The Forest thru the Trees

This is a small oil sketch I blocked in this evening.  I started it the other night with a simple drawing and outlining the drawing.  I let that dry and tonight I put the basic colors in.  Tomorrow, I will refine and define the foliage, the trunks and the foreground to add depth and shape.  Painting a forest is not the easiest and this is one of the first I have tried.  Practice, Practice, and Practice.

Celtic Designs

I experiment around with different things and tonight these are some celtic designs.  I used a compass to get the circles but I penciled in the basic designs and then went over them with black, grey, and gold markers.  These are classics from long ago and they are still interesting and unique style.

Andrew Loomis

Andrew Loomis is an old school Illustrator and Artist from the 1930s and 1940s.  He produced a series of Art Books which an classics.  Any artist worth their salt gets his books and works thru them to improve their skills and to challenge their thinking.  I have worked thru them and continue to do so.  Above are some copies of his work from Heads and Hands, and from Creative Illustration.

Tree Sketch - Part two

I revisited the tree sketch from a couple of months ago.  I was unhappy with the clouds and the foreground.  I made some tweaks to both and made some small adjustments on the tree foliage.  I will continue to mess with it.

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.