Ted Kennedy R.I.P.

I have posted this pen and ink before, I find it fitting to re-post it.  May he rest in peace...

Still life

This painting is part of a whole new series of still lifes I'm doing for an upcoming show I'm doing with a good friend of mine.

New pen and ink...

This is in the very early stages!

The paintings at the show

These are just some of the paintings at the show in Minneapolis. With this show I was going for something different in regards to technique and also doing new types of paintings such plein air paintings. Plein air is such a delight to do, I truly enjoyed diving into it. Enjoy!

Art show!

I have 12 paintings up and showing at a local coffee shop it's a nice venue to show art especially for this weekend coming up with the huge art festival right down the street!


-- Post From My iPhone

2 and half hour painting!

I'm having fun with this one already!  I should of taken the picture without the cast shadows on the painting.

-- Sent from my Palm Pre

Day 1 of Landscape

-- Sent from my Palm Pre

This is the first day of this painting, it went pretty quick.  I've been working on several landscapes for a show coming up! I will post them soon!

Portrait

This is a portrait I've been working for an upcoming show!

-- Sent from my Palm Pre

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!!

Study of an Ilya Repin painting

The image above is the final!  

I finally put the background in, which should of been done

earlier in the process, but I am so excited to get it going that

I forget about it (bad habbit!).  

I usually lightly do the shadows and go into the lights to 

model them.  Got to make the form turn and have the right 

chroma and value.  When I feel that is on the right direction,

I then start going into the shadows and refining them, which in

turn should be important in the beginning, it does dictate how 

cool or warm your colors should be. 

Started to introduce Terra Rosa, and English red to the mixture.

I started without toning the canvas, I did not use

charcoal in the beginning, just drew with the brush.  

Yellow Sonnet

 This painting I did for a show, Its pretty limited in palette, lots 

of fun though!  Oil on Panel 16x 20 

Portrait

This was another portrait I did, a quick one again, about four hours spent on this

one. 

Another Portrait Sketch!

This is another quick one I did, it took me about three hours to paint.  

These are so much fun to do and so educational too, I love it! I hope

you enjoy this as much as I did! Ciaoo!

Quick Portrait Studies

These are quick portrait studies I did.  In total each of them 

must of been at-least 4-5 hours each.  The top one was 

after a Sargent portrait, and I learned a lot from it.  It was so

much fun to be free with the brush strokes, I am excited

to see where this will take me with my work.