I am on the Portrait of the Visual Arts in Canada today, thanks Win!

Portrait of the Visual Arts in Canada

Quick sketch, will use this character later...

Smooth Paper...

Integrated Shapes?

Mr Goodmuck Lived Here

Continuing the smooth program..has become my favourite paper...

Downhill Slide

Bad Paper Plan

Drippy Pile

Continuing my hot press experimentos...

(Hot) Pressing Matters...

I have only painted on hot press a couple of times in my storied career (just checking to see if you were paying attention). So I picked up a sheet and decided to paint a full sheeter on the vertical just to see. I painted a drawing I had previously painted on rough paper.

I thought it would be a torture test...it actually didn't pose any challenges except the usual "watch the bead" for drips. I really enjoyed the smooth paper, it was so easy to paint on...

Here's the tip:
Don't prewet the paper or paint wet into wet, at least not excessively. I used a small brush, a no.12 synthetic with a good point and yes a number twelve is a relatively small brush and it doesn't hold much water. Next time I'll give it a shot with a #35...

Bink to blow...up.

Lighter Brighter Gloom Gone

I used FUB as the hub and because french ultramarine can get opaque quite quickly when mixed, you get a thick stew. Fun to see how far you can go before you can see yerself in it. Full sheet upgrade on the sorrow inducing previous edition. Painted in a little over two hours.

Just playing with light and shape shifting so that the shapes and the cast shadows and core shadows and reflected light all combine for an improved visual effect. If you can figure out where the light is coming from, you are a step ahead of me. Painting alla prima with no references and getting the whole program under some kinda of control involves a bunch of decisions that you have to make on the fly. I love this challenge because it forces you to get your act together. I painted this flat dead flat, just to remember the difference. It gets opaque quite quickly but you can see the granulation pretty good.
Bink to explore the inner reaches...

What can I say...

Greyed down, lightened up, just to see...

My Back Yard...In my imagination

Junkyard Jumble

I am going for the junkish look...

Reworkers

I reworked this one quite a bit...

Getting Dark in the Yard

                                                                    ...bink to explore.
 Darker, grittier...more junkyardish. Broken glass, busted metal, rusty junk. Complementary darks, saved whites...watercolour playing under the conductors guidance. A sense of mystery, the unknowable, the fun of arbitrary colour...a set piece somehow alive with flapping decay...

Farm Near Tsolum

    

I have driven past this scene thousands of times on my way into town. This is a sketch/idea for a painting.

Underpainting...

I bashed this off to illustrate the technique of "underpainting". Its a complicated compo that will probably never allow for a good painting but its fun for me to try.

The notion that saved whites produce areas of effective high-light is not entirely satisfactory to me. Rather I prefer saved areas of underpainting to produce maximum glow in combination with saved pure whites. You can use three primary stains, that's the most common/popular choice, I think. Just to make things interesting I used Cobalt Turquoise, Winsor Orange and Naples Yellow, which, of course are not primestainers. Then I used a cheapo purple to block in shadow areas. If you look at the reflected light areas you can see the various combinations of under hues and final touches with these same hues. The painting glows like kryptonite (only yeller) in real life.

For the darks I used B.S. and FUB.

When you underpaint the colours look dark but they almost disappear later on as the darker colours are placed. I use a fairly limited palette and include the underpainters in the program all the way through.

Boo! Who? Chris Beck's Halloween Challenge

 

This bit of nonsense is part of Chris Beck's Halloween Challenge.

Happy Halloween!

Chris Beck's Halloween Challenge 

Down By The Bay

  Just playing with a big brush (no 36 round)...

Shadow Patterns

A Little Practice