Springtime Dreaming

It has not been too spring like yet, but one can hope.  Today, I worked on a small study of the Cherry Blossoms Festival here in Washington, DC.  This is the Washington Monument reflected in the Tidal Basin.  This is a small 5x7 study to quickly work out problems and determine how I will paint this in a larger size.

Work space - the Studio

I have a studio in the spare bedroom.  I mounted two rails on the wall to mount the drafts of paintings.  I have the easel and drying racks.  No matter how good you get at painting, you always want to get better.  No painting is ever finished, they are just abandoned.  I will post new work tomorrow.

Friday meeting day

I keep a small notebook in my backpack which serves as my briefcase.  It was a freebee I got second hand.  It was originally from Turkish Airlines.  I use it when I have long boring meetings.  Today, I had a two hour meeting and I sketched this woman on a stand-up surf board.  I did not complete it but I liked the texture in her hair and the anatomy of her body.  I may redo this bigger or not, but I used this to keep awake in the meeting.

Monkey cartoons

Tonight's post is some brush practice monkeys.  Not an original design but a nice relaxing practice Pentel Brush pen practice.

Shrieking Demons

Something different, but part of my practice with ink.  These are my rendition of Japanese Shrieking Demons from the 1200s.  I did these with Pentel Brush pen and colored marker.  I liked these as very unique and good practice for brush technique.

River Sunset

I have been working on sunsets and other sky scenes to improve my painting skills.  This is a block-in of a sunset with water reflection.  I will tweak this later since I am generally happy but I can see somethings I want to adjust.

Sunset reflection

This is an oil sketch of sunset reflection on water.  This is the basic block-in of the colors.  Wet on wet paint can be a challenge, plus I don't always immediately see problems, so I let the paintings sit of a bit and then make adjustments.