Month: April 2016

 

Ever get stuck on a project? This blog post offers a little bit of advice (or perhaps it is just common sense.)

Return to the source. This helps you see if you have all the facts.

I took a field trip to the house to figure out the details that were hidden in the photos. I drew up some rudimentary floor plan outlines and took more photos. A bonus was that I got to visit with Mrs. Customer, a truly delightful person. She is giving me so much leeway on this painting – an artist’s dream for a commissioned painting.

(The photos I took are boring unless you are the one doing the painting, so I’ll spare you.)

Immediately apply any new information you just learned. (‘Fo’ you forget it!)

After some careful consideration, I moved the chimney over some more. Then I made a few scooting changes on the house – subtle but necessary. The paint was still wet in those areas from the previous session, so I took my own advice about what to do when I feel stuck.

Find a new area to work on.

When I feel stuck, I look at the project carefully to determine if there is any area in which I can make progress. (When I had lots of kids in drawing lessons who all needed help at the same time, I would tell them to sharpen their pencils or erase their smeary margins while they waited.)

LANDSCAPING! I can do this!

I raised up the easel in order to reach the bottom edge, and then proceeded to break the rules of painting furthest to closest. Since I’m the boss of my painting, no one yelled at me. I hate being yelled at.

This now required a bunch of different greens and two colors that I only use for redbud and lupine. It was really fun.

It looks so much better in person that I considered not posting this last photo. When the paint is wet, the camera sees the reflective shine and it makes the color fade away on the camera.

Guess you’ll have to trust me.

Maybe in the next painting session the house areas will be dry enough so I can untangle it one little section at a time, the same way I handled the landscaping. If not, there’s plenty more landscaping to work on.

This oil painting of a house is beginning to get fun. Heh heh, heehee, I’m a house painter.

The hills in the background are looking good, but I’m still not quite sure about Comb Rocks.

No worries. I’ll just step out of the studio and look at them. “Comb Rocks” – as in the shape of a rooster’s comb. The photo doesn’t begin to show the beautiful colors, both in my yard and to the right of Comb Rocks. Can you pick out the patch of poppies? It is now April, and the poppies began in February!

The light is completely different from how it will be appear in the painting, but I can see the shapes, which are obscured in my photos.

Better. More detail and better shadows .

Now I am feeling a little bit stuck again, so I’ll tinker with the roofline and parts of the house, along with some of the shrubbery in the front.

I’m not sure what I’m doing here . . . just keep adding paint, layering, tightening up the shapes, fiddling with color, adding detail to the parts that seem to have enough paint on them. . . “scruffling” is what my English friend calls this approach.

I call it “oil painting”. Someday, if I live long enough, I’ll tackle this sort of painting with the same confident one-two-three approach that I have with pencils.

At the end of the day, I wanted to do something that comes a little easier for me. So, I finished both of the pomegranate paintings. I hope you can see the difference in detailing from the top two paintings to the bottom four.

I remember when that sort of painting was hard. Growth is good (unless you are a cancer cell.)

Every commissioned oil painting begins with a conversation. From there, it progresses to photographs. After photographs, there is an editing session. Then, a decision, which requires more conversation. Eventually money changes hands, and the job begins.

In the olden days, nothing began until money exchanged hands. Now, I don’t have to pay for film or developing up front, so sometimes the order of things gets a little scrambled. With friends and locals, I’m flexible. If you are a stranger, things are more structured.

A friend asked me to paint her house. Being a smart-aleck, I told her that wouldn’t be possible, since I hadn’t finished painting my workshop and garage yet. She is a lovely person with a great sense of humor, so no harm was done by my buffoonery.

I took photos in the morning, and again in the afternoon. She chose the afternoon light, the size of the painting, and we discussed some details.

After ordering the canvas, I began waiting for the photos to arrive. Silly girl, you have a printer! Who cares if the colors are wrong when you first have to get the shapes on the canvas?

Remember that the beginning stages of an oil painting are rough and scary and may shake your confidence in my abilities.

Oooo-eeeey. This is rough. It is 24×30″, larger than I usually paint (unless it is a mural). I painted this, let it rest a few days, and then realized that I can paint the sky too.

(Got a bit thrown off by the coloring books, which are still coming, this time printed on ONE side of the paper only. Ouch. Expensive mistake. No, I won’t pass that on to you.)

That’s enough for today. Thanks for reading along. Try not to be scared that I’ve lost my ability to paint, and thank you for your concern. Please forgive the visual assault.