Abstract Acrylic Start

This is one of those paintings that is worked abstractly from chaos at first.  I’ve got more work to do before I can consider subject options.  I need to develop the big shapes and deal with some awkward tangents and shape placements.  I’ll quiet down some areas by glazing them down a value and that will help clarify the focal area.  So, that’s the plan… for now.  Enjoy!

Retweet this

Back again… with a barn

I returned 2 days ago from a week in Mexico enjoying their beautiful beaches and catching up on my vitamin D.  I’m getting back into my routine this week. 

I’ve been working my way through exercises on the DJ Pettitt photoshop class I’m taking.  This afternoon I worked through an exercise that involved around 12 layers…  I learned lots and I like the result.  It certainly would have been faster to use the images provided with the class but using my own makes me dig so much deeper.  I really like the textures that evolved with all these layers.

I have several acrylic paintings that I’ve been working on this week.  I’ll be sharing them here soon.  Enjoy!

Retweet this

Bandaras Bay Bandit – digital art

The pirate ship in Bandaras Bay, Mexico is a well known tourist excursion [aka trap].  This bird was no less a bandit than the pirates though.  I snapped him sitting on this chair with a piece of shiny – something – in his mouth.  I plucked him off the chair, flipped the chair horizontally, and then [after a LOT of puttering] plunked him down looking out at the pirate ship as it cruise in this amazing pink sunset from last December.

I won’t bore you with the details [I have an epsom salts soak waiting…] but here two of the photos.  Although this isn’t watercolor, acrylic or mixed media, it is teaching me quite a bit that will be useful in the future in my work…  besides it’s just SO much fun!

BTW, I’m off to Bandaras Bay for a week soon!  Yay!

Retweet this

Mexican pottery shop [enhanced photo]

This is a photo from my 2006 trip to Mexico.  The bright noon sun washed out the beautiful tile around the door – the very thing I wanted to capture.  I opened it in PSE 8.0, selected the tile areas, and replaced the washed out color with a nice blue.  Then I stamped a Mexican passport [a downloaded brush file] on the top right.  Ron and I are leaving for Mexico again soon and I’m getting excited…  beach time in spades.  Yay!

On a much more serious note, I’ve been watching the destruction and listening to the stories out of Haiti.  I combined 8 photos for this collage. The photo of the cross windows was taken in October in Wausau, WI at Living Well Community Church where my brother Harvey is pastor. Harvey, and Ole [my nephew] returned Monday from Haiti where they were helping at an orphanage with a group from their church. 

I pasted images of the beautiful children at the orphanage into the cross... The third window from top has such a gorgeous fall view I couldn't cover it up. Perhaps it's symbolic of how the people of this faith community in Wisconsin are bound together with the children of Jacmel, Haiti... I hope so. They plan to return asap and rebuild the orphanage. Thankfully all these children are safe and all injuries were mild.  Please keep praying for Haiti.

Retweet this

Swing Song start & some digital art

I’ve been working on this painting a bit each day since January 5th although most of my art time has been spent learning Photoshop.  I started this out with a layer of texture made by the usual suspects [onion netting, carved rubber stamps, painting knife, punched ribbon, etc].  Then I did a layer of loose, wet acrylic.  Next I sat down with a coffee and stared at it from a distance [all four directions] and asked family what they saw in it.  Funnily enough they don’t even find this question strange anymore…  Kim and I “saw” a violinist at almost the same time – how fun that process is!  So, I’ve been working to develop that idea for the past couple of days. 

Here’s a photo of the painting as it is right now.  At this point I’ve just defined the skin by a layer of almost white.  It looks much bluer here for some reason.  Anyhow, I brought this photo into PSE 8.0 to experiment with my next steps.  I drew her facial features on one layer and  then added shadow and her bow on another layer.  I plan to use some tissue collage in part of the background.  Here’s how it looked after I puttered in PSE.

Just as soon as I see this small thumbnail I can see her jaw is quite large…  I’ll have to factor that in when I get to my painting again tomorrow.  Wish me luck!

Here’s the photoshop exercise I did today – DJ really has good taste in her subjects…  I really like this!  Cheers

Retweet this

Send Me Roses… digital artwork

Here’s the latest in my digital efforts.  It’s nice to know a bit about Photoshop – it can be quite a frustrating program.  I’ve had it for 2 years and done very little work because of the complexity of the program.  Today I learned how to do a layer mask properly.  Very cool.  I used a photo of a rose and a public domain image of an old envelope in this collage. 

Praying for Haiti…

Retweet this

Fairy Dreams & Guard your Heart

This blog will be quick….  I’ve finished a project since yesterday.  I wanted my fairies to have wings…  now they do. I began a new project today and used most of the same techniques from the earlier exercises as well as a few more.  Too late to get into the details.  But here is “Guard your Heart”.  The pincushion cactus does a great job covering their beautiful heart….  we need to do likewise…. 

Cheers!

Retweet this