Snowy Mountain - Part two

Today, I messed with a couple of different paintings I had blocked in previously.  I will continue to post the before and afters so you can see the progress and how I have tweaked things on the path of getting them to a finished state.  The top photo is today;s work.  I refined the sky, the cliffs and the foreground. It is getting closer to a state I will be happy with and I will probably play some more with it tomorrow evening.

Orchids

Today, I puttered around on a few things, but this is what I did which was the biggest change on things.  I decided to block in the start of these Orchids.  Just the basics color notes and the background.  I will add to the Flowers details and will leave the background dark but textured from the thick application of paint.

Great Falls, Virginia - Plein Air

Today, I braved the cold with artist Armand Cabrera and Plein Air painted at Great Falls Virginia.  It is where the Potomac river passes over a series of rocky shelves.  Plein Air is great for observation of nature and improving your painting skills.  It is also a huge challenge.  I only completed part of my two canvasses.  I will probably work a little more on both tomorrow.   I captured as much as I could before the winter sunshine shifted too much and changed all the colors and shadows.

Sycamore tree study

Sycamore Tree study is what I worked on this evening after the full day at work.  I had done the initial block in early for the background and I added the trunk and some of the branches.  More work will need to be done on this but it has a decent start.

Rooster Finished up

I finished up with some highlights on the rooster as part of my activities this evening.  Now I will ignore it for a while and see if anything bothers me after a few days, but this is probably finished.  I will get a scan of it when it is dry which will be better than this photo.

Snow Day Fun

Today was a snow day in DC.  Not really because there was so much snow, but more through bad drivers, ice and no road prep.  I putted around on a couple of paintings, but this is a small study which I did the most on and which I was most satisfied.

Pentel Pen Brush - Quick Sketches of seagulls

Just a quick post tonight, I went back to the day job today.  I did this quick sketches of seagulls on the last day of the year.  I did three pages but these are probably best.  I tried a new technique with a brush pen.  Imagine a felt tip maker but with a more brush like flexible tip.  It makes interesting lines but it will require a lot of work to get them interesting and better than these.