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Thursday, March 27, 2014

Orange Grove by Bryant's Ranch


It rained the night before, so the light was amazing.


My sketch is about establishing the composition.  The values and the colors are never the issue.  It is about making sure what I want in the painting fits in the painting.
Here is my set up along the bicycle path as I prepare to start my painting.

Orange Grove by Bryant's Ranch

I started by quickly filling the surface with the basic composition. I made a point to not start working on any of the details or highlights.  My focus was to keep painting as long as I can.

The clouds were what I meant to paint because they were so interesting looking today.  I painted them first because there is no guarantee that they will be looking good by the time you get around to painting them.
The orange grove is the other subject of the painting so I painted it next.

Orange Grove by Bryant's Ranch




Orange Grove by Bryant's Ranch




This soft pastel is painted on birch plywood with acrylic paint and pumice gel as the under painting. 

Wednesday, March 19, 2014

On the Rocks Shaws Cove

It had been a couple of days since I had painted and I needed to warm up.  I took a hike around the rocks on the north side of Shaws Cove.  As I hiked, I took pictures.  I was building compositions in my camera frame.  I could do a number of sketches to find the right composition, but it is so much quicker using the camera.  I can take a hundred pictures in about fifteen minutes.  

Because the shadows were moving quickly, I drew in the values.  I am usually more concerned with getting the shape right and let the values handle themselves.

This is not a bad place to spend your afternoon.  A bad day painting is better than a good day doing anything I can think of.  I set my easel facing south and looked to my right to the west.  When I set up my easel I am thinking about where the sun is and where the sun will be when the painting is finished.


On the Rocks Shaws Cove


I started with a notan in a complementary color.  I like to start with complementary colors and then refine and develop my colors from there.
I focused on painting once I had gotten the initial shapes right in the notan.  I worked until I had covered the entire surface of the board.
From this point I made adjustments to the values and the colors.  I was trying to make sure that all of the colors and the values related to each other.

On the Rocks Shaws Cove

At this stage in the painting I started defining the details within the painting.  I also started working the values into the lighter ranges.

At this point I also started working the foreground of the painting. As I defined the shapes in the foreground and focused on their values, I made adjustments to the rest of the painting to insure that all parts of the painting related well to each other.

All that is left is some last minute final adjustments.

On the Rocks Shaws Cove




Monday, March 10, 2014

Setting Sun Santiago Canyon

This is a studio pastel painting on Wallis paper with an under painting of water color.  This painting measures 24"X 36".  I have painted at this location about a half dozen times.  This painting is based on reference photos that I have taken from those visits.  I really like the distance of this landscape.  The colors on the grass were amazing as well.

Irvine Sycamore




Irvine Sycamore

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