Digital charcoal portrait of Fred, my best friend's father.
Monday 21 May 2007
Saturday 7 April 2007
Goswick beach
A lovely area of coast in Northumberland, England. We stayed there in the hot summer of 2006, with the home educators. Done in Corel Painter with oils.
Thursday 5 April 2007
daffodil
A corel painter job, based on a photo that I took. I sketched the outline, then blocked in the main colours using the Sargent brush and the oily wet blender. Pulled the colours around a bit with one of the smudgers and added some highlights.
Sunday 18 March 2007
mountain scene
another digital watercolour done with Corel Painter IX. It is has a very nice watercolour component in the program, the paints behave very much like they do in real life.
seascape
I've been having some fun with Corel Painter IX on my laptop today, in conjunction with an Intuit pad. The great thing about this is that when my daughter Libby asks if she can help with the painting, it is not a problem. Just create another layer for her to have fun on. That's not quite so easy with the real thing!
Saturday 17 March 2007
snow landscape
Finally the shadows on and from the trees, ultramarine blue and burnt sienna mix. Weak in the distance, strong and sharp in the foreground. The nearest one is from a tree outside of the frame.
snow landscape 7
Now for the detailed work on the branches, with the rigger. This was done with a well-loaded rigger, going straight and then a quick change in direction, and then a flick up. Same for the twigs.
snow landscape 6
added some snow on the trees with some white acrylic, and a few twigs in the foreground, both done with the rigger brush.
snow landscape 5
some dry brush work with ultramarine blue and a hint of red mixed in. Some weak burnt sienna wash for the distant texture.
snow landscape 5
some dry brush work with ultramarine blue and a hint of red mixed in. Some weak burnt sienna wash for the distant texture.
snow landscape 3
Put in some quinacridone gold, which is very similar to raw sienna. Then added some ultramarine blue to the wash and painted the shadow side of the tree, wet in wet. Distant hills with ultramarine blue, touch of violet and burnt sienna. Hard edges softened with tissue paper.
snow landscape 2
Wet the sky area with clean water on a big brush. Once it has become a little bit less wet, paint in the sky with (from the top down) ultramarine blue, cerulean blue, violet, and a bit of red. Let it dry completely (20 mins by itself, 3 mins with a hair-dryer). I also took out the pigment in the trees with some toilet paper.
Sunday 11 March 2007
Puddle lane - work in progress
Done with watercolours, trying to achieve a bit of reflection in the puddles on this lane.
Sunset
Had a go at a watercolour sunset, a twenty minute job while I was staying in a hotel in London, at the end of a long and tiring day.
quick, easy mountain and trees
Mostly done with a fan brush, except for the birds (rigger) and the branch detail in the trees (finger nail).
Water colours.
Sunday 4 March 2007
Watercolour landscape
Finally a red blob and a couple of brown sticks for the fisherman. Total time was about 30 minutes (used a hairdryer this time for drying!).
watercolour landscape 9
Now for the water, with ultramarine blue gently stroked across to try and use the rough surface of the paper to create a bit of sparkle. Some darker shades added here and there for shadows and contrast.
watercolour landscape 7
Now for the distant trees and a bit of shadow underneath them. The trees were done with a few dabs of a big brush with a weak wash of aliziron crimson, blue and burnt sienna, then softened with toilet paper. When dry, a bit of detail was added in with the rigger brush and the shade underneath.
watercolour landscape 6
carefully removed the tape and put in some colours for the middle and foregrounds. Made the colour a bit thicker and warmer for the foreground to provide recession.
watercolour landscape 5
Softened the cloud shadow with toilet paper and added in some distant hills, softened them too with the toilet paper.
watercolour landscape 4
I wetted the clouds with clean water and dropped in a bit of shadow (ultramarine blue, aliziron crimzon and burnt sienna).
watercolour landscape 3
Then some ultramarine blue wash for the main part of the sky, and a weak aliziron crimzon for the bit just above the horizon. I took colour out of the sky for the cumulus clouds with toilet paper.
watercolour landscape 1
I started off with a short horizon line about 2/3 of the way down, then worked in a bit of land around that.
Friday 2 March 2007
daisies between two rocks
Moira said this would have been good if Daniel (aged 8) had done it. Well, I think that is accurate. For some reason I found this Frank Clarke lesson quite difficult to follow, but I still enjoyed it and learnt from the experience. The nice thing about acrylics on canvas is that you can always paint over it once it's dry. If at first you don't succeed, destroy all the evidence :-)
Monday 26 February 2007
tulip
Done with watercolours, from a tutorial on the painting and art channel today (www.saa.co.uk). Nice tutorial, and I enjoyed doing my first flower in watercolours. The shadow under the leaf on the right side worked out well, really looks like it's bent over.
Sunday 25 February 2007
Pond life
This was great fun, especially as my son Daniel joined in. A quick watecolour (took less than half an hour) with just three colours - ultramarine blue, burnt sienna and hooker's green.
Based on a tutorial on the painting and drawing channel from saa.co.uk.
Saturday 24 February 2007
sea-scape
The one great thing you can do with acrylics that is a lot more difficult with watercolours is that once it is dry you can rework bits that you don't like, add light bits over dark bits, and so on. I've added some shade to the rocks and waves and improved the definition of the waves by deepening the colour just under their white caps. I also tried to give the shore a bit more texture by gently splattering the sand (while covering up the sea with a bit of paper).
Friday 23 February 2007
Odet's sea-scape
Did this one at the home-ed art group this morning, based on a Frank Clarke DVD tutorial that I had watched. Enjoyed this morning session a lot. Acrylics on canvas sheet.
Thursday 22 February 2007
country lane
Add a card-board cut-out frame and hang it up.
Nice to be reminded of those hot summer days on a grey day like today.
country lane 9
shadows added in with a thin wash comprising of ultramarine blue and burnt sienna. Windows, roof-line, walls, plants.
country lane 9
shadows added in the a washing comprising of ultramarine blue and burnt sienna. Windows, roof-line, walls, plants.
country lane 8
used a mix of light yellow with a touch of bright red for the road. Did a bit more work on the distant trees, wet in wet, to loose the band of sky that was shining through and to give them a bit more texture.
country lane 7
Loads more vegetation, and the shadow sides of the building done with a thin wash of ultramarine blue with a touch of burnt sienna to warm it up a bit. I also used this was for the windows, leaving abit of white here and there on the windows to indicate reflections.
country lane 6
Just added some vegetation around the fence to show it up. I used a wet in wet for this, first with the green, then added in some dabs of burnt sienna, raw umber and bright red.
Country lane 5
Now for the wall, using burnt umber and burnt sienna, making it a bit darker on the shadow side.
country lane 4
After a cup of tea to let the trees dry, I did the roofs with a mix of burnt sienna and a little bit of bright red.
country lane 3
I made up a light green by mixing a light yellow and a bit of ultramarine blue. I made this a bit darker by adding more blue for the trees and bushes in the foreground, and added in a bit of burnt umber for variety. I used my finger nail to scratch out some branches.
country lane 2
next was the sky, using a thin ultramarine wash and a big flat brush. I went right over the trees and then sucked out a bit of pigment to make the cloud by scrunching the clean brush down on the paper and then washing it out.
country lane 1
I thought it might be nice to have a few pics to show the whole process. This is a sketch to outline the main features. I started with the road, and then worked around that. So next I did the verticals on the buildings, then the roofs, finally the windows, always checking that the perspective looks ok. Then the other bits like the fence, trees, wall and so on.
Wednesday 21 February 2007
watercolour landscape in progress
Started this one, based on a demo in Charles Evan's book Quick and Clever Watercolour Landscapes, which is a lot of fun. I spent about ten minutes on this so I've got a bit more to do on this one tomorrow....at least I'm off to a running start.
Sunday 18 February 2007
scene from the Canaries
I did this watercolour from one of Frank Clarke's dvd's. Nice and quick and easy. Have a look at www.simplypainting.com, there's some good free stuff there.
Saturday 17 February 2007
Mountain scene
Felt the need for a big mountain scene today. This was done with oils on primed hardboard, 36 x 46cm.
Thursday 15 February 2007
North Shield's art session
This is a wet-on-wet oil painting done on canvas, using Bob Ross' book "The Best of The Joy of Painting". Took about an hour. I did it at one of our home education groups, and my son and one of his friends also had a go and were delighted. It gives me such pleasure to see children enjoy artwork and become enthused to do more.
It was Bob who first got me into painting, about a year ago. I watched his shows on the TV and thought I would give it a try. I was very pleased with the results. Until then I had never thought I would ever get any enjoyment out of painting. What a great shame that he died so young. He gave a lot of people joy from painting.
Wednesday 14 February 2007
Tuesday 13 February 2007
Seascape
Done with oils on canvas. I'm really starting to love oils again. They are messy, but the colours are wonderful and it is such a forgiving medium. Make a mistake? no problem, just blend it in, go over it or make it into something else.
I enjoyed doing this quick painting (took about 30 minutes). Had a hard day at the office and doing this took me away from it all.
Monday 12 February 2007
Pennine Class 185 at Newcastle Central Station
One of my son's favourite trains and one of the newest trains in the world entering service in March 2006. Our very first journey on it was to York, on January 18 2007.
This was done with acrylics on canvas, I limited myself to about 40 minutes.
Sunday 11 February 2007
Fruit still life
This was painted using oils on canvas. This is pretty close to the actual size of the painting.
Saturday 10 February 2007
Breakfast cereal
My aim is to do a small painting each day, mainly to reflect the things of everyday life that I find inspire in me a desire to depict them. In the process I hope to learn more about the art of painting, as I am very much a beginner, and also to share my joy for this wonderful hobby.
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