Aug 6 - The Wolves Amost Done

How about this for a progressing painting? It is the acrylic, and I'm about 4/5 done with it, all caught on tape for the DVD! I'm quite pleased with it so far--the "feel" of the overcast twilight look of it, and the definitive wolfish features in the wolves. I showed how I use what I call "The Foot" tool to pull and push the paint to create the shrubbery and how adding veiled layers creates the feel of the snow. I'll finish it tomorrow, and then will spend every spare moment capturing the files off the tapes and onto master "dot mov" files for DVD Studio Pro to assemble. Three hour-long tapes on this project, so I'll have to do major surgery to get the "good stuff" out onto the hard drives. It is a love-hate relationship--takes so much time, but oh, so rewarding!

The painting at this stage is a lot of fun--making every area more interesting than the last, and yet subordinating each area as necessary to keep from the yet-to-come sunlit patch on the snow and white wolf. Oh, the drama!

The glass project sample has gone off for the lamination and the next round on the best glass will commence probably this next week. But first a visit from my niece who is going into the Navy this fall, and I'm so proud of her. We'll spend some quality time together and perhaps get down to tour the Midway aircraft carrier while she's here. (Link opens a new window.)

And my three online art appreciation courses open up on Monday, so I am going to be one busy puppy! All courses are full with ten people signed on wait lists, so it promises to be a busy semester.

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November 13 - Demonstration Snow Scene for Corona Art Association

Last night I was the guest demonstrator for the Corona Art Association, in the town just west of where I live. A very nice group of artists came out for the evening, and many I hadn't seen in a while (Mary!). I painted this 16 x 12 acrylic during the demonstration, starting with a toned canvas panel on my new Easyl.

I used a burnt orange color to get rid of that white surface, choosing a warm color to offset the dominant cool colors to come. The design was drawn without reference from memories of snow scenes I've seen in the past. Although I didn't take "in process" steps as a lesson series for you, I will do my best to explain how it came to this point.

First, I used the cool pill box colors entirely for 98% of the image. I laid in the large darks where the pines and spruce trees were to go, and also using that mix of burnt umber and ultramarine blue, the water area.

Then the rest of the canvas was covered with varying shades of the three ever-useful sky colors: Ultramarine blue, alizarin crimson and yellow ochre, lightened with titanium.

Controlling the opacity of the mixes was important, so that underpainting shows through as the layers became lighter. I wanted that translucency of frozen water to convince the viewer of the layers of snow.
After the break (the Corona Art Association is to be commended for the great hospitality--I didn't need dinner!) I came back and "finally" opened the warm box, where I used cadmium orange tinting the titanium white for the final sunny areas. Holding off the accent areas until the final colors are put in helps keep the rest of the painting interesting. Then those highlights become the "plink" to finish it off.

Many artists put too much importance too soon on that "plink". Far better to have a really good painting, and then add that "plink".

On the home front, we came back from Chicago with "Onslow!" Puppy breath and happy wiggles... Here he is with our old German Pinscher. He's about 6" tall. She's 16".




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