Rock & Grass study

This is a little study in Titanium White and Burnt Umber of rocks and grass in a meadow.  It is just a small quick practice which is all I could get to tonight.  Every little bit of practice helps though.

Cherry Blossom over the Tidal Basin

You can see how after doing the initial block-in I have added darkness to the water, color depth to the blossoms, and highlights to the branches.  I think I need to add some more darks to the water, but this is close to being done.

Cherry Blossom Jefferson Memorial Dawn

I did not get to see the Cherry Blossoms this year.  Regular work interfered with getting down to the Tidal Basin.   I worked on this painting off one of my old pictures and some other pictures I found, so this is a study for the future, when I can live by the brush.

Aspen Tree Study

This is a two color study of Aspen trees.  I used Titanium White and Burnt Umber oil paint for this study of Aspen trees.  Simple practice quickly executed are another way to practice and not torment yourself by over thinking a subject.

Oil Tree study

I have been doing a fair amount of drawing studies of trees, so I decided to do an oil painting study.  It is a completely different issue and much harder.  Painting is a series of attempts, some are failures, some succeed, and some are amazing but the point is to keep doing the work.  It is the only way to improve.  Failures and near misses are as important as the easy successes.

North Woods Moose sketch

So I did not feel like painting tonight so I picked up the pencil.  This is not an original sketch but it is a sketch for practice.  It was done with a dark lead pencil and is more of a silhouette study.

Jefferson Memorial Dawn with Cherry Blossoms

I finally had enough time off from work to actually do a little painting.  I worked on the Jefferson Memorial Dawn with Cherry Blossoms.  I tweaked the sky a little and I worked on adding details of the Memorial and I added the basics of the backlight Cherry Blossoms.