THE VIRTUAL PAINTOUT

729 Keizergracht (9x12 Oil on canvas panel)
This is my first entry to The Virtual Paintout blog site, created by Bill Guffy. Bill creates wonderful lose plein air paintings. I hope he keeps this blog site going, and think it will grow in popularity.
I spent the first three weeks in a virtual walk though the streets of Amsterdam, and getting familiar with the google map system. The most valuable information on the use of this system was Bills suggestion to Email locations you like to yourself. I zoomed in one click for my selected site, and famed my image noting how the reflection of the grey building fit in the bottom left of the image. I thought I would need this to information to come back to the same view. However, using the email link it brought up the image exactly as I had zoomed and framed it. Another feature I learned after about a week of playing with this map system is you can make the full screen image by clicking the little box in the upper right hand corner.
To see my reference photo click go to the Google Maps and place the following into the find box (729 Keizersgracht, Amsterdam, North Netherlands) and click the Search Maps button. You will see I repaired and relocated the street lamp and removed the sail boat and a white tarp to improve the composition.

DIANA

The latest challenge for Karin's DSFDF is a statue of Diana (Goddess of the Hunt, Roman Mythology). Karin wanted her army of Painters to treat this challenge as an exercise in drawing. I love to sketch people so was excited to get started.


This is my sketch on an old painting, which I sanded down to remove most of the brush marks. For accuracy I drew 1 inch grid lines over the photo and my canvas. I used a sharpie pen for the sketch because pencil would not show up on the old painting.


This is a rough draft use to develop the general shapes and colors. Notice the Sharpie lines show through the first coat of paint. To speed up the drying time I place the painting under a heat vent at night and in the full sun during the day.

DIANA (9x12 oil on canvas panel)
This is the finished painting. It was a lot of fun to paint. With a limited pallet I could concentrate on values and not think much about color. My pallet was: Flake White, Ivory Black, Ultramarine Blue, Raw Umber, and Burnt Sienna. I did try to replicate the cool and warm grays. I think a little more blue should have been used in the cool grays.

BOOGIE BOARDING

Boogie Boarding (5x7 oil on wood panel)
This is another Karin Jurik DSFDF bi-weakly challenge. I liked the reflections on the water in the reference photo. I changed the girl so she is looking to the left, and relocated her to form a group of three.

DIFFERENT STORKES DIFFERENT FOLKS

SUSHI (5x7 oil on wood panel)
This was an exercise from Karin Jurick's Different Strokes from Different Folks web site. Thank you Karin for the great reference photo. It had wonderful color and contrast, and was a joy to paint.

INDUSTRIAL ART

BIG RED (oil on canvas board 12x16)
The first five paintings were exhibited at Just Looking Gallery in San Luis Obispo, Ca. The show featured Urban Landscapes by William Wray. Wray is a highly regarded Urban Impressionist. The gallery had invited a few of the local artists to take part in the show.
I was in Santa Maria one day and was lucky to find the old engine barn opened and was able to take some photos These first two paintings were done from those photos. I liked the way the light from the windows reflected off the hood of the faded old truck.


PORTABLE GENERATOR (oil on canvas panel 12x16)
Well I think it is a generator. The gray tube on top is an exhaust with muffler, and the square on the back is a radiator. The trailer is attached to the back of Big Red. I liked the composition with the little yellow trailer against the dark interior of the engine barn.


TANDEM ENGINES (oil on canvas panel 11x14)
These engines and flat cars were in front of the San Luis Obipo railroad station. Nothing like a punch of yellow to attract the eye. I was painting this en plein air and a man came by and asked if I was going to get the water tank in the painting. It's just above the engine and I was told it is an octagon tank and a rare relic. I had to work on the two palm trees to get them to appear separated from the background trees.


GRAFFITIED TANKER (oil on canvas panel 12x16)
This tanker was in Santa Maria Ca. I thought the painting was OK and I was happy with it. It was hanging in my garage gallery, for a while and has made it in to my office. However there is a glaring error in the painting, can you detect it? It is interesting how we painters don't see obvious errors in their work, but others will see it right away. I think this is because of the time invested and we have grown to accept the errors. Setting a painting aside for a few days or looking at it in a mirror will help you see your own errors.
I will tell you the error at the end of this post.


CEMENT PLANT (oil on canvas panel)
This cement plant is in San Luis Obispo Ca. The light and shadow patterns on the tower are interesting. You can find cement plants in almost any town and they can be good subjects for paintings.


BOBS' TOYS (12x16)
I was with the plein air painters at one of our members homes, and her son opened his barn and pulled out a couple of his restored old cars for potential subject matter. I looked past those shinny beauties and painted the old Ford. I really enjoyed painting all the stuff in the barn. He and a bunch of old model air planes, and lots of tools. This painting required quit a bit of studio work to finish after the plein air sketch.

Did you see the perspective error in the Graffitied Tanker?
Notice the angle of the railroad ties for the track on the far left, they are all going off to a vanishing point to the distant right. The ties for the track the tanker is on should be at the same angle.

PORTRAITS

GENERAL (oil on panel 12 x 16)
This Painting was done in an Eric Petersen work shop in Morro Bay Ca. Eric brought in black and white photos and some of his works done form these photos. One of his pieces was done with the light areas in greens and the darks in brown tones. This is a fun way to work and relieves you from the concerns of getting the color correct. I like the light violet grays in the General's hair, and the greens on his cheek. I had to do some research to see if his jacket should be gray on blue. The collar emblem indicated he was a Confederate General.


PRIDE (oil on panel 12 x 16)
Another Peterson work shop painting. The center of interest of most Portraits seems to be the eyes. That may have more to do with human interaction than contrast or color intensity. In this painting the light on the upper eyelid and bridge of the nose against the dark of the eye socket draws you to the eye. I left some of the alizarin background as shadow on the cheek and like the way that worked out. Working from these photos has the added advantage of forcing you to focus on the values. I believe value is the most important component in all art.


FRANK (oil on panel 18 x 29)
This is an earlier painting from a live model at Allen Hancock College. For me painting portraits from life is the most challenging form of art. I liked the lighting on the nose and the mustache.

JACK

Oil on canvas panel (6x8)
We recently went to Mississippi to visit family and ran into this lovable creature. He was particularly fond of my wife, who kept feeding him pears from the yard.

GRAND CANYON

SOUTH RIM, Oil on canvas board (5x7)
This was a gift for my Bonsai Club. I aways feature a tree in some way, and like to exaggerate the interesting characteristics of the tree. I noticed some of the shadows are a little dark on either side of the light stack of rocks in the foreground. It is interesting how we can continue to see little thing that need tweaking. Who was the famous artist who would make corrections on his painting when he would visit his clients?



CHRISTMAS CARD 2008, Oil on canvas board (6x9)
Glare on your painting can sometimes make it difficult to photograph. This painting was for our Christmas Cards this year, and shows my very professional photo set up. The fence is on the south side of our house, and I get good bounced light from the light neutral gray walls. The top fence rail is a convenient height.

JEFFERSON MEMORIAL

Oil On Panel (4x6)
This DSFDF is my first night scene painting. Karin had warned us about the glare you get when photographing dark paintings. I was able to get a decent photo without glare. However after I submitted my photo I noticed the color was off a bit. A photo editor was used to get a better color match to the painting in this photo.

CHRISTINE

Oil On Panel (6x8)

This was my second project with the DSFDF group. For this project Karin paired up artists I Painted Christine and she painted me. I find portrait to be the most demanding art. If you get a branch on a tree to big no one would notice, but if you get one eye to big every one will see the error. I enjoyed doing the portrait, Christine was a fine model.