Apples

Then I oil in the darks in the woven basket and inside the basket and also

touch up the background and make the tones relate more to each other.  

I am pleased with the result and the time it took me, this is the end of day 5.

I then oil in the background and see how my darks really look against the

lights.  I also got the frame and put the painting in the frame, so I can see

the end result.  This marks the end of day 4.

Then I started painting the apple and the apple peeler.  I start seeing the

painting come together.  Its a good idea to section off the painting in 

different areas to a finish, thats how Anthony Van Dyke painted.  Once you are 

done you move on to the next and take it to a finish.  When its done as a whole 

you can judge what needs improvement, its more of an efficient way to get a 

painting done, rather than just painting all over the place and not having a 

plan of execution.

  

I then took a break and painted the apples and lemon.  My darks were already

starting to sink in, but I will oil them in later.  Its a good idea to oil in your darks

though before you paint around them, it makes you see the darks better and you

can judge how high or low in chroma you wanna go.  When I am done painting this area I

am done with day 3.

Then I started painting the woven basket.  Getting those intricate areas was not

as difficult as I thought it would.  It was more generalizing the shapes.  At times

details are not so important.

I then started blocking in the wood area and started giving the background some

lighter tones.  I do this because when I start painting the apples in the middle 

ground the background and wood would be dry by then and I can alter any area

I want without worrying about the paint not being dry.  When I covered these areas 

it was the end of day 2.

This painting was done very quick, I had about five days to paint it... so I started

with the background which was the most broad area, I usually leave the background

till later (Which is not right) but I guess everyone has their own way of painting.  This

is the end of day 1.

Pen & ink and also some watercolors!

This is another pen and ink sketch I did of Steve Jobs.  These are fun

to do when you wanna take a break from painting all day long.

These are some watercolors I did the other day, I don't do watercolor

much, but I wanna start dabbing into it more.  They are a lot of fun to

do, challenging but fun.  

Greg and Di painting!

This painting was done for a very close friend, it was his 60th Birthday, and

I told his wife which is in the picture that I would paint him.  She loved

the idea, the thing she did not know that I was going to paint her in it!  First 

it was a surprise for him, and also a surprise for her since she didn't know

she was going to be in it.  It was so nice to see their reactions to the painting!

The pics I had to go off from was very difficult to judge the skin tone, since

it was taken at night and with a flash photo which flushes out the true

skin tones.  But I am somewhat happy with the results, if I had to do it

again, I would of gotten them posed for me and pic the right lighting

situation.  But it was for a surprise so it served its purpose!

The shirt was so much fun too paint!  it was so loose and expressive.  So was

his forehead.  Anyways enjoy and take care!!