Western Grebes

I did these quick sketches of passing Western Grebes out in Utah at Jordanelle Reservoir.  We were fishing and a pair of these swam by a few times and I quickly did colored pencil sketches to capture the basics of their colors and shapes.  I would like to work this into a painting but that will have to wait.

Friday Nite Follies - Lake Reflections

This is my late night follies, oil paint block-in of a dusk sky and water reflections.  This will need some work but I like the start.  I think I need to go to bed since it is past midnight here.

Foggy River Study

Foggy River study oil painting.   Tonight's small study to practice painting techniques.

Sunrise Study

I continue the practice of small studies, an exercise of putting the brush miles and races of canvas to improve.  This is a study of a sunrise over a small pond with mist of the water.

Boreal Forest Sunset Study

This is tonight's study.  This is the start of a Boreal Forest sunset.  The Boreal Forests are in the far northern Arctic regions of the world.  This is the block-in but is mostly complete.   I will make some small changes to the sky and miss add some branch detail, but not much more.

Douglas Fir Study

I am practicing my Ala Prima painting, so this oil was done as close as I could to mixing the paint and then applying it.  I am improving but still need practice to make the tree better and more believable.  I will probably go back and mess with the foreground grass and I will add definition to the branches in the Fir tree.

Praire Sentinel

Tonight's study is a small oil study of praise grasses, a lone cottonwood, and a cloudy sky.  This is the initial block-in of colors.  I will redefine the foreground grasses to give this more depth and I need to add contrast to the clouds to give it some aerial perspective i.e. to make the horizon clouds recede into the background more.