Daily Painting Practice - Tree study part 2

Enjoying your subject, I think, is half the battle to painting.

I really enjoyed  mapping out the color in this study. and also playing with the light.

 That light tree in the center was bugging me. It looked liked it couldn't make up its mind which side of the  path it should  be on.

 So I moved it to the background.

click on the image to enlarge the picture

Northwoods Tree Study

12"x16"

oil on canvas

Daily Painting Practice- Bird Studies

Gold finches are attacking my sunflowers!
This is just the type of scene I want to capture and paint. I  love  birds and have always been a bird watcher. So now I want to paint them.  But how do  I start? This sketch is an idea but  I need to practice, practice  practice.

I started doing bird sketches at night  from  photos  I found on the web. I think this is a great way of getting familiar with their anatomy, form and detail. Rather than just sitting there watching the TV, I can keep busy sketching.

The next step was to start watching the birds outside and taking my  own photos for reference. I set up  our feeder outside the kitchen window and waited. At first, about 90 percent of the birds at my feeder were  house finches.  But eventually  we started attracting  cardinals, blue jays, nut hatches, chickadees and  morning doves. You can see the light sketch of an idea for a daily painting in the middle of the  sketchbook page above.

Just like my new approach to creating compositions with individual flowers,  it is my  goal to create compositions for these birds by  using multiple references not just copying a photo.

I found I need to keep thinking of form while painting these little guys to prevent things from going flat.
 I  appreciate artists who detail every feather but I  really want to  try to paint the personality I see in individual birds.

Early Birds

5"x7"

oil on panel

Here's my first study. One day I saw young house finches sitting near the feeder still wanting their mom to feed them even though they were completely capable feeding themselves. They really put on an act every time she came near.

Daily Painting Practice- Flower studies in watercolor or oil? - why not both?

I must be getting brave. I spent an afternoon at a painting get-together at a friends house  the other day and tried a flower study..... in watercolor!!!.  Since it was extremely hot outside  we all  sat inside and brought  flower cuttings in with us.

Painting Get-togethers are one of the best ways to practice new approaches. You are surrounded by fellow artists, you get plenty of help and suggestions. It's a great way to soak up some encouragement if you are at a low point with your art and best of all when ever artist friends get together.... you  eat well!

I started another study of a rose in watercolor back at home. Here's my drawing. I find that sketching always takes a me while to do, Always longer than I expect, with results that don't always seem worth the effort. But it  is probably the best  practice I can  do  to improve  every aspect of  my art. To me, sketching seems to  connect me with  that core artist inside. I think  it has something to do with the concentration of sketching being different than the  focus during painting.....Or maybe it's just my artist's brain getting a work out. Either way I find sketching  very much like a meditation.

It is a funny thing, after  many years of just wanting to get to the painting,  I am only now just learning the value of  the sketch..... I know,I know... I'm a slow learner.

I thought it would be fun to  paint the exact  same thing in oils. and see how the results differ. So I traced my  sketch and transferred it to a canvas board.

 Here's the  watercolor  study. I am still having a hard time  getting the colors I want. Pinks seem to be the hardest  color to try and match.

Rose Study

oil on board

5"x7"

I had just as much trouble with the pinks in oils. So it isn't the medium, ...it's the artist!

Daily Painting Practice - Peaches in a Brass Bowl Study

My daughter gave me this oriental looking canister as a gift. She thought it would make a great painting subject. My wife/art prop reclaimer quickly snatched it. She holds it hostage in the kitchen. I swiped it back for this study....if I'm careful she'll never know it was gone.
I started with a pencil drawing transferred to the panel. Then I sprayed it with a fixative so I would not loose the drawing. This way I could wash in the background and still see the guidelines of the drawing. After laying down a raw sienna/burnt sienna mix of paint I can pick out the lines using this paper charcoal blender.
With the basic tones blocked in I am very impatient to get to the color.
If I add color immediately I have to be careful not to pick up the under painting.
Using Liquin the thin paint drys fairly fast.... good thing for impatient daily painters like me.

click on the image to enlarge the painting

Peaches in a Brass Bowl Study
original by Peter Yesis
8"x10"
oil on masonite

My color is rather muted in this study. I originally thought it would end up much more intense.... that's why I called it a study...it sounds better than Peaches in a Brass Bowl Mistake. I still like it though. My favorite inch of the painting... the fuzz on the half hidden peach in the front. I think it is rather amusing that I may not like anything in a painting except for 1 square inch.... And that I could find so much enjoyment in that 1 square inch. I'm just simple I guess.

Daily Painting Practice - Summer Melon

If this study worked out I thought this might make a good larger painting. I started with painting in Alizarin Crimson on a dry toned canvas board.
I thought an over the shoulder view would be fun to try. Here I am laying in the darks.
Then starting in on the color. Keeping it fluid and transparent...
and getting more opaque as I go along.
I even have proof that I can change brushes. ( That's only because I was aware of taking the photos.)

click on the image to enlarge the painting

Summer Melon
original by Peter Yesis
6"x6"
oil on canvas board

Nothing is better than painting then eating a juicy summer melon. Or should that be tasting then painting??

Daily Painting Practice - Still Life Study - Limes

It feels good to be back painting after a long weekend break with family visiting from back east. This little still life study is an idea I have had for a larger studio piece.
I was attracted by the depth in the reflections in the bowl and the cool contrast brought in by the limes. The reflection of the knife added an interesting highlight and line to the composition.

click on the image to enlarge the painting

Still Life Study - Limes
5"x7"
oil on canvas board

This is a good study for a larger painting but I think I will need to do more experimenting with the composition. Adding a lemon on the right side might help give it a good punch.

Daily Painting Practice - Pears and Wine Study

I like the composition for this piece. I tried about 30 different arrangements but came back to the very first one.
The key I think is making sure the long neck of the bottle has soft edges. Hard edges on the bottle neck or the top of the glass would have lead your eye away from the fruit.

click on the image to enlarge the painting

Pears and Wine Study
original by Peter Yesis
5"x7"
oil on canvas board
SOLD

I will do this again on a larger canvas. My wife / art consultant suggested this daily painting should be a gallery painting. It's a good thing I like it too. It will be fun to try it again.

I once read that when an artist paints a portrait the highlights in the eyes should not be equally bright. One eye or highlight should dominate. The same probably is true in still life painting. One highlight should be the brightest.... but which one?

Daily Painting Practice - Yellow Rose in a Tea Cup

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Yellow Rose in a Tea Cup
5"x7"
oil on masonite

sold

I should start a new series of paintings and call them the grandpa paintings. This was done in between naps and feeding time. This quick sketch reminds me of what can be done when I could normally use the excuse, " I don't have time to paint".

I will go back at some point (perhaps another day when I am short on time) and tighten this up a bit and perhaps add some color and atmosphere to the background. It will make a nice little finished painting. The point I am trying to make is that daily painting does not mean you must complete a painting everyday...Just be sure to paint everyday.

Daily Painting Practice - Roses

I started with a very warm pre-toned panel. I think I toned 5 or 6 of these panels two weeks ago using mostly cadmium orange. When they dry I stack them up. This way I have a cool pile and a warm pile of dry pre-toned panels.
Quick block in. This took about 10 minutes. I wish I could paint this care free at the end of my paintings.
I start to block in the darks of the roses. I think it would have been better to paint them a one dark tone instead of thinking of them as rose petals at this point. Sometimes my mind gets in the way and takes over. If you start out thinking about painting flower petals instead of painting tones it can get very frustrating. That's what happened with this one.

Roses
8"x10"
oil on masonite

Looking back I should have been more careful painting the roses as tonal values rather than as individual flower parts. This is why we practice.

daily painting practice - JUst a quick inside job

Piano Interior
6"x6"
oil on masonite

I am so bad. Another day and no progress photos. And to add insult to injury the one photo I put up has a glare on it. I guess I get the poor blogmanship award. That's what happens when an artist rushes things. Slow down...... take a breath. Tomorrow is another day, and another chance to redeem my blogging grade.

daily painting practice - two lemons study

Quick colorful darks map in the composition.
Followed by some bold color and loose brush work.

click on the picture to enlarge image

Two Lemons - Study
5"x7"
oil on masonite

I thought doing some quick studies would be a good thing for the blog since I need to spend my time on the larger paintings this month. So here's a quick warm up and then I need to get to work.

Daily Painting Practice - Still Life Study

A nice little gathering of interesting shapes. I am always amazed at how little it takes to start creating the illusion of form.
I need to tone down that warm orange underpainting.

click on picture to enlarge the image

Still Life Study
8"x10"
oil on masonite

These are a few treasures from the thrift store that I think make an interesting combo while doing different things with the light. The small gold pitcher catches all sorts of color and throws it back at the viewer. What fun to paint!

Daily Painting Practice - Backgrounds can kill

I liked the composition right away. This was going to be a fun painting.
I started putting in the darks then got carried away. I was enjoying the painting too much and forgot one important step....
Decide on the background first.

click on the picture to enlarge the image

Lavender and Petunias Study
8"x10"
oil on masonite
SOLD

I find one the the hardest things to do is to stop painting when things are really cooking and step back to really objectively think about how to finish a painting. I either plow ahead then evaluate when I am finished or I get very tentative and don't finish strong.

On this one I plowed ahead. After evaluating the final piece I think my error here was fussing with the background after I started painting. (an old habit ):O(

Take a look at these paintings by (Henri Fantin-Latour) The backgrounds are so simple yet perfectly compliment the paintings. Oh well, Back to the drawing board!

daily painting practice - Trumpet Vine series

No pre-toned panel today. The stark whiteness on the panel takes some getting used to again.
The trumpet vine is a favorite flower for hummingbirds. It grows in our yard like dandelion though. Sprouting up all over the lawn.
I signed the painting and was ready to move on but something started to bother me. The background was too warm. So I cooled it off with some Titanium White and Cobalt blue. It was a toss up to change it. One of those artist's choice moments.

click on the picture to enlarge the image

Trumpet Vine Study
5"x7"
oil on masonite

I am having fun with this idea of painting a series of the same subject. So I think I will do more trumpet vine paintings this week.