Halloween Still Life

A little still life I did of some Halloween decorations. Painted in gouache in my watercolor sketchbook. I tried a random pre-painted background of acrylic red, Then black, white, yellow ochre and I think burnt sienna. I tried to only use warm colors and let the black and white fill in for the cooler colors. I remember looking at the purple fabric underneath everything and having no idea how I would paint it. Its a little red (burnt sienna) mixed with the black and white. I think it looks purple. I was very happy about that, it felt like magic.

Reading Lamp

This is where I usually read my art books at night. I was reading through my Dean Cornwell book before I did this little black and white watercolor sketch. Then I went to sleep.

Where I usually read at night.

Christmas Still Life

Still Lifes always seem a little like homework at first so you have to force yourself to do them. Then, when you get a little ways into it them they get really frustrating and you question why you even do art at all and you kind of just hate everything. After awhile it's a lot of fun, and once it's over you wish you did them more often.

Here's one I did the other night in gouache

It's Been a Year

Last year in August I decided I wanted to post at least 52 times by next August (this August) and I have. I think this is number 58 since then. So, that's cool. I'm sure its been educational to me somehow over the past year. I try to post about once a week. I think I'll try to keep it up for another year; If anything, just to look back.

Here are some recent Famous Artist Course drawings I did this week.

a boot

a backpack

Still Life

Here's a little Still Life my wife set up last night. I painted it in watercolor and gouache while she drew it in charcoal. We do this every so often, I wish we would do it more. We always enjoy it. 

It's amazing what you think you know until you actually sit down and start drawing. 

There are always whole worlds in the tiny objects you hardly pay any attention to, and when you finally start to see them, you realize you could never capture them completely.

Still Lifes

In the past year I've done a few still lifes. In the two books I've been going through for oil painting (Oil Painting Techniques and Materials and The Practice of Oil Painting and Drawing) they both suggest to get the drawing down first. Then mix up and paint the background and ground tones. Mix light, halftone and shadow tones for the objects and simplify the tones as much as possible with a big brush. And hold off on details until you have everything else down. 

It sounds straightforward, but when you actually sit down and start painting, things suddenly become incredibly complex and stay that way... Until a few hours later, when you either have a painting that looks similar to what's sitting in front of you or it looks nothing like it and you just have to hope that you learned something useful for next time.

Skull and Flower Pot oil painting

Clutter and Christmas Sketch

Yesterday I sat down for a while with a ballpoint pen and sketched a corner of my house. I thought about straightening up the area to make a cleaner picture, but decided against it.

I like doing these kinds of sketches of random scenes from everyday life. In a few years when I look at it again, it will seem strange that it was ever real. This sketch will prove that it was and I'll remember it much better than if I had just taken a photo. And all the seemingly insignificant memories of what was going on at the time will return a whole lot more significant.