SEEN THE USA - 2

Starting to add the rust.

This old car was in a cow pasture down in Tennessee.  A friend and I ventured "off the beaten path" to get some photos.  Fortunately, we live to tell the tale!

SEEN THE USA - 1

Finally – an artful post! Oh well - slow but sure.

However, due to my schedule, I may not be posting often for the next couple of weeks or so, but promise to have more soon.

Here is a little more on the car I began for the art club demo.  I am going to post this as I work on it; usually I "edit" my posts so you just get the better, but I'm taking a chance with this one!   I'll have more next week.
As a refresher – here is the start.

I’ve added some raw sienna on the body of the car and some (I think) cobalt (or maybe french ultramarine??) and manganese hue in the windows.

DEMO

The beginning of my demo.

The last couple of weeks (in between bouts of dizziness and doctor visits) I spent some time working up paintings in fluid acrylics for a demo for an art club that I belong to. Any time I give a demo I worry that the audience will be bored, or that I won’t be clear in my presentation. But the group seemed to enjoy the presentation and I had some audience participation so I know they weren’t asleep!

Since there was less than an hour for the presentation, and since I paint at the speed of a slug racing a snail, I decided to do work on more than one painting (at home) so that I could show them different processes and possibilities for their own paintings, should they want to try fluid acrylics. And, this time, I decided to work on paintings that I am really interested in bringing to completion for myself, rather than a generic painting for show and tell.


In the beginning there was a very wet sheet of paper . . . .

During the demo, I began one painting, showing them my usual process, then went on to show some paintings in process, and by then the time was up!


. . . that became the start of a painting . . . .

Besides some favorable comments on my paintings, I think they also liked my apron which I made years ago. It says “So little time, so much to paint”!

I have no idea why I was waving this painting around?????

Yep, that’s me standing in front of the group looking so gorgeous, don’t you think! Make especial note of the hair, since I’m trying to let it get a bit longer; it’s in that weird stage of not short enough to be bangs but just long enough to curl into your eyeball, so I have to keep it clipped back. Oh yeah, quite stylin’!

Like I always say, the only reason my friends keep me around is to make them look good in comparison!

Here is the start of an old car.  I had painted a series of old cars many years ago and when I saw this one in a field in Tennessee I had to take it's photo.  I've got high expectations for this one, but, as always, we shall see!

SYCAMORE LEAVES - FINALLY COMPLETED!

Thanks to all of you who voted on the proper orientation for the sycamore leaves.

Looks like View #3 won – so here it is, finally completed - with your help!

Sycamore Leaves, Fluid Acrylic on watercolor board, 20x16.

YUPO PEONY 7 - FINAL

I added some paint to define petal edges and put in the pink center. I’m not sure if that is too much pink so I’m living with it right now. If I decide to knock that back a bit, I’ll use some alcohol on a Qtip to rub it out.
Well, guys, I’m still not a Yupo lover, but I may do a few more paintings in this genre and hope they turn out as good as this one!

Peony, Fluid Acrylic on Yupo, 13x18.5

YUPO PEONY 6

Here are some images of the edges of the petals to show how it looks “up close and personal” where the paint bled under the tape. It gives that crinkly look that is called “the batik look”.
I’m not convinced there is skill to this technique – I think it’s more pure, dumb luck!

YUPO PEONY 5

As my friend says, “removing the tape is like opening a Christmas present – you never know what you are going to get.” Well, I’m pretty happy with this “present”! I like the purity of the colors and am happy with the way the colors bled under the tape on the edges of the petals.
I was surprised that there was no bleed with the masking tape initially used, even though paint was added on top of it several times.

The taping technique gives a unique look to a painting, but it does take patience. Of course, doesn’t watermedia always require some patience!

I’m pleased to say that there wasn’t much problem with the tape peeling up the paint – other than a few areas where the background paint was a bit thicker. I had anticipated that problem, and was extremely careful to pull back into the peony so that I minimized the amount of paint torn away.

YUPO PEONY 4

Yupo peony 4

Can you say BLUE PAINTER’S TAPE! This photo will brighten up your computer screen!
I applied the painter’s tape to the entire flower, then added some darks around the edges.
After taking this photo, I decided the background could be even darker, so I added 2 more layers of paint, using sap green and dioxigin purple in addition to the aforementioned 4 colors to get a nice dark.

I didn’t really have to cover the entire flower with tape, since I was only going to put more paint along the edges, but, since this was an experiment to see if the tape would lift the paint, I just went ahead and did it anyway!

YUPO PEONY 3

If you have taken classes from me, you know I always say to use regular masking tape as a resist because the colors of other tape can compete with the paint colors.

Well, “never say never”. But I have a good reason for doing this. Since painting on Yupo with acrylic is painting plastic onto plastic, I’m afraid that the regular masking tape will pull up the paint when I remove it, so I’m using some other tape with less “stickiness”. Here I’ve used “Frog tape”.

The photo above shows the second layer of paint applied.

More tape, this time blue painter’s tape, and another layer of paint.

YUPO PEONY 2

I taped off areas I wanted to keep white – here I used plain, old masking tape.

I’ll be applying the fluid acrylics with a brush, since my aim here is to build up light, thin layers.
This is how it looked following the first layer. The colors used are DaVinci hansa, quin. gold, cobalt and quin. rose.

YUPO PEONY

Well, folks, I never said I couldn’t paint on Yupo, just said I don’t like it.
To prove to you that I’m capable, here’s a Yupo demo utilizing what some call the “batik look”. This painting is my first experiment with using tape on Yupo.
To see another painting I did on Yupo – with watercolor - see my post here on ------ yet another painting of a peony!

I’m using fluid acrylic and my trusty peony photo for this project.

My first step was to get “high” on the alcohol fumes! You use alcohol to wipe over the surface of the Yupo to rid it of any smudges or dirt. I have a feeling this is more crucial if you are using watercolor instead of the fluid acrylics.

Using a watercolor pencil, I drew the flower directly onto the Yupo. If I made a mistake, I “erased” the line with water. The next time I do this I will probably wet the tip of the pencil first to make it a bit darker, since I kept losing my lines and had to redraw several times during this process.
The beauty of using this photo is that I can probably screw up the drawing and it will still come out looking like a peony!

SYCAMORE LEAVES - 3 - HELP!

Well, I have finished the leaves - but now am thinking about the background.  Which I don't want to work on until I decide which way to hang it - and I need help with that - from YOU!  (Yes, I'm talking to you there behind that computer screen!)
So . . . here are all 4 ways -

Leaves 1





Leaves 2

Leaves 3

Leaves 4

Let me know which you like best so I can get this thing finished!!!!

SYCAMORE LEAVES - 2

I gradually – s l o w l y !! – work up the colors on each leaf. At this point I’m wondering if I need something else in the right open space, but think I’ll wait until the painting is farther along to decide.

SYCAMORE LEAVES

Finally, I’m back with a painting!

This painting was started as a demo, some time ago, for a fluid acrylic workshop.

When I do a demo, I don’t usually think of trying to get a completed painting. I just take an object or scene that I can use as an example in order to teach the class the specific technique or concept. If the painting works out, it’s a bonus! 

Since I was doing  more than one demo that weekend, this painting was started to simply show how I glaze with fluid acrylics.

The sun was backlighting some sycamore leaves one afternoon so I took a photo. There were more leaves in the photo, but I liked this diagonal line, so I left out several leaves. As usual, I began by glazing on some color.

SHAKER BASKETS - 3

I then gessoed that whole area and then repainted it. In the end, the white line is pretty well camouflaged. In the close up you can also see some places where the paint got “outside the lines” of the board and handle. Those spots were also cleaned up and camouflaged, and here is the final result. The white acrylic on the top of the shelf is showing up quite white in this photo; in real life it doesn’t show up that white!


Shake ‘er Baskets, 15x30, Fluid Acrylic on canvas

SHAKER BASKETS - 2

Here is a close up of the basket as it develops.

At the art club demonstration, I continued building up the colors. Then I laid this painting against the wall (upside down) and took out another painting to work on. I thought this one was dry, but it wasn’t! Not until I was packing up did I realize that the basket handle had been wet and the brown paint had run into the background. (Top left area just above the basket handle).

I dipped a Qtip into alcohol to rub off the brown paint (see the close up) which also took off some of the cobalt.

SHAKER BASKETS - 1

As you may recall, Rhonda Carpenter and another friend and I went to Shaker Villlage earlier in the year. I came away with a few photos to develop into paintings. This painting is taken from a photo of some old, well used Shaker baskets on top of an old shelving unit. For this horizontal design, I drew the painting onto a 15x30 canvas and began with a light wash of cobalt in the background. Then I used several shades of brown fluid acrylics in light washes.

As you can see (below) I worked left to right and only partially finished each additional layer. I intended to use this painting for demonstration purposes at a local art club and wanted to be able to show my layering process. I gradually built up the colors in the baskets and on the wooden shelf, using my fan brush to create striations to simulate wood on the shelf.

BRUSH-PAPER-WATER BLOG

I'm happy to announce that my work is being featured over at Chris Beck's "Brush-Paper-Water" blog!  I consider this a huge honor.
Chris makes me look good!  Go take a look at what she has to say on both her blogs!
"I'm Painting as Fast as I Can"
"Brush-Paper-Water"

CLOSE UP OF VASE

Someone had asked for a close up of the vase in my painting posted a while back.  So - here it is!  (Better late than never!)

FRONDS (COMPLETE???)

Here is the next stage – and possibly the finished stage??

Tell me what  you think - keep going and bring it all into focus or leave it as is?  Right now the "audience" is about half and half!
I think this will be a definite do-over no matter what!