Saturday, April 30, 2011

Daily Painting Practice - What to do next??? Continued

I had a lot of great comments on the last post.  Seems I hit upon something we artists all have in common. I forgot to mention one other option in my list of choices of what to do next...
Finish something that you started!
I know what you are thinking, it's probably not the most  imaginative choice but hey... it has been a long week. My arranger/idea person/wife had a busy one too so I am off the hook... Actually she came up with a good idea ( don't tell her I said so)  But I will save that for another post.
Oh before I begin, someone commented last week that it looked like I  was using a pink  toned canvas before I  began. Close... I actually  added acrylic paint to some  gesso .( burnt sienna and ultra marine blue). The result is a cool muted lavender. works very well as a base instead of white canvas.

So, back to what I chose to do next...I decided to take this small (14"x18") beginning of a painting I lost interest in and  see if I could paint some life back in it.

This is how I found her. ( funny I didn't realize this  painting was  a female). Very blue ...too blue for what is supposed to be  a sunny  day. And the shadows are stiff and dead looking.  I must  give myself a break here though. This was only at the  under painting stage when I abandoned her ( there 's that gender thing again).


I decided to warm  it up a bit but keep the palette simple. I used Cobalt Blue (not shown)  Cobalt Blue and  Burnt Sienna for the dark. then Burnt Sienna, then Cad. Orange, Raw Sienna, then a tint of Raw Sienna and white with a little Cobalt Blue, and finally Titanium White.  I mixed  combinations of just these colors to  warm up the painting.


Much better beginning now. I am not being very careful at this point with my brush strokes , which actually helps me keep it looking fresher for a longer period of time... before I tighten up.


Geraniums-
 work in progress
14"x18"
oil on canvas

I punched up the intensity of the flowers an decided to  call it a day. I'll be back to do more tomorrow. I smell homemade pizza in the oven!!!

3 comments:

Celeste Bergin said...

Hey, that is great to see the changes from cool to warm. The final version is really nice!

Anonymous said...

She's warmin' up for sure! Nice going.

T.Ford said...

Fantastic work! Glad I ran across your blog.