RAIN!!

It's raining today, and yesterday, and a few days ago.  We haven't seen this much rain all at the same time for over a year!  HOORAY!  Our aquifer will go way up and the wildflowers will be wonderful in the spring!  This is the optimal time!!  For sure I will be out painting the wildflowers in March, April, and May!  Come join me!

Here is a watercolor I did several years ago of the wildflowers, enjoy, and check back in a couple of months to see updated paintings!

Passing time

Goodness, it's been several months since I posted here.  Time flies.  I've been very busy in school, taking a quick study class, working on thesis work, and learning the professional business side of art making and selling.  Ya'll would be amazed at what all it entails!

In the quick study class, we are painting a total of 100 paintings.  Small quick studies of 25 minutes to an hour and 1/2... in oil, on panels.  We are also doing 2 major finished paintings for this class.  Some of the work has been quick challenging, some a lot of fun!  This is a way of working I will probably adopt as a regular way of life.  I would like to do one small study every day... it is a great way to learn and practice technique andfigure out compositions.  Here are a couple of my studies...

We do several types of subjects, clothed figures, nudes, still life, and landscape.  The landscape paintings are mostly from life, plein air, and SO MUCH FUN!  I highly recommend plein air work for anyone wanting to learn to paint, learn color, and try out compositions.

New Ebay Listings

Hi All... Please go to my ebay store and look at the new auction listings I just posted... I think they should all find new good homes!
http://stores.ebay.com/Headlines-Art

Finished Painting... of July 27th post

Here is the final result of the painting I showed in its beginning stage on July 27... I am very happy with it... I took the scarf out and just dealt with the pose by using light and color to make it "read"........

Summer School is almost over...YAY!!!

This has been a challenging summer for me.  My school work has kept me inside most of the time with only short forays out to teach and twice to swim.  Our weather continues to be horrid, 100+ temps and NO RAIN ... everything is drying up and seems about to blow away.  On the up side, I turned 61 on August 1st and I survived!  Soooo, I think I will stop having b-day parties... maybe one more at 70!!

Currently, my work in school is going pretty well.  Here is my newest painting in watercolor of my friend Helen and her cat Oreo.  This is one of my thesis paintings and I am particularly proud of it...

I will post other paintings in a few days (6) when school ends and I have time to think again!

A good day!

Today got off to a rocky start, I was late to my class, and I was overtired.  But my students were wonderful, full of energy, full of good work, feisty, and challenging.  I was inspired by them, and now I have made significant progress on my own painting... I am posting it in it's present state.. but I have already decided to make major adjustments... I will post again in a week to show you the changes.

Good question!

Hello....... I had a good question from one of my followers, New Mexico Artists Web.  They wanted to know what I meant about 360degree increments when I referred to the photo I used for the sitting nude.  Many of you know that I am enrolled at the Academy of Art University pursuing my Masters of Fine Art.  I am doing the whole course online, the school is in San Francisco, I live in San Antonio!   When we are required to do a painting of a figure, since the whole class is doing the same work, the school provided us with very good photographs of the models, set up with excellent lighting.  The photographs are taken usually from many possible angles... 360 degrees.  So I could have chosen any one of  a dozen photos of the same pose.  Part of our evaluation is about how and why we choose the photo/angle that we do, what we are looking for in that pose, and how we choose to execute it, our style, etc.  The requirements are quite rigorous and thorough. 

Many people ask my how we can be graded on art over a computer.  We are required to photograph our work many times during its creation, and post those photographs on our class discussion page.  There, all the other students in the class and the instructor can view our work, and we are required to critique each others work and learn from all the critiques.  If anyone wants to see more information about this school, I encourage you to look at their web page.  This is one of the most respected art schools in the world, with students all over the world; recent classmates included students from the UAE, Switzerland, and Korea.  There are several of us in Texas.  Here is the web url:     http://www.academyart.edu/                   

Start to finish

I finally finished this painting and I am posting it in all its incarnations from start to finish...

It is oil, painted in about 40 hours, 24 x 30 on stretched canvas.  I started with a photograph supplied by the Academy of Art University as part of my MFA figurative painting class.  We are given several dozen photos to choose from, most poses are in 360 degree increments.

The first is my drawing in terra rosa and ivory black mixture, directly on the canvas.  I used a diagonal grid to help with placement on my canvas.  I had toned my canvas with a mixture of burnt sienna and yellow oxide acrylic before starting the drawing.
 
The next step was to establish my shadow shapes and the approximate values of those shadows.  At the same time, I did some revision of the drawing, widening her arms, moving the foot, etc.

My next step was to add some color to the background, and my initial attempts at flesh tones and values.  The palette I am using is a limited one of yellow ochre, terra rosa, ivory black, and white.  NO BLUE!  NO GREEN... every color is mixed from those 4.  During this step, I realized that some of the proportions weren't correct, and some of the gesture was "off".  So far, I have spent about 15 hours and most of the flesh tones and edges were done.  I just couldn't leave it at this point, so I spent another 12 or so hours revising all the edges and proportions to be more correct...
 

After I got to the point of being pretty sure everything was where it should be... I continued with the volume and value work, darkening shadow shapes, brightening and using more saturated colors for showing depth, and fine tuning the skin tones.  

The final step included work on the face for a better likeness to the model, fine tuning the skin tones, and adding details like fingernails and highlights and details on the hair...

And the finished painting.  All together about 35 to 40 hours of work.

Ad Infinitum

For the last 2 days, I have been reworking and revising and re-measuring and re-aligning a figure on canvas.  Could I have chosen a more complicated pose?  Over 23 hours on this painting already, and it is due tonight for my class... not the final version, thank goodness!  I have another few days for that one!  I plan to post this painting in all the stages of work as one of my Start to Finish examples.  I will probably post them all on Tuesday..

I am actually enjoying this process even tho I grumble a lot!  It's been many years since I painted nude figures.  Many of my oil works in undergraduate school were nudes and a few watercolors done in the 80's and 90's but this kind of intensive focus on the anatomy and muscle structure and values I have never done.  It is quite exhausting and exhaustive!  But exciting at the same time.  Hope you enjoy the painting and the processes... but you will just have to wait a few more days!

Summer School

Hi all.......
 I have started the summer semester in my graduate program.  So far, I am painting the figure in oil in one class and doing more of my thesis paintings in watercolor for the other class.  Even tho the semester is short, only 7 weeks, and my classes are double timed, the pace is easier than the Spring semester I just finished.  I think I might make it thru this one without cutting my throat!  (KIDDING!!)

I will post some paintings in a couple weeks, want to make sure to do them well before I start to share  ;-)

Big Sale on my Ebay Store

Hi everyone... at the urging of my friend, Sara, I have put many of my newer oil painting studies on my eBay store for sale at bargain basement prices.  These are auction style listings and you may get lucky!  I am also offering several of my older watercolor paintings of landscapes and a few ACEO (miniature baseball card size paintings) for a really low auction starting price.  Good luck!  Have fun... thanks for your support!

To go to my ebay store, please look to the right and click on the link for ebay...  

What do you thinK?

Hi all... I am wanting your opinions...


I have TONS of older work and I am wondering what to do with it all, to display it here, to toss it, to use it for mulching the garden... Any ideas... I am tired of holding on to a lot of it, will probably want to keep some of the  pieces , but would really like to make some space in my life and studio for more work!  I have put some pieces on ebay and I invite you all to go take a look... 

http://stores.ebay.com/Headlines-Art

So I am open to suggestions...

Another new thing!

Well, I have decided to do a FASO web page.  It will be a more professional portfolio web page, something I can use to show prospective galleries and clients my more serious work.  I have so far found it quite easy to work with and as soon as I get the skeleton of it up and running, I will link it with this blog and post how you can see it!  Wish me luck, it will be something I can really use to showcase my work!

Meanwhile, here is the finished piece I had started en plein air back in April... I really only added some highlights and firmed up some of the areas to read better.  Hope you enjoy seeing what I am up to!

Fur

Today's assignment was fur and texture on a model... a 6 hour painting...
I have finished the boy and hogs I was working on...

                                                   "Exercise"

Start to Finish

Here is the oil painting I finished today in 6 hours, an assignment for my Masters work, subject: FOLDS!!  The sketch, about 50%, and the final... 

Big News

 

Here is my painting that was selected for the 

Salon International 2011 exhibition at the 

Greenhouse Gallery in San Antonio, Texas.

The exhibition starts April 2, with an artist's

reception from 5pm to 8 pm.  Hope some

or you can join me.  I promise you a hug!

http://www.greenhousegallery.com/si/

Welcome to my blog

May friend Sara has insisted I do this blog.  She was right, it was easy and I know it will be a wonderful tool.  Thanks Sara, and I hope you all will enjoy checking my work as it progresses.  I will be posting paintings and sometimes I will post the progress of the painting from photo ref to finish.  I will sometimes give some painting or drawing "helpful hints", and I will post finished painting that are available for sale.

Again, Welcome and I hope you will enjoy taking a few minutes to see what I am up to.