Pumpkin Cabin Oil Painting

click to enlarge

Here's the finished "Pumpkin Cabin" painting that I've been working on for the past month or so. 

October and Pumpkins.

I guess I like to paint a lot of pumpkins around October, because you can't see them for the rest of the year.

Watercolor at the Crossroads

Here are the latest sketches from my new little watercolor kit (which I'm really liking).

I had to run to Staples the other night, so I figured I'd bring my sketch kit and watercolor something before the sun went down. I parked my car in the parking lot and just kinda sketched the first thing I saw. I've always found it weird, seeing all those artificial lights when the sun starts going down. It just feels awkward and unnatural.

ConceptArt.org

I joined LevelUp a few months ago, an online workshop at ConceptArt.org mostly for digital artists. I want to get more familiar with digital painting, so I decided this would probably be a good way to do so.

I kind of overestimated myself though. With my other assignments that I've been doing in the Famous Artist Course (which i'll maybe post about later), I haven't been going through the LevelUp assignments as quickly as I would like.

For instance, 2 months ago I received the first assignment: 20 black and white composition studies of masters. Which is basically just copying other works you like.

I'm only on number 8 i think. Which is just sad... But here's the latest one I did. They're not supposed to take forever, so you try not to spend too long on them. This one took me about 3 hours.

 The original is on the left, by Frank Frazetta. Mine is on the right.

The Bus Stop

The other day I had a 15 minute break at work, I left as quickly as I could and parked next to the bus stop. I took out my watercolor kit and and started sketching. 

My Travel Watercolor Kit

I've been putting together a little watercolor travel kit. Narrowing my old set up down to just the essentials and trying to keep it all fitting in my pocket. I'd prefer to use brushes and a cup of water instead of a water-brush (and sometime still do if I have more time) but if you add those, it gets pretty tough to just fit in your pocket... So here's my set up:

All of it fits in your pocket.

An old cough drop tin (basically an Altoids tin), watercolor sketchbook, water-brush, and a water-soluble colored pencil. There's also a small magnet stuck to the side of the tin (you can just barely see it) and a paper towel inside the sketchbook.

Here it is opened up.

8 bowls for color, and two mixing areas. (I havn't filled my 8th bowl yet)

 I sculpted the white part out of Sculpey, cooked it, and then sprayed it with a few coats of white enamel to keep it waterproof and then super-glued it to the tin.

The tin is held on by a magnet on the opposite side of the page.

I got tired of trying to balance the tin on my leg while I worked, so I put a magnet on the other side of the previous page and it holds nice and snug, even if you tilt it like this.

Overall I'm pretty happy about it.

Here are some times where I've used it:

Dumpster Monster
 A Bored Guy and a Squirrel and a Bus Stop
The Bus Stop
Watercolor at the Crossroads
Sketching at Fort Christmas
Sketching in Downtown Titusville
Still Life
THS Concession Stand
October and Pumpkins.
Christmas Still Life


All of this was super inspired by James Gurney's Watercolor in the Wild DVD and all of his blog posts.