21. Frosty Morning

Frosty Morning 5x7 oil/wood panel

We had a frosty morning this morning  too... But now the sun is up, frost is melting, and the day is still ahead!!

I do these pretty quick, obviously, and that's part of the point, but after putting this one away and looking at it again I saw a couple of things I thought should happen. And I thought you might be interested in the thought process that goes on.
A. The head is the focal point.  We just sort of naturally are drawn to faces, animal or human..
B. That being said, if it's the focal point, then it needs to have the most contrast, sharper edges, etc.  So I beefed up the light around his face.  Just because something is a certain way in a photo reference, or even in painting from real life,.. doesn't mean we have to paint it that way!!!  Make your statement visually, and do what you have to do to make that happen.
C. I also warmed up the tops of the weeds... light shining through them would be halo'ed around each stem, creating a sort of warm glow in general, since they are thin little blades of grass and stems.... This better portrays the sense that sunlight is hitting them from behind. At least I think so.... What do you think?

20. Jes' Talkin' Cows.....

Jes' Talkin' Cows.....

8x10 oil/wood panel

Two ol' cowboys, talking about... what else... cows! They've been ranching their whole lives.. it's just who they are. I've had the photo reference that is the basis for this painting for quite some time.. my favorite thing? Those suspenders.  Gotta love it.

This is the first painting on the new batch of panels I just made.(thanks, honey, for cutting all of them for me!)  These are such a pleasure to paint on... the roller gives the panel just a little surface... sort of an eggshell, pebbly type surface, which still grabs the brush, but the surface is totally non-absorbent and paint and color stay fresh.

Just a Finish for today....

Got 'Im!!

8x10 oil/panel

I often don\t get to paint on Saturdays, and today is my wonderful hubby's birthday, so I won't get to do a daily.. I did however finish yesterday's work, so thought you might like to see it. About another hour of just finish work.. mostly the background and a bit of the riders...  This one will go to the new gallery here - they are asking for western horse images and I am more than happy to oblige!!

19. Ropers 1

Ropers 1     8x10 oil/panel

Boy, did I have fun with this one!  A friend posted some photos of a local Arizona rodeo he attended, and gave permission to use them for drawing or sketching.  I couldn't wait to start on this one, so actually did it last night late.  I am trying to re-use some old panels, so had scraped down an old 8x10 to use.  Because it is hard (for me) to paint with all the old painting showing through, I just tried to quick sketch the ropers into position and start filling in basic color shapes to cover up what was underneath.  Just was blocking in the basic light and shadow colors.  Once I got to this stage, I decided I liked the loose, rather choppy feel of it. I don't think I'll do much more finishing.. but there's a few details I still need to add, like the guy's rope about to catch the steer, and the fence rails in the back,... small things to add just enough detail to bring it into focus.

Technically, this was more than my allotted hour's work time, more like 2, but what the heck... it's all practice and I had an absolute blast just laying down color.  You can still see a little of the old color in the bottom corner, and around a few edges.. i think I'll leave it!

I called this, optomisically, Ropers 1, because there's a couple more shots I want to paint.  Look for more I hope!

18. Perched Pear

Perched Pear 5x7 oil/linen

Well I thought about titling it "Pear Perched on a PartidgeWhich is Perched on a Tree" (tree not shown) but  that seemed a bit lengthy.

17. John Deere and a re-do

Ol' John Deere 5x7 oil/linen

from photo reference kindly supplied by Ron Swearingen

Today's effort  was to practice "a brushstroke laid is a brushstroke stayed". (quote from artist Larry Seiler).

In other words, make each stroke count - look before you leap, pay attention,  hold hands before crossing, etc. etc.

This was fun... picking a subject that, for me, was not the usual, meant I couldn't slip into blending or painting what I know.  I briefly sketched this out with some thin paint, just to get the general lay of the land, and then started filling in color.  I did pre-mix 4 greens - a cool highlight color, the local rich green color, a darker warm green, and finally a very dark shadow color.  I didn't mix enough and had to re-mix, not exactly matching (note to self for next time: use more paint!)  The pre-mixing did help basically choose one of those four categories for the shape I was painting.

Now's a good time to remember a very simple, but extremely important adage from fellow artist Stapleton Kearns.  That is:

Everything is either in the light, or in the shadow.

I know that sounds simple, but if you will look next time you go to set up to paint, and categorize every shape - is it in the light, or is it in the shadow?   - then you will be able to manage both your values and colors to create a believable image.  Knowing what parts of this ol' tractor were getting direct light, indirect light, and shadow made painting it a breeze.

and the re-do?  From yesterday.. I realized I had set myself up for failure having not planned my values well.
So, I scraped down that white pony and re-painted him in a dark value. duh... makes so much more sense. I don't know if this made a huge difference in the appeal of this particular painting, but, I had to try it.

15. Above Jemez Springs

Above Jemez Springs, 5x7 oil/panel

Well, today is another effort to combine the daily painting exercises with a more complete work.  I have to do this because of time constraints. I worked hard to make purposeful brush strokes - the horse started out as just a thin wash of shadow color all over, and then came back later and painted thickly where the light would hit. A tiny bit of reflected light on him, and that's it. If you click on the photo and view the enlarged view, you can see there's a good bit of impasto.  You can probably also see I really need new brushes!

The original plan was to have the foreground figure against a very muted, very pale,background. However, when i started working on a white horse against the light background, there just wasn't enough value contrast.

So the background got a bit darker.  I'm thinking I might go back in and re-state it REALLY light, but for today, the allotted time had passed, and I needed to get on to other things...

Though the horse and rider are mostly from a photo reference, the landscape is real.. it is on top of one of the mesas above our little village of Jemez  Springs...  That's our winter training ground because while we might be buried in snow up here, it's usually not..