Studying a portrait and how to break it down into basic light and dark and still make it read.
Gouache
3353: Schoolism Study 8
Back to studying the figure in basic shapes. I’m prepping for a possible painting.
3352: Schoolism Study 7
Study of this landscape in gouache and digital and trying to get it to read well.
3350: Schoolism Study 5
I spent a long time trying to get all the shapes in this painting to read well.
3349: Schoolism Study 4
Most the studies I’m doing with the Schoolism course are directed at possible larger paintings in the future.
3348: Schoolism Study 3
I got my gouache paint setup again and ready at a moments notice. Today is all about value and big shapes.
Daily Art #3017
Today’s art session was very fun! I worked on Paper Triangle and began an illustration.
Finishing Spock and an Easy Art Day
Sunday morning and I’m taking it easy, just doing a few things I’ve committed to and finishing Spock.
Draw With, Or Against the Form
Most of my decisions, while applying value on the Spock drawing, is whether to draw with, or against the form.
Mixing Charcoal and Graphite
Spock needed more intricacy to describe the complexity of his face so today I began mixing charcoal and graphite into this drawing and it’s working really well.
Spock, Modeled Painting, Gestures and Daily Comp
Super full day of art! I started with a modeled painting in gouache, then gestures from memory, then a daily composition and finally some more drawing on Mr. Spock.
Relaxing Art Day and Moon Painting in Gouache
Today I put aside my normal Nicolaides exercise and Fandom Fitness drawing for a relaxing day of art.
Christmas Landscape 6 Start
This is the last painting in the series but I don’t think it will be the last gouache landscape I do. I’ve had a lot of fun with these.
Christmas Landscape 5 Finished
Even though I was having a lot of trouble keeping on task today I still finished this painting and got 2 hours of art in today.
Christmas Landscape 4 and 5
I’ve finished the fourth painting and started on the fifth. It’s a very productive day!
Christmas Landscape 4 Start
I’ve had a very productive day today, but not on art unfortunately. I only spent about an hour painting today.
Christmas Landscape 3 Finished
I really like how these paintings are turning out. At first they don’t look so good but after some details they are really vibrant.
Open Studio with Gouache
I was having so much fun in gouache the past couple days that I decided to try it in the open studio session today.
Christmas Landscape 1 and 2
I’m very happy with the improvements I’ve made over yesterday on the first painting and I like the second even better.
Christmas Landscape 1
It’s a bit late in the game but I got inspired to do some Christmas / snowy themed landscape paintings for gifts.
Research and Study Day
I wanted to take a break from Patrick’s painting today and work with some landscape ideas I’ve been having for a while now.
Trees: Losing Interest
There always seems to be a point in a paintings life when I start losing interest.
Life Drawing: Gouache Portrait
This morning was a stressful one as our model canceled at the last minute but luckily we were able to get a great model at short notice.
Trees: Good Brushes
The quality of brush you use when painting does make a difference, but they don’t have to be expensive.
Trees: I Don’t Like Painting This Way
I’ve started a painting like too many times to count and I’m realizing I don’t like it.
Life Drawing Gouache Portrait
I was having a lot of trouble with this portrait at the beginning, then I wiped it out and focused.
Life Drawing Gouache Portrait
I’m really enjoying painting in gouache at the open studio, I think I’m starting to get the hang of it.
Broken Color Portrait
I had such a good time working on a portrait from the live model yesterday that I started one from a photograph today.
Life Drawing Gouache Portrait
For today’s life drawing session I just focused on doing a portrait of the model.
Post Surgery Gouache
After a long day at the hospital I’m doing the bare minimum in painting tonight.
Lemon Still Life: Awkward Blockin
When blocking in large areas of a painting it always seems to get awkward.
Life Drawing with Gouache
I brought my gouache paints to life drawing today to see if I could paint a figure in gouache.
Lemon Still Life
After a very busy day and a trip to the hospital, I’m switching over to gouache in preparation for this weekend.
Figure in Gouache
With this painting I have become increasingly frustrated with Gouache. I’m beginning to think that it is not the medium for me.
Figure in Gouache
I’m getting closer to the look I want to have with the figure in gouache. I think it’s still going to take a while to get the hang of it.
Figure in Gouache
Day two and I’m still trying to figure out this gouache figure thing. I’m sure it’s going to take me a while to get a hang of doing the figure in gouache.
Figure in Gouache: New Month New Focus and a little lost
For this month I have decided to focus on the figure in gouache and the transition to this medium from a month of charcoal drawing is difficult.
Gouache Tree Painting Attempt
Today I attempted to take my gouache on the deck and paint a tree but I had so much trouble with it that I gave up early.
Complex Ball Gouache Painting: Session 3
So I finally finished up this small painting of the complex ball in gouache and I’m really happy with how it turned out.
Complex Ball Gouache Painting: Session 2
Wow, another busy day for me. Before I know it the day is almost gone and I have to get some art time in. I wasn’t able to start on this ball gouache painting until late so I wasn’t able to spend much time on it before bed.
Complex Ball Gouache Painting: Session 1
In the zone today, I was taking my time and drawing this interesting and complex still life piece. I have painted this ball at least once before and each time it has been challenging. To finish this complex ball gouache painting it’s going to take several sessions, but I will take my time and do my best.
Orange Painting in Gouache
I tried a different setup today for painting this simple orange and I think I liked it better.
Goss Lake in Gouache
Painting a landscape in gouache is very hard. There are so many variables that you have to deal with all at once that it is very frustrating. I definitely need more experience to do this well.
Apple Painting in Gouache
I’m happy with how this painting turned out. Finally an apple painting in gouache that I can be proud of.
Life Drawing and Another Gouache Apple
You know what… it’s easy to show only your best work all the time.
Life Drawing and Apple Test
I’m testing out my skill with gouache on a very simple subject. I always think this is easier than it turns out, even with this simple apple I think I can learn a lot.
Life Drawing and an Apple
My last few days of art hasn’t been anything spectacular I’m just continuing with a well established habit.
Figure In Gouache: Session 2
My second session on this figure in gouache and I’m painting with much more detail in the only way I really know how to do detail in gouache. This is mostly an experiment really and I’ll probably try a few other things before the week is up.
Figure In Gouache
I’m trying something a bit different today, I’m painting a figure in gouache rather than oil. I’m not sure how it will turn out but I plan on taking my time with it, maybe working it up similar to how Andrew Wyeth would work his figures.
Two Oranges: Gouache
Maybe all artists have certain sensibilities for different medium and for each one you have to think and act in a different way. I may have finally come to this realization to day with my two oranges gouache painting.
Lonely Bench
Today I’m doing something different. In my sad attempt to emulate James Gurney I’m going on location with my gouache paints and painting a landscape. My wife and I have been to this soccer field several time and I have never seen anyone sitting on this lonely bench. So I wanted to try to capture the idea of loneliness.
Anatomy Tracing and a Terrible Orange
The study of anatomy can be accomplished a bit easier by looking at the human body and making associations with terms. Anatomy tracing helps with this tremendously, it also is training me to see the subtle forms under the skin and understand which bumps are which muscles, or bones, or tendons.
Lemons in Gouache
Its been a long time since I picked up my gouache paints but I had a good time tonight painting lemons in gouache. I was wanting to focus on the simple planes of lemons but that’s not exactly what happened.
Self Portrait Plane Study in Gouache
This self portrait plane study painting in gouache didn’t turn out as good as I was hoping, even after I did a self portrait drawing focusing on planes. I’m very sure it was due to my lack of focus.
Beginning a Self Portrait in Gouache
Today I was wanting to finish my first ever self portrait in gouache but it turned out that this was just the beginning half. The focus was going to be on defining the planes of the head clearly, but I lost focus after an hour and decided to continue tomorrow.
Breisach Germany and Colmar France
The first stop on our rhine river cruise brought us to Breisach Germany and Colmar France. We docked on the German side of the river in Breisach and our excursions for the day were in both Germany and France. For the morning my family took a windy bus tour to the black forest while I stayed in Breisach to do a painting, mainly because I get motion sickness very easy and the cruise director warned that the trip to the black forest was very windy and if you get motion sickness to beware. So I opted to stay in Breisach where I found Robin Hood’s castle.
A Clear Direction Yields Superior Painting Results
My painting plan devised yesterday worked like a charm. It may be second nature for most artists to have a clear direction before they put brush to canvas or pencil to paper and maybe I have even mentioned something like this before, but I feel it is worth stating again, if only to remind myself. Besides, repetition is a direct path to memorization.
Losing Focus: Hotel Breakfast Table Painting
One of the best things about our hotel stay is the breakfast in the morning. Leipzig really knows how to do it right and every other continental breakfast we have experienced pales in comparison. Unfortunately tonight’s painting didn’t go so well and I must attribute the difficulty to losing focus during the painting while at the same time not having a clear plan before the painting started.
Daily Art Versus Jet Lag
Wow jet lag is terrible. Currently it is the next day after I painted this still life and I have only had about 3 hours of sleep and this is after staying up all day yesterday after only 5 hours of sleep. I was so tired when I went to bed that I was sure that I would sleep for 8 hours straight, but as I write this severely sleep deprived I realize that the battle of daily art versus jet lag will continue for at least a day more.
Gouache Travel Test Painting
I have traveled many times before and I have found that committing to daily art while traveling takes some planning ahead. This will be the first time that I’m traveling with Gouache so I wanted to do a test run at home before we set out.
Focus on Planes of Value
Ok, I really like this little painting and I’m starting to really enjoy gouache now. After painting in oil for so long I have finally adjusted my thinking when approaching a gouache painting and I think these planes of value are a great representation of how to approach the medium.
The Difficulties of Painting Popcorn
Some nights I know exactly what I need to paint or draw then on other occasions I wonder out loud, “what am I going to paint tonight?”. In which my wife responds with, “popcorn”. Yes painting popcorn is a bit random but hey, we needed a snack before dinner and I consider anything I can see to be a worthy subject for any artists. So, popcorn it is.
Smaller Painting, Greater Detail
Tonights painting was a bit smaller than what I usually paint, but at only 4×6 I still think it is a nice painting. There is something about smaller paintings that seem to command less attention. I guess this is one good thing about the digital world you can’t really tell how big the paintings is.
Single Sunflower: Focus on Quality
Tonight was more than just about doing artwork but I also tried to focus on quality of the work. I was inspired by a video on Youtube video by Scott Robertson where he was showing off the sketchbooks of Chris Ayers who has been doing daily art for over 8 years.
Painting Sunflowers Using Gouache
Have you ever tried to paint a mass of foliage and make since of it? Well, its hard! I picked up this pot of sunflowers while at the grocery store today and it only cost $2.50. There are many posts on my blog of painting sunflowers but this is the first one in gouache. Although the mass of foliage I was trying to make since of really made this painting hard.
Still life With Lemons in Oil and Gouache
When wife gives you lemons, paint them… twice. I wasn’t really sure what I should do for my art session tonight, but I did know that I wanted to try out the Richeson Shiva Oil Paints I just purchased. I also wanted to get a direct relation between using oils and gouache so the best way I could figure to do that was to create a still life with lemons in oil AND gouache.
Still Life With Oranges in Gouache
I almost started a painting in oil tonight but the allure of Gouache convinced me otherwise. There is something about Gouache’s ability to force you into working slowly and methodically that I like. I’m sure at some point I will get tired of the tediousness and will escape to oil so I can barely look at my still life and throw some paint around, but for now I’m very happy with the Gouache painting that I completed.
Gouache Still Life With Apple
I will say it again, Gouache is hard. I’m continually baffled by a medium that changes its value and color a few seconds after I apply it to the board. For a while tonight while painting this gouache still life I was wondering if I purchased bad paints, or if the board I was painting on was sucking up all the pigment. It was very frustrating but, I powered through it a bit and began to try and combat the issues with this simple still life.
Portrait in Gouache
Even after two and a half hours working on this portrait in gouache, I still didn’t finish. I’m sure I will get better with gouache the more I work with it. For now I think its really great training.
Monochromatic Still Life in Gouache
Gouache is hard, and it’s very different from oil. Gouache forces you to slow down, at least in my case with limited knowledge of the medium, and really think hard about the next stroke your going to make. I think it may be the best medium for training in painting, but to start out with I tried an easy still life in gouache only using black and white.
Session #345, Work #337
I will get right to the point, at the moment I don’t like gouache, at all. Through all the work on this painting I have had multiple urges to pull out some oil paint and breeze through the painting with aggressive strokes.
Session #344, Work #337
Still more change in the still life tonight. Of course not near as much as the previous day but there is still some movement. Even with this small movement of the flowers I’m not sure how I’m going to continue with the painting without starting over each night and painting over what I did the night before. I don’t want to start new each night, I want to catalog the decay of the still life over time in one piece. Although, I have already lost any work that I have done on the first session. I think after tonight I have a better idea of how Gouache needs to be worked so this will help me in figuring out how to move through the painting.
Session #343, Work #337
I woke up this morning and looked at the still life and I couldn’t believe that the lilies deflated so much over night. The literally went from full wonderful flowers to limp and lifeless hanging pedals. I spent most of the day wondering how I was going to handle the change.
Session #305, Work #298
There are always those days when any skill at art that I posses seems to be well out of my reach and frustration wins out. Tonight was such a night. But, one thing I leaned from this is how amazing the art of Andrew Wyeth really is. Tonight his ability with tempera, a medium very similar to gouache, seemed light years ahead of me and completely unreachable. I hope to learn more from tonight’s failure.
Session #303, Work #298
At the start of this drawing I was longing for sleep even though it was only 8pm. Needless to say I only lasted an hour before I decided to break this work into two session. Tonight I will be attending my weekly A&C Art Supply class so I will be continuing with this painting on Thursday, maybe while I eat myself stupid at the same time.
Session #302, Work #297
I’m finding gouache very interesting yet difficult to work with. Its very similar to watercolor yet I feel like it wants to be worked in a more opaque manner. And for the first time I really have to think about the white of the paper and use it to my advantage. Which in tern causes a need for careful consideration before laying down paint. I have to figure out if I want certain areas to only have transparent layers and show the white of the paper through or if they should be opaque.
Session #301, Work #296
This is my first ever attempt at using gouache so I began with a simple subject. I figured that it would be better if I didn’t get overwhelmed with drawing a difficult subject, and I’m very glad I made that choice because even this much painting took me well over an hour.