Jan 22 - "The Dog Walker" Lesson Continues

I'm doing what I always do--cover the canvas with the abstract structure by massing in the largest shapes and values. And of course, completely out of the "Cool Box" from the Color System. Not much concern with anatomy at this phase, nor with faces or calligraphic lines. I've found that the big masses draw in the viewer, and then they'll spend a pleasurable amount of time wandering through the variances and nuances of the lines and subtle value and hue changes, once entranced by the big structure. That's no mystery--the great illustrators of the last century made a point of doing this, too. Look into the work of Howard Pyle--and his students N. C. Wyeth, Maxfield Parrish, Violet Oakley, and Elisabeth Shippen Green, among others--to see how powerful the establishment of the big masses is to the overall impact of a painting.

Now that I've sent you on a joy-urney into American Illusatration, I'll just add that my demonstration in Hemet is scheduled for February 10 at 1:30 at the Simpson Center. And the workshops in Georgia are almost full--both weeks! There are still spaces in Florida (pdf file download, application info) at the Carriage Museum grounds (first week in May), and Mt. Desert Island in Maine at the end of August (plein air and Color System week!).

And the weather here has finally turned to rain and wet, yet the mountains are green as an Irish morning. The wildflower show at Two Trees will be spectacular in mid April! Here's a photo of Two Trees taken in June, mostly after the wildflowers, but still showing some of the green of winter rains. It is an idyllic place for an arteest...

You can see my entire blog HERE.
My workshop schedule for 2010 is HERE.
Color System information can be found HERE.
If you need to email me directly, please click here.

Jan 21 - Starting an Acrylic entered into Art Show at the Dog Show

Even while working on the oil of the backlit Labrador, I also had the easel occupied with this acrylic, destined for jurying for the Art Show at the Dog Show. It is a 12 x 16 board, and the source material was a dog walker spotted outside of the Metropolitan Museum of Art.

You can see my source material printed and set to the left of the canvas. The lighting is overcast, so of course the first layin and the majority of colors will come from the "Cool Box" (Color System).

I was utterly fascinated by the seemingly indifference of the dog walker and the rambunctious Lab pup on the left side just SO wanting to get away and "do something". The white standard poodles, the Golden Retriever, the Catahoula Leopard Dog--yes, there is one in there--and the Newfoundland. My goodness, which category can it be submitted for jurying?

Ah well, I hope you'll enjoy how it unfolds. I'll finish up the oil this week as well and post the finished canvas for you.

Still a few spots in the Color Boot Camp in February--and a demo coming up for the Hemet Valley Art Association, too!

You can see my entire blog HERE.
My workshop schedule for 2010 is HERE.
Color System information can be found HERE.
If you need to email me directly, please click here.

Jan 19 - Working through the "Uglies"

MANY changes from the last posting of this "turkey", and now I no longer call it that... HA! Taking a long, hard look at what came back home with me from the demonstration, I could see easily that I'd lost both the value relationships and the color punch of backlit evening light. So I put myself to and spent a good amount of time working on those aspects of this oil.

It is now to a stage where I'm comfortable signing it, however, I still need to work on the dog's head. It doesn't read "Labrador" to me yet.

What I really do like about this piece is the colorful water int he foreground and the spash. Everything but red is in there and it is so joyful, like the dog, who is painted in muted hues of those same yellows and purples.

So don't give up on the ones that are giving you problems. They can be pulled through to become good paintings. Asking for some advice can provide an independent source of input as well. AS long as the core structure is in place, and the values are moving forward, most paintings can be brought to a finished state without too much work. I hope you enjoyed this one. I'll publish on my other web sites it when I finish the head details.

You can see my entire blog HERE.
My workshop schedule for 2010 is HERE.
Color System information can be found HERE.
If you need to email me directly, please click here.