Saturday, February 28, 2015

Killarney House - Goofy sketch

We spent the day running around doing errands, but we did stop for lunch of beef stew and a Smithwick's beer at Killarney House Pub.  I try to do little sketches and things to keep myself busy and not to spend too much time looking at a phone.  The Killarney House restaurant near Annapolis is a great place so I combined the Toucan from the famous Guinness advertisement with the Killarney House name while doodling while waiting on the stew.

Thursday, February 26, 2015

Pen Brush - Cats


I did some cat sketches with a Pentel Brush pen, which is a cross between a brush and a pen.  It is like a long tipped felt tip pen.  This is a relaxing way to practice and de-stress from the day.

Wednesday, February 25, 2015

Snowy Nocturne

It was a long day, so I only did a basic black-in of a nocturne or night scene.  I will flesh out the details tomorrow.  I hope to make the snow look better than it feels.  I like winter but it is wearing out its welcome now.

Monday, February 23, 2015

Snowy House

This is what I decided to mess with today.  It is a block-in and the initial adjustments on a painting of my house and associated outbuildings.  I have put in the basic colors for the buildings and then started working on the broken color in the sky and in the fore ground.

Sunday, February 22, 2015

Warm Sun block-in

Since it has been cold and snowy there, I decided to block in a warm sunset study of something without cool, snow or rain.  Enjoy and spring is only 28 days away.

Saturday, February 21, 2015

Jerry Potts - North West Mounted Police Scout

I found this photo of Jerry Potts.  He was a scout for the North West Mounted Police in Canada in the 1870-1890s.  They were the predecessors to the Royal Canadian Mounted Police.  Jerry was one of their first scouts and worked with them for 22 years.  I really liked the photo and thought it would make great pencil sketch, so this is what I worked on during this snowy day.

Wednesday, February 18, 2015

Snow Day View

This is the block-in of a Snow Day view from the Living Room.  I will smooth out the sky, add better snow patches to the evergreen tree, and I will improve the background trees.

Tuesday, February 17, 2015

More face study portrait

This is another small study of a portrait done in red chalk and white chalk on a grey paper.  This is part of the 10,000 hours needed to get better, so the journey continues.

Monday, February 16, 2015

Snowy Day Sketch

This is a small study to practice portraits.  After the portrait class I took in January, I knew I had to do more practice and this is one of the best easy ways to improve my capability.

Sunday, February 15, 2015

Cold weather fun - Head study

The weather has conspired to reduce the art output today.  We had two power outages caused by wind gusts here in Maryland and then I helped some family members with frozen pipes from last nights cold.  After that I did this small practice sketch of a man's head.  I also blocked in an oil painting but I am not satisfied with it so it will get more work before seeing the light of day on this blog site.

Thursday, February 12, 2015

Head study

This is a white chalk and red pastel practice head study.  Just a way to relax and decompress for the work day.

Monday, February 9, 2015

Living Room view - early morning

So I blocked in the view from the Living Room as it looks in early morning.  I will work on adjustments and details tomorrow.

Sunday, February 8, 2015

The view from the front window


I did the bottom painting about a year ago during a snow day here in Maryland.  The top one was one I did last summer but I made some changes to it today to make it better.  I think I will continue to do a series of paintings of the view from my living room to the east across the road.  The main barn is an old tobacco barn and their is a shed on the edge of the neighbor's fence line.  The scene changes significantly from day to day and sometimes from hour to hour.

Friday, February 6, 2015

Lantern progress - TGIF



I have not had a lot of time to work on any painting, but I did do a little work on the lantern tonight.  I would like to do more of these posts showing progress and refinement of the painting.  You can see as I make changes and adjust things.  This is not done but I will show you more progress this weekend.

Monday, February 2, 2015

Quaking Aspen Study

This is the initial block in of an oil study of Quaking Aspen trees.  The foliage is not in on these yet, but when you hear the wind blow through those leaves you can hear and see why they are called the Quaking Aspen.

Sunday, February 1, 2015

Bluebird Birthday

It was my sister-in-law, Michelle's Birthday this week, but it took till today to link-up with her and get her the card.  This is an Eastern Bluebird done with watercolor colored pencils.