Lost World

I've been browsing around on wet canvas quite a bit of late and found an old link on pouring. It sparked an interest. We did a bit of pouring and using of salt and saran wrap, last year when I took a painting class from Jana. At the time, I was trying to learn more techniques for photo realistic painting. Of late, I've been trying to get away from such controlled and detailed painting, so the pouring on WC grabbed my interest.

In reality, I started out way too dark for a first pour but my "images" popped out and for me, were in the right places anyway, so it worked out fine. Looking at it last night I was going to paint on it to bring out what I see, but decided it would be more fun for the viewer to fine their own things...It was fun and did take me off in a different direction. I may try another one soon and see if I can "control" the out come a little more. Gawd! I get away from control, just to try and recapture it! LOL

Rock and Gulls

I liked the way the gull in front of the rock turned out, the one over the water, not so much. I'm not pleaded with the composition, was going to add another couple of rocks in the back ground but it had turned windy and cold so I finished the water and left... I have found that trying to add things later, even if the pigment is dark enough to cover, muddies up the painting, so here it stands.

The horizon line is straight in the painting, during the shooting and cropping things go askew...

More Practice Sketches

Here's more practice sketches; I'm going to try adding the url's for them but not entirely sure what order they will load in. I'd like some feed back on what I've done right, what I can improve and how. Thanks in advance.

http://www.wetcanvas.com/RefLib/showphoto.php?photo=59366&cat=57

http://www.wetcanvas.com/RefLib/showphoto.php?photo=24593&cat=55

http://www.wetcanvas.com/RefLib/showphoto.php?photo=78777&cat=55

Practice people sketches 2

Here are another couple of practice sketches I did, again, using photos from the Image Reference Library on Wet Canvas. If I keep at it maybe one of these days I'll be able to "read" the important defining lines and get them down quickly enough to do "live" sketches and get at least fairly accurate representations of the people that I see around me. That's the plan anyway.

Great Blue

On a hike with the dogs the other morning, I looked across the water and spotted this Heron looking for something to eat...He stayed in the same position for long enough for me to quickly grab a sketch of him...

forgot to leave enough white of the paper to suggest waves...I need someone to follow me around and remind me of all these little details...LOL

practice people sketches 1

One of the things I want to learn to do is quick sketches of people. Today I spent a few minutes practicing sketching from some of the photos in the Image Reference Library at Wet Canvas. Was trying to work quickly, pull predominant lines and capture some of the shadows. I had a difficult time working with a pen. The gentleman in the lower left corner had dark skin but was closer in age to the other gentleman sitting with him than my sketch shows. Some of them came out better than others. Pushing out of the comfort zone, it's what's it's all about...

Just playin' with color

The idea here was to just stay as loose. I wanted to do something colorful but I didn't want a lot of detail. This didn't come out quite like the picture that I had in my mind but I did manage to stay fairly loose. I painted and I had fun, that's the important part, right?

Crooked Little House

Spent a couple of days at Harris Beach, Oregon. I went for a walk early one morning and did a this sketch. I took a lot of artistic liberties with this one, at least as far as the house is concerned...I am sure the owner would love to be the only one on the bluff and with his own private stairs to the beach. Instead his neighbor has the stairs and his house is in the second row back, it is also much larger than it is here, though. The landscape is pretty accurate and I enjoyed painting it, that's the important part.