titanium White and some Maroger Medium.

I next moved on to the back ground flowers. These were mixed with a bit of Quinacridone Rose which has a bit of blue in it. You can see that color in the flowers facing away from you. Because they are in the background and less distinct, I softened the edges by brushing some of the background into them.

Notice the large bloom in the front and the smaller bloom just behind it. There's not a huge difference in value here so I used a bit of edge control to push the one on the right back by making the edge of the flower in front a bit crisper. I also used little or no detail in the inside of the flower on the right. Less detail, less reason to spend time looking at it. Control your viewer's eyes by the use of edges as well as values.

Notice that I've painted out the leaves. I decided I would rather design them as I go in the last sitting. Those are details that will be a bit demanding and may take more than one sitting to get right so I'd rather not have to paint background around them when I'm done. Instead I'll use some Maroger to oil out the canvas and paint into it with the leaf colors when I'm ready. The background is an easy mix and can also be added if needed at a later point without having matching problems.

OK. I took another shot here to better evaluate the light. For this stage of the painting, I'm satisfied. I can see where I will want to darken some of the flowers on the left. This, however, is best left until they are dry and then I can just glaze into them. I rearranged the shapes of the larger flower and used the larger brush to do the petals. I have two more flowers to paint in the next session and then I want to re-evaluate the background and the overall shape of some of the blooms. Once I've tweaked those, I'll start into the objects on the table.

For the background, I'm considering a glaze with a very thin coat of blue to cool it a bit. I can better evaluate it in the light of day however, and I'll rethink it all in the morning. Good night and I'll continue with you tomorrow. Thanks for stopping by.

How to Paint Peonies

2009-01-05T18:02:00.000-08:00

"The Peony Commission"
Working Title

Peonies are such beautiful, lush flowers that it's no mystery that they are loved by nearly all flower aficionados. I received this commission a couple of days ago and thought it might be fun to share the painting process with you.

The size of the painting is 18" x 24" at the request of the client. I sent her three compositional images and she decided on this vertical format. I'm glad because I'm a bit partial to this composition. Mainly this is because I love drama. Even in something as quiet as a still life, there can be great drama.

Notice how the composition is at eye level. You can basically divide the canvas into three areas. Below the table, the top of the table to the Golden Mein (about one third of the way down from the top, and the top one third where most of the flowers reside.
I chose an "S" composition for this floral as I often do in vertical compositions. Notice how the flowers form a backwards question mark or take an actual "S" direction. I chose green apples to offset the prinks in the flowers. I actually added some cut apples to the right after this picture was taken. They become apparent in the painting.

I first prepared the canvas a couple of days in advance by coating it with a thin layer of under painting white mixed with Liquin to help it's drying time. I did this for two reasons: first, I prefer a smooth surface to one with texture and I like the way paint moves on a surface that has been primed with paint. The white under painting will cause the flowers to glow with an appearance of light emanating from within as the painting ages.

When the canvas was dry, I drew with charcoal the actual placement of the major elements and then sprayed the whole thing with a touch of hairspray. Nice to know that stuff is still useful for something.
Next I wiped on a thin layer of Burnt Umber mixed with Quinacridone Orange and then started to lift out the lights. I like this process of under painting because it allows me to make decisions as I go. If something doesn't look right where I've placed it, I can easily move it by painting back into the toned canvas and wiping out the lights elsewhere. But my drawing was good here and I was pretty happy with the way the flowers were placed. I had made some changes to the flowers you see in the photograph until I was happy. Often, I won't see things that need fixing until I start to get things on canvas. That's why I can't work from photos. Things looked flat in the photo I sent to the client but really started to fill out nicely when I started actually lifting out the lights on the canvas.

Here you can see the under painting developed further. I added a bloom or two to the left and filled out some other areas. I moved the flower on the table further to the right and the small one further to the left to bring out more of the "S" shape I was referring to. The large Peony in the top left of center is right about on the intersection of the Golden Mein, the sweet spot of the painting and where I want the viewer's eyes to go. While it takes precedence now, it will be a challenge to keep it's importance once color is added.

I pulled out lights where the light spills from the left across the vase. You might notice now that there is no design on the vase. That's the last thing that gets added to the painting.
I've filled in some leaves and you can see now also where the apples and cut apples fall. I've brushed in some shadows as well to unify the piece.

OK. I'm about done here. The cloth is not quite finished and I'm thinking I'll change quite a bit on there as the painting proceeds. I often move the light source to provide a few shadows and lit parts on the cloth in the front. I don't want to do that until the majority of the painting is done as once the light moves, it's difficult to get things back where they were. While a purist might say that the shadows will not be true to life, an "artist" knows that what works in a painting is not generally true to life in all cases.

I've lightened the background on the right. This will add more depth to the painting later. It won't be bright, per se, but will be a softly shadowed mid tone to allow the flowers to fade into it. The left side will be darker.

All this, mind you, is subject to change. But for the most part, I'm happy with this first stage. Check back tomorrow or the next day to see the next step. Thanks for tuning in.

If the lesson is difficult to follow on the blog, I suggest you click here to follow it on my website where the type flows smoother. Just click on "Peony Commission" when you get there.

How to Paint Orchids

2008-12-29T17:58:00.000-08:00

"Arc of Orchids"
8" x 10" Oil on Panel

I've been wanting to do Orchids for some time and so I got busy early today and set these up in my shadow box. So here's the set-up.
I used to paint very hard edged reflections when I first started painting still life and have since gone to a softer more romantic look. We'll talk more about that as the lesson progresses.

I'm currently unable to paint by natural light due to the fact that my windows are no longer looking out on the world but on the inside of my new, presently unfinished studio. While there's a beautiful seven foot arched window that faces north in there, none of the light reaches my old studio. When they punch through to the old studio, that room will become my new office and I can set up my still life's under the beautiful soft north light that comes in from the arched window. In the meantime, I'm using a plant light that sort of replicates natural light, but still tends to the warm side. Hence, the rather gold looking tones in the silver bowl.

I started by laying in a basic sketch of the still life with some raw umber and mineral spirits. The yellow ochre background you see is the color of the gesso I used to tone the board. Daniel Smith makes it and I like it because it saves me the trouble of toning a board a few days before I start to work. I don't always know in advance what I'm going to want and also don't have enough spare boards on hand a lot of the time to create diversity.
Working on a toned surface is important because it allows you to better judge values (lights and darks). There I go again talking about values. But they're soooo important.

I did the background first and reserved the shapes of the flowers. Note that in ala prima painting, you try as much as possible to reserve the areas where you are going to place flowers because it's too easy to muddy the colors otherwise.

I used Viridian Green, Raw Umber, and touches of Ultramarine Blue in making the background. I chose the Viridian because it's bluish tint would set off the reds in the flowers without making them too vibrant. The lighter areas were lightened with a touch of Naples Yellow because it's less cool than white. I wanted it a bit lighter where the second bunch of blooms fall because that's where the lightest petals will be and I wanted to lighten the "air" around the flower.

The color of the flowers is mixed with Daniel Smith's Quinacridone Pink. His Quinacridone colors are very intense and don't lose their intensity when you mix them with white. I used a bit of Alazarin Crimson and Ultramarine Blue for the shadow parts and Cadmium Red Light for the center petals.

Note that I use the largest brush that can get the job done. I start with a single stroke - beginning and ending the stroke. I don't go back in and belabor it. That's not to say that I don't use smaller brushes for the detail and places where the petals have highlights on them, but I try to use a loaded brush and get the stroke right on the first try. I'm not always successful. But I'd rather wipe it off and try again, than have an overworked flower.

The pot here is started with Burnt Umber and also some of the background color mixed in. This is important to do in order to give the pot the appearance of being part of its environment. Air, so to speak.

Here I've started to put in some of the background flowers. I'm not working too hard to bring detail into these. You can't see detail from the distance I'm sitting at so why should the viewer have to see it. It's important to keep that in mind. I hear from my students a lot that they "can't see" well enough to get these vague areas. Precisely. That is the point. They are vague.

I'm using Naples Yellow on the pot to bring out the patina. I don't want a hard highlight even though that's what appears before me because of the artificial light. So I lay in the paint and then soften the edges moving out from the center with my brush. You can see a bit of Burnt Umber on the pot here where I've warmed it up to bring it forward in the bulge. I've started the reflection of the cloth, making sure to keep my edges very soft. Inside the pot there's some lovely reflections of the petals but they look a bit orangey to me, so I've tentatively started them that way. They'll likely change as the painting progresses because my eyes will adjust further and color relationships will become clearer to me.

Here the second flower is in and you can see how the bloom is a lot brighter. The picture is a bit on the light side here because I have an Ott Light above it. I've made better adjustments for this in the final picture.

I've put some color into the inside of the pot. A bit of Burnt Sienna and Naples Yellow with Burnt Umber for the darker areas. I've still reserved that orangey spot.

The last of the blooms are in here except for two. Nothing much has changed in the pot at this point except I've darkened a band around the rim.

Sorry for the glare here. It's very hard to see on the camera when I'm taking the shots. The light in the studio is so carefully set with overheads off and separate lights dimmed and directed away from the still life, that it's too dark to just snap a shot. I need to use a longer exposure that tends to pick up more light from other sources than I can see on the lCD display.

I've added the reflections from the blooms on the pot and also brightened the rim of the pot. Nothing much done on the inside yet.

My timer didn't go off so almost 20 minutes elapsed here. The last two flower have been added and I also put in the stems of the flowers. The stems are made up of some of the Viridian Green and a bit of Cadmium Yellow Light.

On the fruit, I started by laying in the core shadow shapes with a darker (OK, I know it doesn't look light) mixture of Viridian and Burnt Umber. You can see this on the apple to the left. The cast shadows were laid in with Burnt Umber on the table portion and a shadow mix of Ivory Black, Cad Yellow Light and White on the table cloth. I brushed in a bit of Yellow Ochre in both shadows to make them more transparent.

The apple color was basically Viridian, Cad Yellow Light with a bit of Cad Red Light to tone the hue. I used the darker mixture of Viridian and Burnt Umber for the turning edges and shadows on the apples slices.
Note the Yellow Ochre in the table cloth. Adding a bit of this or Cadmium Yellow Medium will make a white cloth glow when used sparingly in the shadows where you see light coming through the cloth.

The pot is looking up here. I've rounded the shape a bit and added a highlight to the rim of the pot. I'm starting to see more color in the interior but won't add it until later.

This is the finished painting but it took another hour or so to get here.

The lights on the apple are in. Simple combo of Viridian Green, Cad Yellow Light and some white on the highlight portion. The stem was just some dark Burn Umber.

I've added the reflections of the fruit to the pot and brushed some more color from the flower into the bulge of the pot in the front to bring it forward. Note that the reflections in the pot are vague. I didn't make them sharp edged because to do so in this type of painting only confuses the viewer.

The apple core color is Naples Yellow and a touch of Cadmium Yellow Medium. The pits are just a smidge of Burn Sienna.

For the table top, I used some Burn Sienna, Naples Yellow and touches of white to bring out the area where the light is hitting it. The front of the table is just a darker version of this color with smudges of Burn Umber and background color.
For the handles and foot of the pot, Just some small blobs of Naples Yellow and White mixture on a vaguely painted handle of Raw Umber. Note the shadow of the handle on the left side. This pops the handle and helps to give a dimension of reality. It's these little touches that make all the difference. Thanks for stopping by!

If you'd like to purchase this painting, visit my blog at www.susanmartinspar.blogspot.com and click on the "Buy Now" button. You don't need a PayPal account and can choose to use just your credit card. $99.00 USD plus $15.00 S/H.

How to Paint Pink Roses in Two Hours

2008-11-17T19:19:00.000-08:00

My deepest apologies for having taken so long to post to this blog again. I've been touring the Mediterranean and before that summer had me in high gear for the festival season. But winter is here again - nearly, and so I'm back to my routine of publishing regularly.

I thought I'd start off with a small painting I did today for Daily Painters. I thought that after a month or so away, it would be really hard to get into the studio, but I found myself getting excited about squeezing out paint as I moved around getting a small set up ready. The construction guys are working on my new studio so it was comforting to push paint around while I listened to the steady drum of hammering on my new roof.

I know that I promised I'd talk about my workshop with David Leffel but I've decided that I'd talk about what I learned as I integrate it into lessons. That way it sticks for me and makes better sense for you. So, let's begin.

Here's the set up.

Sorry that this photo's a bit on the blurry side. Before I left on vacation, I put everything away in anticipation of the construction crew breaking through to the old studio. So much as for construction schedules. I had some trouble locating the tripod. Don't worry - it gets better. Just a reminder to new folks just tuning in for the first time. These shots of the set up are just for your information. I NEVER use photos to paint from in still life. Photos distort and generally mask color and light in disproportionate ways. Shadows are always too dark and lack color and the highlights are always washed out. Texture all but disappears. I always work from life when I can, and I encourage and teach all my students to do the same.

I kept the setup simple here because I needed to ease back into the painting process after a month away. In the next photo, you can see how I blocked in the basic shapes. I sort of drew the composition in with raw umber and then filled in the shadow areas with umber to get an idea of the composition and how I wanted to fill the space.

After I did this little sketch, I decided that the whole thing needed to be moved down a bit and when I started to fill in the background, I did so. I used a combination of Thalo Blue, Ivory Black and Raw Umber to work in the darker areas of the background. The same combo with more white and Naples Yellow was used for the lighter area.

You can see that I haven't yet moved things down here, but it becomes evident in the next photo.

David Leffel prefers filbert bristles and that's a big change for me. I have traditionally preferred to use sables and still do for the smoothing of a background. But here you can see that I am using a palette knife which is another of David's favorite tools. I am quite enjoying the mastering of this tool and find that it works very well for helping me to attain the texture I desire on my vases.

To turn the vase, I used more of the background color with a bit of Ultramarine Blue. I darkened it a bit more with Ivory Black and used it along the core shadow. This added some drama to an otherwise ho hum set up. For the vase itself, I used white, some of the Thalo Blue and a big of Naples yellow. I didn't mixed the color evenly but just jostled it a bit with my brush to give a more interesting mixture. Then after using a brush in a cross wise (across the form) motion, I then turned to the palette knife to bring in texture. Notice the reflected light on the shadow side. Just a slightly lighter mixture.

I find students get all tied up over what "color" to make the reflected light. I'm a bit like David here in that I use color on colorlessness as my MO. That means that I don't dither too much over the dead areas but keep them simple. You can choose to add some color in the reflected light areas but they should be kept generally cool in temperature. Shadows should be warm. I laughed at the workshop when I heard David say to a student, "cool light, warm shadows; warm light....uh...warm shadows." Shadows just look a lot better when they are warm. If you are using blue in your shadows, use a warm blue - one that has red in it to warm it. Here on the cloth, I used some of the background color neutralized with raw umber to warm it a bit. I felt OK using that blueish tone because there was so much of it in the background and vase already that it made sense to use it in the shadows.

For the cloth, I used a touch of the background color with Ivory Black, a tiny bit -TINY - of Cadmium Yellow and a touch of white for the shadows areas. Some warmth was added in areas with some Yellow Ochre ans white. The light areas of the cloth were done with white and Naples Yellow. I used a palette knife in places to build up the highlights.

For the table top I used a bit of Burnt Umber, white and Cadmium Yellow Light for the top and for the sides, just Burnt Umber. I kept the brush work loose and strove to keep it light. Next, on to the roses.

I like to use quinacradone colors for my pink or red flowers because the color is very intense and doesn't get washed out with white as do the Cadmium reds. I used Daniel Smith Quinacradone Pink for the base color of the roses and then I added mixture of Cadmium Orange and Cadmium Yellow Deep to it to bring out the coral color in the roses.

While it looks like there's a lot going on in these flowers, their construction was really quite simple. I used a medium size filbert and brushed in the center color. A couple of strokes was all it took to make the petals. Where I wanted a petal to turn or an edge to come forward, I piled on the paint, made the edge sharper and sculpted the paint. I use Maroger Medium for this as it allows me to retain brush strokes and build the paint up. I grayed out the pink with an addition of background color (it looks more blue here than green due to the thalo, but in reality it has more of a green cast which neutralizes the pink in the flowers and makes for a good shadow.

In the last photo and the finished painting below, you can see the leaves were worked in last. I used Thalo Blue and Cadmium Yellow Light with touches of Naples Yellow here and there. For the darkest parts of the leaves, I mixed the color with a touch of Ivory Black to strengthen the darks and shadows. Let me emphasize the fact that when I use Ivory Black, these are just little dabs of this neutral. Ivory Black has a lot of blue in it and can actually be used in some paintings as blue if properly painted alongside colors of more neutral or warm tint. Try making a lovely green by adding some Cadmium Yellow to Ivory Black. You couldn't do that if it didn't have blue in it. You just don't want to overdue the black or use it by itself for shadows. It would deaden the space. Shadows should have some color or light breathed into them. That's why I use Cadmium Yellow in my shadows. The last thing I did here was to add more Naples Yellow to the background to liven it up and some pure Quinacradone Pink and Alazarin Crimson in the center of the flowers. A quick little warm up to get back into the flow of paint. Any questions, just post them here and I'll answer them for you so everyone gets to see the answers. Thanks for tuning in!

Addendum

2008-08-27T19:54:00.000-07:00

Oops! I hit the "enter" key and published before I was ready. Well, I'm almost ready.

I'm working on three things this week: shadow strength, stroke direction and quality, and brush work. All stuff I should know, but need to be strongly reminded of. I'll give you all the details as the weeks progress. But suffice it to say, I'm putting tape around all my brushes to remind me not to let my hand slip below the tape. Seems a good idea. I generally hold my brushes at the ends but forget a lot during the initial layin. David says it's important to start finishing a painting from the first stroke. Now that's something to think about.

More later. I need a shower and some sleep.

Day Three David Leffel Workshop

2008-08-27T19:49:00.000-07:00

I'm pooped. I've been painting since 9:00 am this morning and my brain feels like mush. I'm definitely in workshop curve curse. I forgot how to paint fruit. Fruit!!! I totally forgot how. David said I've been going "down hill" all day. Certainly feels like it. At least it's not a surprise and it means that I'm trying to unlearn old habits and learn new ones. Of course I forgot how to paint fruit - he does it so differently than I do!

Day One of David Leffel Workshop

2008-08-25T20:12:00.000-07:00

Aaaagh! I forgot to bring the gizmo for my camera that downloads the photos!!! But take heart...I'm taking tons of photos and lots of notes. I promise you all I'll start posting the workshop stuff as soon as I can following my return on Friday.

All my fears are put to rest. David Leffel is an incredible, humble, beautiful human being and an incredible teacher. We spent the first half of the day in a demonstration and the second half setting up and starting our own still life's. It's very exciting! There are about 20 students in the workshop and everyone is very intense about the work. Everyone is on a different level but it doesn't seem to matter - David meets everyone on the level they are working on.

Just as I feared, I'm in workshop mode. But David said that my set up was great and the painting is coming along great so I shouldn't worry. However, I'm attempting to do the entire panting in hog bristles which is a huge change for me. I generally lay in the painting with bristles and then switch to sables for the rest of the work. I feel like I've spent the day fighting the brushes. But so far I'm resisting the temptation to switch to my regulars. The palette is also a bit more limited than the one I generally use but so far that doesn't seem to be too much of a problem.

I'm pretty beat tonight and I'm going to hop in the shower and then snuggle into a comfortable bed for some reading. I'll check in with you all in a day or so.

Learning with David Leffel

2008-08-23T16:24:00.001-07:00

I've been rather busy the last couple of months and things aren't going to settle down anytime soon. My studio is undergoing re-construction this month and I'm taking a David Leffel workshop in Fall City starting this monday through Friday. I'm very excited. If you don't know who David Leffel is, I suggest you Google him. He's considered a living Master and his work has influenced every stroke of paint I've made in the past two years. He, above all, is considered one of the great teachers of our time. Here's a comment on someone's blog about him.

I consider it a great privilege to take a workshop with this painter and at the same time I'm terrified. I understand completely what my students feel when I approach their easels during a class. On one hand you are so hoping to get a kudo from the teacher, terrified they won't say anything (what's wrong with it????Is it that awful??? What am I paying you for?) and at the same time worried that they will. What I have resigned myself to being in "workshop curve". I seem to forget everything I've ever known and everything I've ever studied, my hands become absolute paddles, my brain gets addled and I totally do a brain freeze on mixing color. What is that anyway? Sigh. But I'm still excited to meet the Master. I'll be trying to post a few things to this blog during the week, but forgive me if it doesn't happen. I promise to share everything and anything I learn with you all. Many thanks to Rosa for calling me about this workshop. I didn't think at the time that I would be able to do it. My husband convinced me otherwise. What a gift.

How to paint an Asian Jar with Flowers

2008-06-19T12:31:00.000-07:00

Well, it's been awhile and I apologize for that. I haven't been publishing as much due to the need to take care of other business. The good news is I'm getting ready to enlarge my studio, the bad news is, that project along with all the others this summer is keeping me out of the studio.

But I've been busy nonetheless. I've worked out a link system to my website that will allow me to do the actual blogging a bit easier. Blogger's set up makes it difficult to upload multiple images and still keep things compact and simple. It often takes me three or more hours to do a simple lesson on blogger. I'm hoping with the addition of a "Student's Atelier" pages to my website, I will be able to keep things organized.Essentially, nothing changes for you as this blog continues to be the launch point for all lessons. So to begin, click here. If the link fails to work for some reason, just paste the following into your browser and away you go.

http://susanspar.com/Oil%20paint%20lessons.htm.

How to paint an Asian Tea Pot and Peaches

2008-05-26T16:39:00.000-07:00

I recently spent a weekend in Victoria visiting with some friends. An afternoon jaunt to China Town netted me this lovely Tea Pot. I fell in love with the dragon. With summer nearly here and other demands calling for my attention, I thought I'd spend the entire day on this painting and see what the investment in time on a single sitting could yeild.

Here's the set up. I ended up changing a few things once I began the layin.

I love to paint lace and it's always a challenge to make it come out right. I nearly always have to remind myself to take my time on it. I'm always glad when I do.

I started the painting with a basic monochromatic underpainting using some acrylic black and white. I wanted to get a feel for the light in this piece and a good value study is always helpful. You can see that I kept things pretty loose and used a relatively large brush. I avoided details and just kind of played
with how I wanted the brush strokes to go. That's one of the cool things about working with acrylic at this stage. You get to see how things will play out. The lighting for the background was a bit tricky. I wanted it to be atmospheric and not too dark. But I didn't want it chalky either. I knew the transitions would be important.

In the next picture you can see that I've laid in a background mixed from burnt umber, cad yellow and a touch of naples yellow for the lighter hue. I've blended that with a darker mix that has a bit of ultramarine blue and no naples yellow in it.

I smoothed out the brush strokes with a very soft black sable Performen brush. I love these brushes. They have a multitude of uses and cost relatively little compared to other sables. ASWexpress.com carries them.

Here you can see that I started with the base color of the tea pot. I've used titanium white, naples yellow, some background color and a touch of ultramarine blue. This is mixed in three shades from light to dark. I'm very careful to conserve the lightest light which will be used later for highlights on the pot.

A good thing to do when you are painting a light colored piece (or any color for that matter) is to squint down and compare the value of the object right next to the highlight. You'll be surprised at just how dark by comparison it really is.

Remember to keep your shadows thin and the lights thick. There's actually a good amount of paint on the lighter areas.

Now the peaches. First I mixed the shadow color using a bit of alazarin crimsen and sap green. I pushed this into the shadows of the fruit. Next I mixed a light mixture of cad yellow deep, cad light, background green and naples yellow - keeping the mixture light and not trying to over mix it. Stir it together on your palette like you are making muffins. Too much mixing and the muffins go flat.

Things are not too defined here and I'm keeping my edges soft. I'm looking for value changes and just trying to make sure that things stay where they are supposed to. There's actually three peaches on the right. One in front of the other and I'm struggling here to get one pushed back and the other brought forward.

A note about edges. Edges are like the marks on a music sheet telling the musician when to go slow and when to go fast. You edges are supposed to act as guides to the viewer, signaling them as to the pace of the painting. Your job is to conduct the symphony and lead the viewer where you want them to go. But it's best to leave all your edges soft until you get to near the end stages. Then you can adjust edges with a little more authority.

Notice the spout and how it appears to be covered with background color. That's because it is. When I lay in a color or area behind an object, I don't paint to the edge. This creates a edge that is too crisp making objects appear cut out or pasted on. The trick is to "paint through" the object. You can come back in later and paint back into the area appropriately. I've added it finally and put a light passage near the top in the next photo.

I've also laid in a basic color for the grapes. I started with alazarin crimsen and black but changed that to cadmium red and black. Worked better.

Here comes the lace. I thought a lot about what I was doing here so that I could explain it to you as I go along.

Basically, when you paint lace - and this goes for almost any medium, you paint the holes first. After laying in the cloth with a similar mixture to that of the tea pot, I took a bit of raw umber and background mixture and then took a soft brush and kind of stippled in the designs of the lace where the holes were. Don't worry too much about getting all the detail. If you get started with a basic pattern, just repeat it with a few variations making sure to follow the folds of the cloth. Pay attention to the lights and darks (overall values) on the cloth. You don't want to go light where you should go darker.

Oops! You can see I messed up got some paint where I didn't want it - namely on the peach. No worry - everything is fixable.

In order to brighten some of the pattern and make it stand out more, I mixed some of my light mixture with white and naples yellow and thickened it with Maroger. Then using a small brush I picked up bits of the paint and laid it on the areas where I wanted the pattern to stand out. NOT EVERYWHERE! Sorry. I sometimes get excited with my personal students too. Good thing they like me. Here's a close up before I put in the brights.

A note here about brush strokes. David Leffel (my hero), says that you should not be able to hear the stroke of the brush on the canvas. If you can you either don't have enough paint on the brush or you don't have enough medium on it. You should practice getting just the stroke you want with a loaded brush. A deliberate stroke that is not correct will look 100 times better than a correct passage that is overworked. This takes practice. Lots of it. So get your paints out and start painting a piece of fruit a day. By the end of the year, you'll either be fat as a cow from eating your leftovers or you'll be a genius at laying in paint. Or maybe both, but it will be worth it.

Ok. Here you can see the lights a bit better. Now that lace is starting to come to life. Now it's time to fix those poor peaches.

Placement is important here so I push the one in the back further against the background and reduce it's size a bit with background color and some adjustments to the cloth. This peach is furthest back and so it needs a soft edge where it meets the background color. I dragged some of the green down into it and soften the edge with my brush. The edge against the pot is a bit harder. I want a little air there between the peach and the pot. The colors are mixed with cad red light, cad yellow deep and cad yellow light. Not all mixed together, mind you, but in subtle ways to bring the color of the peach out. To turn the edge, I've used some of the back ground color and alazarin crimsen where the light turns to the shadow side.

The second peach also needs to be back a bit but not as far back as the formost peach. I've added a bit of green to the mixture. The peach fuz on the top is a mixture of cobalt blue and a bit of white. I've kept it's top edge soft and the left edge a bit sharper.

The peach in the foreground is lower on the surface of the lace. This brings it forward. It's edges are a bit sharper as well. But the shadow side is soft. Note the core shadow on the foremost peach. It turns the fruit.

I've added color to the grapes. A bit of blue (cobalt & white) for some reflection and a bit of cad yellow and rose for the areas of the grape where light shines through. The highlights are thick and I've run the end of my brush through them to add texture.

The handles have been ignored until now so it's time to give them a little attention. This is a simple mixture of yellow ochre. I've laid them in here with a bright brush to keep the square look I'm after.

Next I lightened the mixture a bit and laid it into the areas where the light is hitting. Notice how everything is still fairly rough.

Lastly, I take a bit of umber softened with background green and make tiny little lines to indicate the weave pattern on the handles.

Here you can also see that I've started to lay in the design of the dragon. I mixed a glaze of ultramarine blue with a touch of alazarin crimsen to darken it and then started to work out the design of the dragon.

I'm really grateful for those life drawing groups I go to every Tuesday. All that sketching has paid off and allowed me to get the dragon in fairly accurately without a lot of fuss. If you are trying something like this, I would suggest that you first let the white paint dry. If it's dry, you can make all the mistakes you want because you can just wipe out the glaze and start over. Here my paint was still wet so not only could I not afford a mistake, I needed to lay the glaze on with short light strokes so as not to disturb the wet paint underneath.

After the dragon was finished, I put the design along the top edge of the pot in. I changed it from the design on the original pot to something simpler (my back was killing me).

From this point on, I adjusted edges, checked measurements and put in the leaves behind the fruit. Oh, yeah...notice the highlight in the final photo. See how light it looks against what you thought was a really light pot?

Phew. An all day painting session, but it paid off. What do you think?

Oh. Just a note here...I appreciate your comments on the blog but I'd like you all to feel free to start a dialogue where you can learn from one another too. Feel free to post and ask questions of each other.

"The Dragon Pot"

12" x 14", Oil on Canvas Panel

Click here to bid

How to paint roses, Rose Oil Painting, 12" x 16" on Linen Panel

2008-05-12T20:16:00.000-07:00

For a lot of people, the life of an artist seems like a romantic and dreamy existence. Well...it is, a lot of the time. But a lot of the time, it's just a huge amount of hard work and a pretty isolated existence. Every now and then, the routine of getting up early and going into the studio to paint or the office to work, or the gallery to handle business details, picking up supplies, dropping off at the post office, etc., etc., etc., gets to me. This weekend was like that so I took a few days off just to hang around, eat Weight Watcher snacks, read, play racquetball and ride my bike. Today, rested and refreshed, I went back to work.

The light in the studio was pretty bright but also pretty inspiring. I felt like white roses to go with the coolness of the setting. Here's the set up.

I always try to start my paintings with a concept. This is a thought that I have about what I'd like to achieve. It's not necessarily a picture in my mind, but more like an idea. The purpose of a concept is to provide a road map to the painting. If you hold your concept in mind throughout the process, it will keep you on track. It will also tell you when your painting is done. Once you have fulfilled your concept, then that's it. You're done. My concept for this piece was for overhead light which would pool over the top of the subject causing the objects below to be top lit. Instead of a transparent background, I wanted to have a very dark background to set off the roses.

I started the painting with a burnt sienna tone which I laid in the night before with a drop or two of Liquin to help it set up in time for the morning session. This morning, I did a quick outline of the subject in raw umber. Sorry for the poor photo - I held the camera here so things got a bit blurry. The rest of them are better.

I laid in the background - 2nd picture, with some umber mixed with thalo green and alizarin crimson. I left it loose around the flowers as I wanted some of the background sienna to show through around the roses.

I was using an ott light here on the painting as well as on the set up which, unfortunately, puts a bit of glare on the painting. I would turn this off from time to time to get a better reading on my values. The fact that I work in natural light most days, can create problems as I try to eliminate extraneous light sources and this can lead to a pretty dark room.

As I don't have overhead skylights in the studio, I needed a cool light source over my set up. So I set up one of my other Ott Lights over the set up. Because this does not exactly work the same as natural light on the subject, I had to turn this off from time to time to get a better idea of what some of the objects look light in dimmer light.

Next, using some burnt umber with a touch of cad orange, I laid in a quick color for the table top. This is just a base color as I intended to add reflections and highlights later.

The shadow color for the object - basically a burnt umber had been laid in at the initial start. It's important to get your shadow colors in first. They provide the bones of the painting and you don't want to be changing them later in the game. That is a recipe for disaster.

Using a mixture of naples yellow and white, with background color for shadow, I laid in the vase.

I use a medium called Maroger which helps to retain brush strokes. I sometimes let this sit on my palette in the freezer so that it's a bit more set up the next day. when I add this to the paint, it creates a stiffer mixture allowing me to sculpt the paint. The paint is thickest where the light is brightest and just before the turning edges of the vase. It's difficult to see in the photo here, but you can see it in the close-ups and in the final shots where I turned out the lights to take the picture.

In the picture to the left, I've started to put in the shadows for the roses. I used, again, part of the background color mixed with naples yellow/white mixture. A bit of violet was added in places.

The strokes laid in here are simple straight slashes made with a 1/2" and 1/4" bright. I'm trying to maintain the character of the roses. I try looking at them peripherally rather than straight on. This allows me to get the impression of the rose and its character rather than having to belabor the individual petals. My goal as a painter is to learn to say more with less. Quite a challenge for a former trompe l'oeil painter.

Here you can see that I've started to put in the lights. These were mixed with naples yellow and white - two mixtures. One light and one darkened with a bit of umber. Notice how light the mixtures look. On my palette they looked quite dark but when laid in next to the shadows the contrast in temperatures made them appear very bright. This is the same for the vase which appears quite lit but in reality is composed of darker value mixtures. I used some raw sienna in the lights for the warm centers of the roses.

You can see here the built up lights I was referring to above.

I'm finishing off the flowers here. Check out the pictures below to get a better idea of the details. They look a bit washed out by the overhead light here.

Using mixtures of thalo green, cad yellow and cad red to warm the mixture. I cooled areas of the leaves with naples yellow and white mixed in with the green mixture.

I then created a mixture of ultramarine blue tempered with some burnt umber and some Maroger to create a glaze. I worked this in the vase to recreate the design. Remember that a design can help to describe the form. I also lengthened the vase which I noticed was too short. This necessitated redrawing some of the fruit to drop it lower on the table.

The shadows of the fruit were laid in using some cad yellow, ivory black and cad orange. I used a cool yellow, zinc, to be precise, mixed with white for the sliced lemon. Warm tones were cad yellow medium and cad orange.

I took some of the cad colors and pulled the down into the table top to create reflections.

The lights for the lemons were done with cad yellow medium, and zinc yellow mixed with white. I left the lemon on the left in shadow.

Putting in the leaves on the right topped off the elements.

To finish off, I used a bit of quinacradone sienna on the table to create contrast. I further pulled down some of the lights in the vase and used a bit of ultramarine blue and white to create reflected light.

After a few tweaks here and there, I declared the painting done and put my name proudly on the bottom.

You can see the roses much better here because I turned out the lights for the picture. I'll try to remember to do this again in the future for the other pictures.

Phew. It sure takes a long time to write this stuff out. Hope you all got something from it.

I'd like to emphasize here how important it is to me that you leave a comment or two on the blog. For one, I'm happy to answer questions so that everyone can learn from them and, second, by posing questions or statements, you invite dialogue from others. This makes the blog more interesting and helps me to know what kinds of things you'd like me to focus on.

That's all. See you all in a couple of weeks.

To bid, click here.
If you haven't visited my Daily Painting blog, click here.

2008-05-05T21:33:00.000-07:00

Seems blogger prempted my entry for today and published before it was finished. The entire lesson is now on line. Check it out.

How to paint Magnolias and Brass in Oils

2008-05-05T20:08:00.000-07:00

My apologies for not having published here for the past two weeks. Sometimes the necessities of making a living can really keep me busy - or too tired to do anything. I actually started to prepare for a session a couple of times and found myself 1/2 way through a painting before I remembered to take a picture! Well...here I am and I have a good session for you.

Here's the set up. I recently swept into an antique shop and found this beautiful brass pitcher. I'm a sucker for brass and copper. They're both such fun to paint! The set up doesn't look very impressive here but the light in the studio was just perfect when I started to paint. Besides, the rest comes from artistic license and vision. My concept was for the light to pool a the round base of the pitcher and around the first flower. I wanted the rest of the fruit to gradually catch the light and then fade into shadow.

I've recently started working on linen for my larger pieces. I love the stuff. It's a medium grade oil primed linen that comes in a large roll. I ordered it from Art Supply Wharehouse.

I usually paint on boards which I prime myself with gesso or face with canvas. In order to prepare this board, I cut out the linen, primed the board to seal it and then using Golden's Medium Gell, I adhered it to the board and burnished it down with a brayer. A quick imprimatura of burnt umber and cad red and I was ready to paint. I laid in the drawing with raw umber, keeping everything simple. Then I mixed my background color - raw umber, cad yellow and a touch of cobalt blue. The lighter area is mixed with a bit more of naples yellow to lighten it. Next, I brushed in shadows on the table top.

Oops! I got carried away here and totally forgot to take a picture. This easily happens to me and I wised up after this and started setting my timer to remind me to stop and take a picture. The pitcher came together rather quickly. I mixed together some of the background color and some raw sienna. Another mixture a bit lighter with yellow ochre and a third mixture of yellow ochre and cad yellow. I have touches of cad yellow medium which is a sort of orangy yellow also. The highlights were built of cad yellow and white. At this point, the pitcher is in but not completed. I'll save the finishing tuches for later. Oh...black was used in sections around the edges to lose edges against the background and for depth. The black was tempered with umber.

A couple of more tweaks done here to the handle. Highlights with with more of the cad yellow mixture were laid in to the scrolling work.

I also lifted out some of the color where the flowers would be. That's one of the things I found strange about linen - how easily wet paint can lift from it.

I had to keep turning the easel around to take it out of the glare of the window, so I apologize for the strange angle of the canvas in these shots. Here I've laid in the shadow color of the lemons. I used some background color modified with cad yellow medium and cad orange to create the warm shadow color. The tough thing to remember about painting shadow color is that the thing to do is not necessarily try to match the color of the shadow, but the relationship of the color to the list side as well as the other colors around it. That's a trickey thing to do right. Once you understand this, however, you will understand that paint is not light or the object you are trying to represent. It has it's own qualities and laws. Understanding them is crucial to getting your objects to come to life.

Next I made a mixture from cobalt blue, cad orange and naples yellow for the shadow color of the blossoms. I also mixed in a bit of cad yellow for areas where light was shining through the petals. I laid this in carefully wherever there were petals that were showing in shadow.

A mixture of naples yellow and white made up my petals. I also made up a separate mixture a bit lighter for brighter highlights. I laid the petals in carefully - taking my time here to keep each petal separate. It's allright to let the bottom levels blurr into each other. This creates a soft admosphere. But on the upper petals, if you want the flower to be recognizeable, you need to keep each petal distinct from it's neighbor. Don't belabor the petals. Paint them with a large brush and pay attention to their character. Load your brush with generous paint. The underblooms should be painted thinly while the uper ones should have body.

Once the blossoms were in, I laid in the center of the flowers with touches of burnt umber and cad orange. The pollen laden stamen were just tiny bits of naples yellow.

Here's a closeup of one of the blooms with it's colors and all its nuances.

The lemons were next. Using cad yellow light and cad medium, I laid in the lemons. I watched out here for the warm reflected light in the shadows. It's lovely ahd can really help to set off the cool yellow.

I wasn't happy here with the strokes on the lemon. I soon found that if the paint wasn't laid in thickly, I'd be picking up paint already laid in. I intend to go over these tomorrow to correct stroke direction and refine the cast shadows a bit.

The last step was to put in the reflections on the table top and to lay in a few leaves and stems. Colors already on the palette were used here and nothing special in the way of mixtures was used. Tomorrow I may rework the lemons a bit but for now the piece is finished and on EBay.

Feel free to leave comments on this blog. I welcome questions and will try to answer them as best as I can.

Oil Painting Lesson on Glazing for Roses and Fruit, 14" x 18"

2008-04-12T14:46:00.000-07:00

Day Two: I got into the studio early today excited with the anticipation of finishing my recent painting. Although I enjoy my direct ala prima paintings, nothing lights my fire more than bringing a painting up to a polish. Normally, I spend a lot more time on my polished pieces, but either I'm getting faster or I'm getting less "tight" on a lot of things that used to take me days. It's probably something of both as I enjoy a more painterly feel but also like the polished look that that extra session or two gives. OK, nuff talk. Except there is one thing. I forgot to add this pic of my cats who had snuggled together for warmth in the studio patiently waiting for dinner yesterday. Rough life.

All right. When I got in the studio this morning I tested the painting to see where it was dry and where it might need more time. As I suspected, most of the painting, except for the white vase was dry. White - except for underpainting white - has a lot more oil in it and takes significantly more time to dry. No matter, I figured I could still swing a decent glaze on it. Before I began, I oiled out on most of the canvas that was dry with a bit of Maroger medium.

As you remember, I had intended to darken the background a bit and so first thing I mixed a glaze composed of thalo green, alazarin crimsen and a touch of raw umber. I laid this in with a very large soft sable brush. I mainly stayed on the edges of the painting. My intent was to bring out the light in the center of the piece and around the flowers.

I like the way this came out. Glazing into a background provides a feel of stained glass. The light hitting the canvas goes through the glaze until it hits the canvas and then bounces back. If you use pure glaze (which I haven't) from the start, the effect is quite dramatic. It bears saying here that if you intend to do your entire painting by building up all transparent glazes, then you need to make your underpainting nearly perfect and about three keys lighter than the actual values you want to achieve. The reason for this is because the multiple glazes will darken the image significantly as you proceed. I like to use a combination of opaque paint and glazes. If done correctly, this can still be quite dramatic.

My next step was to work on the fruit. Using the same combination of cad red light, alazarin crimson and cad yellow with varying degrees of naples yellow, I built up the color tops of the plums.

Then using some quinacradone magenta mixed with the alazarin crimson, I created a glaze and darkened areas of the fruit where the turning edges where and the shadows.

I used a little cad red adjusted with the magenta to make some reflected light on the plums. In cool light set-ups, the reflected light on objects is generally warm. The last step was to mix a small amount of the magenta with white and scumble this on to create the bluish haze of the plums.

For the grapes I followed much the same steps but used a bit of cad orange to create the transparent color of light passing through the grapes.

The highlights were the same color as the bluish scumble but with a tad of naples to warm and lighten them. After applying them, I took the back of my brush and squiggled it on each highlight.

The last detail for the grapes were touches of red here and there and then, of course the stems. Just some yellow ochre. I thinned the mixture with some copal painting medium and used a small round for the detail.

At this point, I lightened the table cloth and brightened the top a bit with a scumble of naples yellow and white. If you can't get it bright enough on the first day, you usually can on the second. That cloth lit right up. I did the same for the table top, keeping my lights close to the fruit. I also used a bit of glaze in the shadows of burnt umber to darken the cast shadow directly under the fruit.

Now I turned my attention to the pot. I mixed a glaze of ultramarine blue and a bit of cobalt. I thinned this out quite a bit with Maroger and using that same small round sable brush, I laid in the design. Once I was finished with the basic design, I went back in with a liner brush and put in the outlines and details on the design. This didn't take quite as long as you might imagine. Probably the most difficult part was the single line at the top and bottom. I simplified the design overall by skipping another horizontal line that appears on the actual pot.

Lastly, I put in the reddish leaves you see on in the foliage and then using some darker blue/green glaze, I pushed some leaves back and scumbled some into the fore ground. I checked edges to be sure the ones I wanted sharp, were sharp and the rest I softened. At this point I took a cup of coffee, sat back and just visited with the patient for awhile. The last thing I did before signing the piece was to mix another darker glaze for the base of the cloth. I darkened it and then also put in the other side of the cloth behind it. If you take a look at my daily painting blog, you can get a close up of the flowers. Viola. Done.

Painting with a Grisaille Underpainting, Fruit and Flowers with an Asian Vase, 18" x 13" on Canvas Panel

2008-04-11T17:29:00.000-07:00

I've been wanting to do a larger piece for my blog and today seemed like a good time to start. I've also been wanting to experiment with a black and white grisaille under painting. Normally I would have chosen to do one of these in a lead white under painting oil with a bit of medium to ensure overnight drying. But I was in a bit of a hurry and pressed for time, so I opted for acrylic. Also, as I'm pretty busy with a lot of work these days, I thought it would be interesting to see if I could get similar results.

Here's the set up. The light is cool north light from windows on the left. It looks pretty unimpressive here. But wait. That's the fun part.

I broke out the acrylic black and white and pulled started in.

As you can see, I just indicated in my initial sketch where everything but the flowers would be. Detail wasn't important here. One of the reasons I was eager to try acrylic is the short drying time. I felt it would allow me to get in my values and still rearrange things as I pleased without making mud or having to wait a couple of days for things to dry before I tried again.

I was correct and this was the part I really enjoyed. I was better able to visualize my concept as it evolved and make changes quickly.

Here on the left, I've all but finished the under painting. One thing I enjoyed about this process was the ability to play with brush strokes and immediately be able to correct them. It was like making a road map for the painting.

At this point, I was pretty satisfied with the values and moved on. Just a note here...the vase is a bit off and I corrected that before moving on and applying paint.

I struggled for awhile in deciding what color I wanted to use for the background and decided that a cool green would be nice. It would work well with the roses and the red fruit.

I mixed some thalo green, raw umber and a touch of thalo blue to cool a bit to the blue side. Naples yellow and white lightened the mixture where needed. I apologize for the glare here. The window was to my back and my easel was set up a bit perpendicular to the set up. It didn't look glaring to me, but the camera picked it up.

I could tell my values were correct by squinting down. I spend a lot of time squinting at my canvases and this is because it allows me to see values. If the color and the gray background show no contrast when I do this, then I know I've hit it correctly. I used some of the background color and placed it on the vase about where the core shadow would fall.

Next I painted the first coat for the vase. I used some of the background color and a mixture of naples yellow and white for the midtone and then a straight mixture of the naples and white for the lights. I used a pretty heavy application of paint and a healthy dose of Maroger medium here too. I wanted the paint to set up quickly so that I could continue to come back to it and add more paint and glaze if necessary.

Now for the fun part. I took some Maroger and mixed it up with some alazarin crimson to make a glaze and laid this into the plums. Whoa! I love glazing. All that light stuff you see? It's primarily glaze over a monochromatic under painting. Nice huh? The grapes too. I've made a mixture for the cloth here as well. I used white, umber and a touch of the crimson to make a warm shadow and pushed that into the base of the cloth. I lit the top side of the table. This is actually the reverse of what shows on my set up. This is because I have two windows and the one over my left shoulder sheds light onto the front of the set up. I have to compensate for this by painting the front darker at times then it would normally appear.

Using a similar mixture of the naples and white, I started laying in the flowers. I wanted to do this before the background completely dries and it would be difficult for me to create the atmosphere that I strive for on a dry background.

OK. I figured out at this point that glare was becoming a problem in the photos so I moved the easel away from the window to shoot this picture. Here you can see that I've started to put in quite a bit of detail. I added dark leaves to the background to make them fade into the background.

I've also taken a small mixture of cad orange, cad red light and naples yellow to make a orangy pink mixture for the top of the plums.

More dark foliage in the back of the fruit. I've painted some leaves in the fore ground and put in their shadows.

Additionally, I've enhanced the vase and put in some shadow under the rim. The table top is lit a bit more and I've darkened the background in the corners.

Some of the petals on the flowers were enhanced with a little yellow ochre and white.

I'm leaving the rest for tomorrow as I need the vase to dry before adding the glaze. Same for the fruit which needs a lot more work. Remember plums have a nice blue/white haze to them. I'll add more detail to the leaves, pushing some to the back and pulling some forward. I also intend to glaze into the background bring a bit more heightened interest to the center of the painting. So far I'm liking the progress. More tomorrow.

How to Paint White Roses

2008-04-07T19:35:00.000-07:00

"White Roses on a Rainy Day"
9" x 12" Oil on Canvas Panel

It was raining today and my body hurt from an overkill on exercise (too much racquetball and hiking). I had a bad start to my day and it was raining out. I needed to do a supply run and by the time I got to my studio, I was exhausted and in a rough mood. But work harkened and I answered the call. Actually I welcomed the silence and stillness of my studio today and once the door was closed, I relaxed into my chair and began the piece I'm going to demo tonight while Nalie (Boo Boo), my cat, sleeps on my lap.

I started with a simple lay in of values with raw umber. I usually do more of an underpainting, but felt a bit pushed for time because of my late start so I took a short cut. At first I considered doing my background in a greenish umber so I laid that in and lightened some of the space to the left of the vase by adding cobalt blue and naples yellow.

The cloth was green so I started laying in the shadows with a mixture of sap green and some alazarin crimsen.

There's a bit of quinacradone magenta mixed with the umber wich I just splashed on behind the flowers on the table cloth. Not sure if I wanted this to stay or not at this point.

Here I've just finished laying in the background - right over that red and nothing much has changed.

Except that my Maine Coon, Simba, decided to join me by pushing against the door. After much complaining, I got him a pillow and made him comfortable. Dogs have owners, cats have servants.

I picked up this vase at a garage sale for a song and love it because of the great floral design on it. This sort of thing can be daunting for a newbie painter and even for an experienced painter it can provide a challenge. If you just treat the design as part of the whole vase, you'll have less problems. The design actually helps to describe the shape of the vase. I mixed the colors needed for the blooms with mixtures of naples yellow, cad red light and small amounts of yellow ochre. The greens were mixtures of sap green, alazarin crimsen for muting and darkening and cad yellow light and sap for the leaves on the vase. I tried to pay attention to the values of the decorations on the surface of the vase. In other words, if a flower was in shadow, it was the color of the flower in not the local color of the flower. At this point, the vase looks pretty flat and sort of pasted onto the background. Things are still pretty raw.

Here you can see that I've softened the edges of the vase. With a lightened version of the background color on the shaded side (right), I've laid in the shadow shapes for the roses. For the darker tones on the left side (lighted side) I've worked in some yellow ochre and touches of cad orange.

I thought that it would be nice to warm up the background a bit so I added a touch of cad red and white with a touch of quinacradone violet to the lighter areas of the background and pulled some of it into the vase for atmosphere. I've also started to add in leaf color here too and build shadows under the leaves with darker strokes of sap and alizarin crimsen. You'll notice that I put a little light behind the vase on the right side beyond it's shadow. This gives the illusion of depth to the painting. I've added some details to the flowers on the vase by putting in some dark accents.

Boo Boo came into the studio at this point and also complained mightily that Simba had the best chair and what was he supposed to do? Sit on that cold floor? Hmph. OK. Out came my felt vest and a warm place was made for him next to Simba. At least he wasn't walking through my palette - something he's done on at least one occasion before.

OK so settling in again, I started to add the lights in the roses. I made up a mixture of naples yellow and white and thickened it up a bit with Maroger Medium. Great stuff. Using a small 1/4" filbert bristle, I scooped up gobs of the mixture and laid it in on the edges of the blooms where I wanted the most light. I literally sculpted the flowers. Using a soft 1/2" soft bright sable, I made sweeps to suggest the broader edge of petals as in the flower laying on the table top. I've also pushed in the leaves here as well and suggested some up at the top near the blooms. I made the flower at the top larger to balance the bouquet better. Hmm. Still looking a bit flat at this point.

Well. It may have looked flat, but there wasn't that much left to do. I brightened the background, added some darker notes to the flowers and punched up the details on the vase flowers.

The vase still needed some dimension so I added a few darker notes to it's right side and some lit ones to the left. I created a cast shadow on the vase from the rose that is drooping on the left. Then I added some dimension to the leaves by sculpting them with a palette knife. Final touches were added by putting some lights on the table cloth and deepening the shadow under the vase. A little dab of reflected light on the right side of the vase and I was done. There's a better close up of the flowers on my other blog http://www.susanmartinspar.blogspot.com.

How to paint Poppies in a Landscape in Oil

2008-03-31T19:34:00.000-07:00

"Days of Spring and Poppies", 9" x 12" on canvas panel

This was a quick little landscape I did as a commission piece. I was asked to do some poppies in a landscape and so I dug into a bunch of old photos from California days and put this together from memory and references.

I started with a quick lay-in with some raw umber to define where I thought my darker values should go. I just suggested some tree shapes and distant hills in the background. I wanted the clouds to be big puffy ones that reflected the movement in the rest of the piece. You can see those suggested as well.

So here I've worked in the sky with some cerulean blue and a touch of ultramarine blue and white. The clouds are naples yellow and white.

Basically the muted landscape greens and hills were worked out with mixtures of hookers green, cad hellow, violet, and white. I added bits of blue and ochre to tone the violet. Essentially, I started here with muted grayed mixtures which were merely compliments combined with white or yellow as necessary.

I wasn't sure where I was going with the road yet, but I knew I wanted cool shadows and warm lights, so I used some burnt sienna and white with yellow and touches of cad orange to make the warmer lights. The cool shadows were more of the violets and blues. I dropped in the poppies with mixtures of cadmium red light, cad orange and cad yellow medium. I cooled these appropriately as they moved further back in the landscape.

I put in some shadows to show that there was a drop from the grass into the bowl of the road. At this point the road started to look more like a wash and as that is a common site in California, I decided this was a happy accident that should be emphasized.

Here you can see that I AGAIN forgot to take a picture. This is actually the finished piece. But here's what I did. I brought out the clouds with more heavy brush work and paint and then started to work out the distant trees. I kept these cool gray greens on the left and warmed them on the right with olives and ochres. The sun is hitting the trees on the right and while it may be doing this on the left as well, the side most noticeable to the viewer is in shade. I threw in some highlights though to show some sunlit areas there as well. I punched in some sky holes for the birds to fly through and made some branches for the trees. Using a liner, I picked up a thick dab of orange and layed in a "string" of bright orange for the branches of the trees. The wash was starting to look better too and now I had my palette working for me so I laid in the violet shadows on the wash floor and dropped in some white and burnt sienna mixtures for the very back areas - really pushing the lights. I decided this was spring so there should be some water still left in the wash and brushed a bit of blue with white sparkles into the wash to indicate a puddle. I heightened the detail on the left side of the wash where the walls rise up to meet the grass. This didn't take much as the contrast in values did most of the work.

After laying in the poppies in the foreground, I added a few dabs for detail as these flowers are closer to the viewer. This was all that was necessary to make the the rest of the flowers come to life. Lastly, I added some lighter greens with more yellow in them to brighten the distant grasses.

I cooled the hills in the back a bit and then softened the line where they met the sky by running a dry soft brush over them. Phew. Done.

Painting Tips on Peonies in Cool Light

2008-03-20T16:23:00.000-07:00

"Peonies and Lemons, cool light"
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Suffering from a major headache, I didn't take a lot of pictures today while working. Just pushed through. But I wanted to talk a little bit about this painting because, despite the headache, I really enjoyed working on it today. I started it much the same as I always do with a wash of burnt umber. I knew I wanted a dark background (I'm a sucker for chiarascurro) so I started with my usual base of umber and then added some ultramarine blue to darken it on one side and some naples yellow and raw sienna on the right to lighten it a bit.

The lemons were executed with zinc yellow and bits of black and umber for the shadows. The peonies were simply done and I was amazed at how quickly they popped off my brush. These were done with Alazarin Crimsen, Manganese Violet and touches of cad red light mixed with, of course white. The centers had a bit of cad orange in them. To push the blooms back, I used a bit of the background and some green from the lemons to gray out the reds.

The vase wasn't glazed but instead I just built it out of thick paint and used cobalt blue for the design. I nocked down the white with umber and a bit of naples yellow.

I'm paying a lot of attention to edge control these days and trying to make each brush stroke count. David Leffel says that a poor brush stroke deliberately made is far better than one that has been just splashed on without forethought. I have to agree with this because some of my best work is work that I have been deliberate and totally present for. It's an act of consciousness and a bit of meditation. It takes tons of concentration, and I generally turn off all music in the studio in order to just be present.

I talked about the discipline of "showing up" in one of my posts and today was a good example of that. There are days when the paint just flows off the brush and all the relationships manage to come together. But if you don't show up, it can't happen. I had a miserable headache and the urge to just lie down with a cold compress nearly kept me from walking through the door. I awfully glad I did. This is a beauty of a painting. Painterly but detailed. I love the cool light and feel pretty good about the color relationships as well.

The area of color relationships is another topic altogether. Duane Keiser says, and who am I to argue with the guru, that mixing the right color is pretty much instinctual. It's color relationships that give students the most trouble. I'm not sure if I completely agree with this. I have a couple of students that are really struggling with the issue of temperature. But most do get it pretty quickly. Relationships, though, that's another story. The questions must always be asked when working from life, "is that color warmer or cooler, darker or lighter than the one next to it?" Also, it's not enough to just question the immediate relationship but also how each color affects all the other ones in the painting. What looks fine on the palette often translates to "agh!" on the canvas. I have my students work always with a color wheel next to them.

Enough of these ramblings. I'll be talking more about color relationships and how to better judge them in future posts.

How to paint Hyacinth

2008-03-17T21:06:00.001-07:00

A couple of days ago, I painted my new Le Crueset Pitcher. Today, I decided to use it again for some Hyacinth. I often don't know what I'm going to paint when I go into my studio. And, although, I hate to say this, at times it feels just like a "day job", a dirty word in the world of art. So I have to dig a little for inspiration. This is more common than you think. Most hobbyists claim that they just aren't inspired every day and that's why they choose to only work a couple of days a week in the studio. A professional or serious artist doesn't have that luxury. We have to show up regardless of how we feel about it on any given day. That's discipline. Besides, magic often happens - but not if you don't show up. So, I show up. But sometimes, I have to look for my muse who's more often than not, hiding under the dust bunnies in the corners of the studio.

Sometimes it's just a case of asking myself what would make a good concept to fulfill on canvas. Sometimes, I pour through old sketches or photos I have on disc. But for this and my other blog, I usually go to the market to see what flowers or fruit I can find. Today, I just looked at that yellow pitcher and asked myself what colors would set it off. Well, violet or purple of course. So the course was set. Hyacinth filled the ticket.

I didn't have a canvas that was already toned, so I had to work from one without. No problem. I did a basic layin of the overall shape of the set up using raw umber. Note the close attention to detail. Just kidding.

Once I had the basic shape with a few suggested blooms for inspiration, I began with the background.

Using some raw umber and a bit of Naples Yellow, I started to work in the background tone. I used the Naples Yellow to cool the area surrounding the blooms.

I worked quickly here taking only about 3 minutes or so to lay in this tone.

For some reason, my camera didn't capture all the steps for the vase here so I'll need to talk about them. In the picture to the left, I laid in the table. I didn't have a highly polished table top so I had to invent one. I used burnt umber, cad orange and burn sienna to lay in the table. Then I put in a suggestion of reflection for the yellow pitcher. I also grounded out the pitcher and it's corresponding shadow. The shadows were laid in just before I worked in the table top.

You can also see that I smoothed out the background using a large soft sable brush. Most of the initial layin work is done with large bristle brushes but I like sables for smoothing. You can also note that the light haze around the blooms has changed temperature. I used a bit of raw sienna to change it.

The pitcher is done with a combination of Naples Yellow, Burn Sienna, Cad Orange and a bit of the background color (raw umber) to influence the shadows on the vase. The pitcher remains simplified at this point. I'll come back to it later.

Using a mixture of alazarin crimson (yeah, I know it's fugitive but there's no substitute for this beautiful color), ultramarine blue, umber, and white I made three mixtures for the basic color of the blooms. The ultramarine blue + umber + alizarin crimson mixture was used in the background of the blooms. I laid this color in rather lightly (scrubbing) in the background where I wanted a haze of color without detail. These were to become the blooms in the background out of the light. Then I used my brush to make some small blooms and petals. I tried to vary my strokes here. Everything is still pretty loose. I've included a snapshot of my mixing palette here. This is not my full palette which rests to the side of this one. This is made of glass and I use it for only the colors I'm working with. The other palette with all my colors is open and to the side. This allows me to have the luxury of a large mixing space.

You can just see the three mixtures here that I made for the Hyacinth. The duller one to the bottom then the purer blue/violet above it and the lighter version with white above that.

OK. Moving right along. I mixed some greens for the leaves from a bit of sap green, cobalt blue and white. For the background leaves, I used a bit of the background color to make it fade. I changed this later and I'll point that out and the decision that prompted the change.

You can also see that I've laid in some of the other mixtures here for the flowers. Hyacinth have a lot of little petals which can drive you crazy if you try to paint each one. The best paintings leave something to the imagination so I put in a few petals every few inches and leave the rest for the imaginaton. By using a 1/4" filbert and loading it well, I squish the paint down and twist the handle as I lift the brush. this gives the petal some definition and also some variation in the shading of each petal. I try to break up the shapes by punching in some holes with the background color. Most of the petals to the right are in shadow so no lights yet. The vase remains unfinished.

Here, in the final phase, I darkened the leaves in the background to make them sand out against the lighter haze behind the flowers. On top of the darker blooms, I added the lighter highlighted flowers that were catching the light. For some of these, I mixed in a bit of Naples Yellow to make them stand out against the violets. To help the blooms a bit, I put some quinacradone violet into the blooms and punched up the color a bit in a few places.

The color for the stems was just a bit of cad yellow and some of my green mixture from the leaves with a bit of white. When I put the stems in, I paid careful attention to the character of the stems - how they connected with the blooms and where and how they drooped. Often the character of a thing can be best described with nothing more than an edge or a turn of a corner.

The vase was finished up with some highlights. The shadows were enhanced a bit more with some umber. I took some of the violets and purples from the flowers and brushed them into the table to create the illusion of reflection and did the same for the blooms on the table.

Viola! Finished. Elapsed time: 1hr. 45 minutes (and a quick lunch break).

Oil Painting Lesson on Lilies and Rose.

2008-03-14T18:30:00.000-07:00

Well, a promise is a promise. Today I brought my egg timer into the studio with me and set it for five minute intervals. Sometimes that worked out and sometimes it was too soon to show much progress, so every now and then I waited a few extra minutes and then took the picture.

OK. First I started with an initial layin. If you've been watching this blog, then you're aware that I start my layins with a burnt umber wash on unstretched canvas. Shadows are really important so I made sure to indicate where they would fall to give me an idea if the value changes would work. With white petals, they're subtle, so I had to be careful of the overall temperature I would allow the background to take.

In order to set the tone, I decided on a cool background so I layed in a quick wash of ultramarine blue toned with some raw umber, white and naples yellow. I then worked in the beginning of the shadow side of the vase. I was careful here to warm the color a bit but use some of the blue from the background.

In the shot above and to the right, I have started to add the shadow color of the cloth as well as some of the lights used in the vase. Note that the lit side is not very bright at this point. As the painting evolves, a conservation of value will take place and I will be better able to judge the value and color relationships. It's easier to go light over dark, than dark over light. If I go too light on the vase, what will I use for it's highlights? I also smoothed the background. Although I like the painterly look of the brush strokes, I feel that they will conflict with the smooth overall look I'm after in this painting and would detract from the main elements.

Here I've put in the shadows of the flowers, keeping the strokes loose. I've also added the lights to the satin cloth (in the photo below left). I used ultramarine blue and alizarin crimsen toned a bit with yellow ochre. For the shadows on the blooms, I used a bit of the background color warmed with umber and naples yellow.

I'm keeping my brush strokes loose here. I'm also using fairly large flats. So far I haven't used a small brush and will resist that until nearly the end.

In the photo to the left, I've added a few strokes of red to the cloth. I've already mixed this color for the grapes and flowers and want to marry the rest of the painting to these colors.

Next I worked in some reds for the grapes. This is a general massing of color. A bit bright and I decide that it needs a bit of darkening. So I add a bit of alizarin crimsen mixed with sap green in the later stages.

We're almost there. I now added the leaves. Using a combination of sap green, cad yellow light and white, I started working in the leaves. I grayed out the ones in the back and pushed them into the background by dragging some of the background color into them.

Now the fun. Using some white, naples yellow and touches of cad yellow light and sap green, I put in the flowers. These went pretty quickly. Lilies are pretty easy to paint. Just a twist or two of the brush and there they are. You can practice these using a 1/2 inch flat. Lay the brush flat for broad strokes and then twist to a thin edge for the ends.

For the details here I moved to a smaller flat. I put in some of the veins on the leaves and the stems on the flowers. You can see a highlight on the vase now and the darker color in the grapes and rose starting to emerge. I've also added the color of the table top. I decided to leave the edge of the table unfinished as this added to the reality of its appearance.

In the final stages, I added some shadows to the "wall" behind the lilies. Some warm highlights to the grapes. They get a bit pink in areas. I also put in some turning edges and brought the darks into play by adding alazarin crimsen mixed with sap green. You can see the rose has emerged here too. Before I moved to the finishing touches on the leaves, I added the highlights to the cloth. Just more of the same color with a bit of naples yellow and white mixture. I kept it loose in pace with the rest of the work.

I put a few dabs of red into the leaves to marry them to the bottom of the painting and tie the whole thing together. Viola! "Rebirth" was born. Total elapsed time: 1.5 hrs.

Le me know if you've gotten anything from this blog. Comments are greatly appreciated. I'm considering adding a video or two to the blog if I can find someone with a camera to do it for me. My Mercury is in retrograde or something as all my computers died in the same month and I'm completely tapped out for this year's technical budget.

I'm still working out the kinks in the blog send subscription. If you'd like to subscribe, just send me an e-mail with your e-mail address by clicking on this link and I'll put you on the send. That way everytime I post, you'll get the lesson complete with photos and links.

"Rebirth", 12" x 17", Oil on canvas panel.

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Painting Lesson on "Le Creuset"

2008-03-12T16:47:00.001-07:00

It's been awhile since I posted and I apologize for that. I've had one problem after another with my computers. Well, over $1500 later, I have a new laptop and a new desktop. Guess you can only put off upgrading for so long. Anyway, here I am and I have a short lesson to show for it.

My Walking buddy returned from her snowbirding with a lovely yellow Le Creuset pitcher for me to paint. I love this beauty and couldn't wait to get it on canvas. It's my new favorite and will be the star of many a painting. Anyway, here's the initial layin.

I started as usual with a basic drawing and an umber wash. This time I used burnt umber for the laying. I generally use raw umber because it's a pretty neutral color and doesn't affect colors layed over it. But in this case, I wanted a bit of warmth to infuse the background.

I started with basic shadows on the table and indicated where I would want some shadow shapes in the background. It's important to establish the "color" of your shadows right away because they often help to establish all the other value and color relationships early in the game. Also, if you're wondering what color to use in your background, often a slightly lighter shade of the shadow color can help you get started on a background color that works with the other objects in the work. I'm essentially a realist painter and a romantic one at that. So I like a warm dark background that doesn't compete with my subject. I cool it according to how much light I want in the painting and also according to the color of my subjects. Here, a warm greenish umber worked well with the yellow pitcher, red apples and white flower.

Here, I've laid in the local color of the pitcher and background. I've used some of the background color to pull into the shadows of the pitcher. This puts the pitcher squarely into it's setting - bring air around it and making it a part of its environment.

I got ahead of myself after this point and forgot to take pictures. I promise to bring a timer in with me next time and set it for 3 minutes or so. I paint rather quickly, so I moved into the finishing stages too quickly to be of much help here. I'll need to be verbose to describe what I did next.

I started quickly putting in the table top. I like to establish the colors surrounding the object to help establish color relationships as soon as possible. So I mixed some burnt umber, cad orange, and a touch of yellow ochre. In places I cooled the top with a mixture of cobalt blue and white and scumbled in into the table top. I left the reflections of the objects until after I painted them. I wanted to get the leaves in before I painted the flowers, so I mixed some sap green and a touch of cobalt and then used a dab of umber to darken the leaves. In the back leaves, I again used a bit of the background color mix to help push them back into shadow. The underside of magnolia leaves are reddish ochre in color and that's exactly how I painted them.

Now - onto the flowers. I created a mixture of white, naples yellow and a touch of background color for the shadows and brushed the shadows of the leaves in next.

I kept this mixture loose. I didn't want to tighten up too much on the flowers so I squinted at the whole flower and tried to generalize the overall shape that I saw. Into this grayish/umberish back drop, I painted the petals keeping the miture clean. I used white, naples yellow and touches of yellow ochre to create the lighter petals.

I then went back to the pitcher and put in some highlights and painted some reflections in cooler, lighter variations of the yellow. Then taking just small amounts of this yellow, I dragged my brush downward to create the reflections on the table top. Now on to the apples. These were a bit of a challenge as they were neither red or yellow nor green, but combinations of all of these. I pulled some cad red and some alazarin crimsen together and then toned the mixture with some sap green. This became my local color which I either warmed or cooled according to need. The highlight on the apple all the way to the left was basically pink, so, hell, I painted it that way. Worked fine. The highlight on the apple to the right was greenish white, so that's how I painted it. The meat of the apple was simply naples yellow and a touch of umber for shadow parts and white for the lit parts. I dragged more apple color down for reflections on the table. A tweak here and there, and the painting was done. Next time, I promise more photos.

Pink Peonies and Pears, Painting Lesson, 11" x 14"

2008-02-23T14:00:00.000-08:00

So here it is Saturday and I bounced out of bed - well nearly, went for my morning walk and came back eager to finish "Peonies and Pears". Not a very inspired title, I'll admit, but when you do as many of these as I do, it's easy to run out of creative ideas for titles.

The first thing I did was mix a glaze of Maroger Medium and Alizarin Crimsen with a touch of Ultramarine Blue. I used this glaze to create the flower pattern on the vase and to deepen the color on some of the petals. It's important to know that form in such a vase takes care of itself once you add the pattern. The pattern or design actually helps to describe the form of the vase. Next I mixed some other glazes for the vase which consisted of Viridian Green with a bit of umber to tone it down. There is also some blue - Cobalt in the flowers as well as yellow. Then using a liner brush, I accented some of the smaller flowers in the design to heighten the sense of detail in the painting.

I used some Naples Yellow and a touch of white to scumble in highlights on the pears (there's a bit of Sienna too) and then used some Naples Yellow, white and Raw Sienna to scumble in highlights on the satin cloth. Some more of the same mixture was used to heighten the stems of the pears and create the stems on the grapes. Lastly, I added a highlight to the vase. Viola! The finished piece. Second session elapsed time, 45 minutes. Phew. The grapes look a bit purple here. Having some trouble with Photoshop today.

"Peonies and Pears"
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Painting Less on Pink Peonies and Asian Vase, 11" X 14"

2008-02-22T16:50:00.000-08:00

Pretty huh? This is the set up for my next lesson. Now the challenge is to paint it. I decided that because it's so complex, I would give myself two short sessions for this painting. I also determined that a little glazing was in order for the vase. So I shook out the cobwebs, stirred up some paint and got down to business.

In the photograph on the right, you can see that again, I have transferred a drawing to the canvas and toned it with a little burnt umber. I used acrylic here after fixing the drawing and just applied a light wash. For most of my daily paintings, I use Fredrix unstretched canvas pads. This is not paper, but actual primed canvas. I just tape it to my board. If the painting sells on EBay, then I trim and back it for the customer's convenience. If it fails to sell, I leave a white border and put it in my print bin at the gallery for sale. I only work on hardboard or stretched canvas for pieces I plan to frame.

Using raw umber, I laid in most of the shadow tones. I did this just using a wash to indicate where a shadow will be. Then in the next step (see the photo below right),I used some cadmium yellow and a bit of Naples yellow to cool the umber for parts of the background.

I like to lighten some of the "air" around the flowers as this adds some atmosphere and lends depth to the space. For the cloth, I just indicated where the darker shadows would be. I left them warm in temperature. On the vase, just a thin wash of umber was used to indicate where the shadow pattern would fall. It's important at this step - and the next - to establish the color of the shadows. This is both cast shadow and the mid- tone of the objects themselves. I use a little of the background color in the shadows and objects themselves as this brings atmosphere to the painting and creates color harmony. I've done this in the shadows of the blooms too. Remember that too much color will quickly overwhelm a painting. Grays and subtle tones will make just a small amount of color sing.

I've also used some of the background color to make the shadow side on the vase. I'm using thicker paint on the lighted side of the vase here but I'm mixing some Maroger Medium into it to facilitate drying. I plan on painting the design in glazes on the second pass tomorrow. I've also now added the deeper shadow tones of the flowers - all but obscuring the details of the petals. These were just a guide line for me anyway. To paint each detailed petal would have belaboured the piece. In order to get atmosphere into the pears, I have dragged some of the background color down into them. The grapes, rather dark at this point, were done with some Alazarin Crimsen and a touch of cad red with a drop of ivory black. "Gasp...BLACK????", you ask. Yes black. Where would Valasquez have been without black. Anyway I never NEVER use black in the shadows. I figure what was good enough for Valasquez and David Leffel is good enough for me.

OK. Moving on. Things are beginning to shape up a bit.

I've added more tones to the cloth and have used a bit of raw sienna and cadmium yellow medium, cooled with white to bring out it's lights. Using Alazarin Crimsen and a touch of Cadmium Red Light, I've made two mixtures for the flowers. One lighter and one half-tone. I used a large filbert to do the petals and laid the paint on pretty thick there for texture. I also went back in with a bit of Alazarin Crimsen mixed with some Ultramarine Blue to put some depth on the the flower on the right. I've inceased the volume and height of the top flower as well. You can also see that I've leveled out the vase, smoothing in the highlighted area. It's tough to see it well,here, but I've also added a bit of glow to the grapes. A tiny touch of Cadmium Red Light to the grapes brings out a nice glow. Don't forget that even grapes have turning edges and a core shadow is useful even on a small object like a grape. I've used some warm and cool highlights on the grapes and the tail of a brush to create some texture. The pears are beginning to shape up. I've pushed back the pear on the right and tomorrow will glaze into the one on the left to bring it around to where I want it. Same for the flowers. The paint is quite wet and thick at this point and I need a bit of drying time to glaze into them. Most of my edges, except for the flower on the right, are soft. The pear still needs work. Elapsed time 1.5 hrs. Drop by tomorrow for the finale.

Changes to "Morning Dreams" Nude

2008-02-10T10:33:00.000-08:00

"Morning Dreams" indeed. More like morning light! I went into the studio to look at last night's painting and saw all kinds of things that needed correcting. So out came the brushes and palette. Here's the much improved piece.

The core shadows on the figure around her hips appeared at first to be too dark. I softened the core shadow line and increased and smoothed out the shadow to the left of the core. Now the rest of her needed some adjustment so I darkened and glazed into the other core shadows on her along her legs and arm. This improved things dramatically. I also extended her fingers which are bent and in shadow, but looked odd in the first painting. A little scumbling to the highlights fixed things up just fine. The finished piece is much better. The goodness for second chances.

Painting a small nude

2008-02-09T16:26:00.000-08:00

Most of the work my on-line audience sees from me is "Ala Prima". This means work done "all at once" or in a short painting session. I rather consider Ala Prima work to be my bread and butter stuff. It's a great way to learn because you can do a lot in a short while. The brush strokes are retained and the painting looks "fresh". But while this is the work most often visible from me on line, there is a vast difference between this work and my, well, high end, work. I say, high end, because I generally spend many weeks on one of these and can hardly afford to sell them at EBay prices.

Essentially, I'm a classical realist painter. I fell in love with painters like Rembrandt, Caravaggio, Georges de La Tour and many of the Dutch painters while growing up. It's the work I aspire to. Ah well..."aspire" is the word.

Anyway, today's lesson is a small piece that I did as a study for a larger "high end" piece I plan to do. I was inspired by Jacob Collins' "Lisa". I was looking for a link to this painting earlier and if I find one, I'll put it in here. I chose my favorite model "A" for this piece and she posed in a variety of positions. I chose this layout because it's pretty similar to "Lisa", although somewhat in reverse.

I started by transfering a small sketch to a piece of canvas mounted on board. Instead of working the shadows in the way I generally do on an Ala Prima, I covered the entire piece with an "imprimatura" or tone of burnt umber oil paint. "A" is outlined with a bit of acrylic to allow her to show through the imprimatura.

In the next step, I start removing or pulling out the highlights with a brush dipped in mineral spirits. This is tricky step for those not acquinted with this style of underpainting. However, if you can master it, it brings great rewards. I use very soft brushes for this if I want to really refine the underpainting. However, for this study, I kept things simple.

In the next step, I started working in color. I used a little burnt umber + yellow ochre and white for some of the mid tones. I also used a mixture of burnt umber, raw umber and alizarin crimson to get in the turning edges on the figure.

You can see these steps taking form in the image below. Highlights were mostly a bit of Naples Yellow and white. Where the flesh reflected flesh, there were some orangey/red tones and I put these down in the transitional areas. Some of her flesh had pinkish hues where it turned. This was achieved with the same mix as highlights but with a bit of Alazarin Crimson mixed in. I use Maroger as a glazing medium. It allows for long painting sessions and although this wasn't that long a session it still allowed a bit of glazing toward the end.

Here I also started to work in the drapery. I kept it simple but tried to keep the movement of the cloth in the same rythym as the figure. Obviously "A's" face is not the most important part of this painting and so I kept that simple as well. In the last stage, I smoothed transitions and added more highlights to a few places. I also put a nice glow on her hip with some cadmium orange mixed with Alizarin Crimson (love that stuff - fugitive albeit).

Obviously, this is not a polished painting and still falls in the category of "ala prima". But it is a bit more finished than some of my pieces displayed here. I'll be doing some lessons on more layered/polished pieces from time to time, so stay tuned. Don't forget to check out my daily painting blog also!

"Morning Dreams"

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Peonies...Ala Prima and other issues

2008-02-03T14:02:00.001-08:00

I've been dealing with a new problem which, for an artist, is a bummer. Dry eye. Seems I've had it for a long time but it never bothered me much. Lately, however, it's causing me to miss full days in the studio. My eyes become so painful, I can't focus them on the subject or the paint. Thought it was the paint fumes, but even when I locked myself out of the studio for a few days, it didn't improve. Medications seem to affect it and I'm on a campaign to find something that will help besides the usual drops and flax seed oil.

OK. Complaints aside, I did manage to get into the studio for a little while. I consider my ala prima paintings to be my day job. Now that's not a bad thing. I enjoy this work and learn a lot from doing it, but I have to work at getting inspired some days. Here's one I did for my daily painting blog and like before, I'll illustrate a little of how I did it.

First, here's the set up.

As usual, I put a little burnt umber gesso on the piece of unstretched canvas (later to be backed on board)and taped off the 11" x 14" format.

As you can see, I just set off the area I wanted to fill using some dark umber

paint. I then started to block in the shadows and the background. I used mixtures of Alazarin Crimson and Cadmium Red Light to make the flower colors. The shadow color here on the blooms was a mixture of Alizarin Crimson and umber with a touch of Ultramarine Blue.

The details were only a matter of putting in the lights. I find that Naples Yellow makes for a brighter white than just white and that it also warms

the pinks other light areas. I tried to keep the paint thick for the lights. In areas where I wanted the flowers to come forward a bit, I pushed the background back by cooling it. I generally use a sort of green umberish background for my still lifes because it gives a feeling of atmosphere. But here I just wanted to try a little color in the background. I captured a bit of atmosphere by using the background color in the vase and the blooms as well. In the photo above, you can barely see the Asian bell starting to appear. I bring it to life in the last step when I lay in the greens and adjust shadows and lights on the table. Here's the final image.

"Peonies and Asian Bell"

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The genesis of a sunflower painting, ala prima

2008-01-28T15:28:00.000-08:00

It's been awhile since I posted here. I've been so busy trying to keep up with my other work, that I let this one slide. I've been wondering what it is I'd like to write about so I asked myself what I talk about the most. That's easy. My business - the art business that is. And I love to teach. So here it is, my very first on-line teaching snippet.

I did an quick ala prima (that means "all at once") painting today that I posted on my Daily Painting blog and I'm going to show interested parties - whoever you are - how I painted it.

So...first comes a picture of the actual setup I use. As you can see here, I use a back drop made of cardboard with some plain black, non reflective, wool clipped to it. I've arranged it next to a north facing window to bring cool north light onto the set up.

I prepared a piece of 8" x 10" unstretched canvas which I then taped to a piece of board. If this were a larger more detailed or finished piece, I would actually prime the canvas with a thin layer of burnt umber oil color and then lift out the highlights. But here I just toned the piece with a little red ochre gesso.

Next, I did a quick indication with a few lines of umber oil paint where I wanted the bouquet to fall. I figured I only had an 8" x 10" format within which to make a statement and I wanted the flowers to take full stage, so I made them a bit larger and reduced just slightly the size of the green glass vase. The cloth is just the stage on which it all sits here, so I minimalized it in the block in.

Below you can see the actual color block in. This was done with thin color. I use local color here - that's the obvious color of the actual object - green, blue, etc. I had some premixed violet and purple from my last Hyacinth painting left and figured it would work well with the yellow blooms. That's because violet is a compliment to yellow and helps to set off the yellow and make it appear more vibrant. As you can see, the flowers are not actually painted in here. I save them

for last. There's no highlights or detail yet either. More detail is added in the next phase.

Here you can see the details starting to come to life. I've added the petals and refined the vase a bit. I've worked on the background here too by making some areas darker and others lighter.

In the final phase of the painting, I've refined the petals by adding some darks to the inside edges, put in more highlights with some pretty thick paint and added brights to the cloth. The vase is more refined as well. Viola "Shinshine on a Winter's Day". Once dry, the canvas will be trimmed and mounted on board.

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Hey...anyone there?

2008-01-02T17:34:00.000-08:00

OK. So here it is. My first post to "Musings". I don't consider myself a "chatty" person so this isn't as easy as it looks. I mean, sometimes I don't have anything interesting to talk about and often I'm just going in confused circles in my head. Scary. Especially scary because I'm inviting others to participate in this venture. Just starting this additional blog as an addendum to my daily painting one was a huge first step. So give me a break today and I'll try to be more glib tomorrow. Right now I have a cat sleeping on my lap and my back is screaming at me to take a break and lay down. My studio is calling, bills need paying and my stomach is pushing me to go cook dinner. The stomach always wins. Later.