Repost - Dec 1 - To the Snow, and The Snow Painting

The painting has tons more details at this phase, but it isn't finished yet. There are many areas that are too rough for what I like to see in my work nowadays, and so I'll need to work over those areas before calling it quits and signing it. I don't have the sunrays coming through the trees yet, either. Tomorrow!

Even with oils, it is possible to work into wet paint and put those filmy sunrays shining through. How? By careful handling of your brush. It should almost be flat against the canvas to keep from disturbing layers underneath. Even my stiff filberts can do this delicate task when held horizontally near the canvas.

The snow in the foreground feels mighty cold right now, unlike the snow I experienced yesterday on my ski day at Snow Summit!!!!

Thirty-three years later, and I am back on the slopes! The equipment has changed, but the snow's the same! I had such a good time with a group of fellows in my age range, and we skied our buns off! I even put a couple short, less than one-minute movies on YouTube here, and here. Yeah, that's my shouts of joy and laughter in there! Couldn't help myself...SO much fun!

I'm definitely going back again....
The newest DVD on the Color System is HERE
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.

Dec 2 - Skiing Again! And Snow Painting, too!

The painting has tons more details at this phase, but it isn't finished yet. There are many areas that are too rough for what I like to see in my work nowadays, and so I'll need to work over those areas before calling it quits and signing it. I don't have the sunrays coming through the trees yet, either. Tomorrow!

Even with oils, it is possible to work into wet paint and put those filmy sunrays shining through. How? By careful handling of your brush. It should almost be flat against the canvas to keep from disturbing layers underneath. Even my stiff filberts can do this delicate task when held horizontally near the canvas.

The snow in the foreground feels mighty cold right now, unlike the snow I experienced yesterday on my ski day at Snow Summit!!!!

Thirty-three years later, and I am back on the slopes! The equipment has changed, but the snow's the same! I had such a good time with a group of fellows in my age range, and we skied our buns off! I even put a couple short, less than one-minute movies on YouTube here, and here. Yeah, that's my shouts of joy and laughter in there! Couldn't help myself...SO much fun!

I'm definitely going back again....
The newest DVD on the Color System is HERE
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.

February 24 - Plein Air Artists Visit, and the Lesson Continues (Horses in Snow)

It was a very busy day, with the Plein Air Artists of Riverside coming over to paint for a full day, including a pot luck at the end of it. I did manage to get a good start on the two horses painting though, and share it with you tonight (or tomorrow morning, if that's when you get these!)
Although the voting was almost equal for the sketches, I chose the upper right one because of the possibility of making large areas of textural interest in the dormant trees and shrubs. Toning the canvas first to "get rid of the high value white", I sketched in the location of the shrubs, the two horses and that all-important counter balance in the gate on the right.
I changed the location of the darker horse, moving him away from the red one because the negative shape formed by the area between them was odd looking and very distracting. Sometimes designing paintings is more about those negative space areas than the actual subject! Note that the negative space areas (where most of the snow will be going) are all different shapes and sizes. That's good design--making related areas without repetition by an infusion of variety.
Note, too, that I painted some of the three dimensional form of the horses...just can't leave 'em flat. Now that I have the initial lay in with the values established for my dark areas, tomorrow I cover the canvas with lots of paint, getting those big shapes in place.