Johnny's Dock not what I expected

Wine sifter at Johnny's Dock 7x9 watercolor

   So I go to this restaurant thinking 'burgers, fries... laid back joint to grab a bite and sketch'. When I go in I discover it is waterfront wall of glass surrounding the entire dining room with formally dressed tables which all have different bottles of wine at each table- a great place for a rainy day sketch outing. So with all this overwhelming detail out the windows (I only have 2 hours to sketch) I turn inward to the open kitchen portion with stoves, vent-a-hood and their "Best of..." paraphernalia beside the fantastic wine pouring contraption. Although I could not exactly get that nice high contrast glass feel on this study, it was fun to play with the shape.

Portrait in color...beyond trois crayon!

"Jerimiah" 12x12 conte'

   This portrait was my effort to try something more than the conte' sticks. It can be difficult to get detail with the conte' sticks unless you waste them down to produce an edge or just randomly make marks of less precision by the squared stick's side edge. Yet I was gifted conte' pencils and actually tried them after chunking in the mass and was pleased with the results.The best part is the model with his "pony bun" looking like a samurai soldier with the Asian writing in the background which was not planned at all.

Venturing out to Meeker Mansion...100th post!

Meeker Mansion's Kitchen 7x9 watercolor study

   Traveling to Puyallup bought about a fine place to sketch as I joined about 25 other artists in rendering the historical home known as Meeker Mansion. It seems right since this is my 100th entry, to make it an antique (100+) place. We were allowed free reign on two of the three floors to sketch what we liked so of course I had to go to the edge and find a place where the sign reads "no entrance". After the efforts and a spot of lunch I went wandering the antique shops of Puyallup, or as I call it "prop shopping" for my still life set ups. I scored on finding an Aladdin's lamp for a reasonable price and brought him home.

Superbowl bound 2015

   Just gearing up for the presuperbowl sunday here with a new "hawk"pot and some "Beast Mode" treats... skittles in 3 different varieties. We got ya covered Marshawn, now go have some fun with the boys and rumble that Arizona stadium with  all your  bad-boy selves. GO HAWKS!!!

Robbins workshop in Puyallup

still life in workshop

   It was all work for the artists at the Elizabeth Robbins workshop in Puyallup as we worked on daily still life set ups after a morning of demos. There is nothing like watching a master artist work her talents to reveal the magic of flower painting before your very eyes. She was generous in answering questions, long in patience and made it look so easy. Sigh, now it's time to do the homework. As I always say, "You don't get any better just going to the workshops" for those who just like to float from workshop to workshop.

The value of studies

 value study-4x5 oil on canvas

    So as we get more "practiced" in our craft as artists it is easy to forget where we came from. Yet it is the strength of the foundation that builds us to be better artists.
   One thing I am animate about is drawing on a regular basis. It keeps the perception sharp, the hand and eye coordination in sync and the practice of value scales finely tuned. Yet even in painting this practice needs to be revisited.
    Since I am about to begin a commission piece I thought it best to do a few preliminary practice runs. So 12.5% scale is a value study to flesh out the composition as well as the values.

Water shed... a plein air inspiration.

water shed 6x8 oil on linen

   I had the pleasure of painting in Marion's garden a little while ago during a plein air event I co-facilitate for Peninsula Arts League. Incredible garden really but I was most drawn to a sweet little collection of water pitchers outside a small outbuilding... perhaps enough to do a full fledged painting as I will discover when I return this week for another visit... "if the good Lord willin' and the bees don't sting".

Lil' companion piece- "Bird seeds"

"Birdseeds"- 6x6 acrylic, felt marker, seeds

   In follow up to the previous multi-medium piece on texture, I created this 6"x 6" companion piece on white board. In this challenge instead of using a bold sharpie, colored pastels and acrylic paints on the brown of the board, I narrowed it down to pen, acrylic paints and seeds. Although this image does not do justice to the dimension of the seeds worked into the owl's feathers and beak, the mix is intriguing. Now I contemplate whether to finish the piece in acrylic mediums to play with matte for the  tree and gloss for the bird seeds. Hmmnnnnn...

Work in progress-texture

sharpie marker on cardboard

     I don't normally show the progression of a piece unless I find the journey worth sharing. So I am in a "share project" and developing a criteria based exercise. The theme is "Texture times three". The challenge is to use 3 mediums, specifying a foreground middle ground and background, and use the 3 primary colors in a split-complimentary piece.
   On a 12"x12" piece of cardboard (Because if you mix the 3 colors you get brown) I used white to sketch out the big shapes. Then I dropped in sharpie marker to mark some darks and begin to establish texture feel to remind me to keep thinking texture... texture... texture!

adding in arcylic wash and pastels

    Then I mixed a thin blue acrylic paint wash to color the tree intermediately with medium and soft edges for the texture as I gradually roughed in the white of the trunk allowing the blush (brown of the paper to peak through. I did the same with orange (complement to blue) for the inner bark gashes before working to the bold solid orange of the eyes. Finally I broke up the background with blue and white pastels mainly in soft edged mass.

rendering the owl with acrylic and sharpie

   The remaining mass efforts were to drop in the range of oranges to blues in the body of the owl with acrylic paint. Meanwhile I adjusted the values and edges of the remaining sky and tree with pastels and washes. Although I could work the piece more to relieve the contrast, I believe that the mission has been accomplished and the criteria met.
 

They growing out so fast!

sunflower #7 2014 6x8 oil on linen

   Amazing what a few days will do to a flower. Nearly unrecognizable from the last entry, the petals have fully opened and the center almost fully bloomed to hide the green center.