Ice on the Trees in New Hampshire Originally uploaded by randubnick
Today I took my paintings to New Hampshire for the art show. Although it was raining at home in Beverly, there was ice and snow in New Hampshire. The trees looked beautiful, and I took pictures with my phonecam. Tonight I cropped this one to focus on the lacy white branches of the icy trees.
Transformational Drawings on Studio Wall Originally uploaded by randubnick
I took this picture today, just before I took these drawings down and packed them up for my art show in New Hampshire. In late November, I had hung them up for Open Studios at Red Brick. I made these drawings from an old abandoned figure painting I had started with acrylic paint; this fall I cut the painting up into nine pieces, and drew into each piece with conte crayon, making nine small landscapes. The position of each drawing on the wall corresponds to the position of the piece of paper in the original painting. When I hang these drawings in New Hampshire, I think I will hang them in one horizontal line. But in case I change my mind, I can use this photo for reference.
Amaryllis (Posterized Photo) Originally uploaded by randubnick
The temperature here is absolutely frigid, but the amaryllis is in full bloom today. Of course, I took pictures with my phonecam. I chose the image I liked best, cropped it for the composition, and then opened it in Painter IX. I decided to try to posterize it because, well for one thing, these days I am posterizing everything that moves (or doesn't) because it is fascinating to me. It is fun to see what happens to the colors, and I thought the effect on the blossom and window blinds would be interesting. I played around with the posterizing controls till I was happy with the effect: a nice tropical image for a freezing cold January day.
Trees in Summer Light (Posterized Photo) Originally uploaded by randubnick
This image began as a photo taken at Long Hill Gardens a few summers ago, with my old phonecam. It took soft, fuzzy images, and I really liked the effect for closeups, but often the photographs of scenery were very indistinct and blurry, as in this case. But I liked the effect of the light in the original photo, and decided to see if I could do something with the image, so I opened it in Painter IX. I softened the focus even more, then posterized it, creating flat shapes, (like a poster). I tried several levels on the posterize controls until I found the effect I was after. Then I cropped the image, and here it is.
Amaryllis near the Window Originally uploaded by randubnick
It has turned cold but the amaryllis is starting to open up near the window. The amaryllis makes huge flowers in winter, just as the days begin to get longer. This flower has persistance, patience, and can endure against the odds over time. The bud looked nice against the window blinds so I took this photo yesterday in the low winter light. Tonight I cropped the image until the geometry of the composition was the way I wanted it.
Two Colorado Mountains Originally uploaded by randubnick
This is the other painting that I finished this week. I added more brown and purple to the mountains. Then I added a blue wash to the sky, and a red sun (of course). This painting will also go into the art show in New Hampshire.
Autumn Mountain Originally uploaded by randubnick
Mountain Paintings on Studio Walls Originally uploaded by randubnick
This is a photo of my mountain paintings, hanging on my studio wall. I had them hung up with pins and clips for open studio at Red Brick. This week I had to get them framed for my art show in New Hampshire. But I really liked having them on my studio wall, so I took a quick picture with my phonecam, just before I took them down.
This image began as photo that I took a few years ago with my old phonecam. I loved that little camera as much for its limitations as for what it could do. It took great closeups of flowers and leaves, for example, but pictures of landscapes often lacked detail. But sometimes the softer focus has its own charm. Tonight I took the original image that I had taken with my phonecam and opened it in Painter IX to see what I could do with it. I liked the composition and the light, but the focus was not sharp enough. I decided to try posterizing it. I had to adjust the levels several times to find the one I liked the best. This is the version I decided to use. It captures the feeling of the light, but the shapes are simplified and are more abstract.
Two Figures Originally uploaded by randubnick
I painted this image when I was a student at the University of Colorado. It is acrylic paint, used as watermedia, on paper. The two figures could be anyone at all (I was focussed on the composition, the patterns and the colors). I made this image many years ago, but since then I have often seen this pose in life and in photographs.
Morning Glories (Posterized) Originally uploaded by randubnick
This image began as a photo I took two summers ago, with my old phonecam. Tonight I found the image and decided to open it in Painter IX and see what would happen if I posterized the image. I always liked the photo, especially the color, but the background was too complicated. But I decided to posterize it at a level that simplified the detail in the background, leaving only shapes and colors.
Looking Up at Trees in Winter Originally uploaded by randubnick
This is a photo I took with my phonecam, a little over a week ago, on December 30th. It is hard to remember that we had a snow storm, because it has been so warm lately.
Spring Trees (final) originally uploaded by randubnick
This is the little sketch I started yesterday on my PDA paint program, called Pocket Artist. Tonight I opened the image on my computer and again used Painter IX to modify it just a bit. I straightened out the tree trunks with digital pastel, and added two small branches on the right to balance the composition. Then I did a little more cleaning up, but didn't do too much because I didn't want to lose the spontaneous feeling of the original.
Today I wanted to try out Pocket Artist, a paint program recently installed on my PDA, so I started sketching. I guess my choice of imagery here was influenced by the warm, spring-like weather we are having in Boston. People were out flying kites at the beach! (However pleasant the weather, it is strange and worrisome, especially in view of the big snowstorms in Colorado and the windstorms in California.)Anyway, this little drawing is still a work in progress. I was able to transfer this little sketch into my computer, and was able to open it with Painter IX and clean it up just a bit to make it presentable. To be continued. . .
Here is a piece of digital art, a little drawing I recently did on the computer, using Painter IX's digital pastel and pastel pencil. The swirling strokes reflect a playful response to snow and to this drawing.
Today seemed like spring, with temperatures over 50 degrees. It is hard to remember that we had a snow storm so recently. This image is a reminder. It started as a photograph that I took with my phone cam, looking out through a window at a branch covered with snow. Tonight I cropped the image to straighten out the window panes, and played with the contrast a bit. Then I opened the image in Painter IX and posterized it, experimenting with levels till I had what I wanted. Then I decided to crop the image again to get the branch in the best position, and discovered that I preferred the image with the window panes off-center.
Here is another painting that I started yesterday at Red Brick Art Center. This is acrylic paint used as watermedia, and the imagery is from my imagination and my memories of Colorado, where I grew up. Although I am not trying for realistic color here, the Colorado mountains really do look pink at certain times of the day. Yesterday when I mixed brown and pink together, I really recognized a color that reminded me of the Colorado landscape. This little painting is a work in progress. To be continued. . .
I went to Red Brick today. My main task was to seal the edges of an oil bar painting that is going to be part of the upcoming auction. But while I was in my studio, I did I little bit of work on this painting that I started in early November.
Over the past few days, we finally had some snow. (It has come and gone, thanks to today's rain.) But while it lasted, I went for walks in the snow and took some pictures with my phonecam. This is one of the photos I like best. Tonight I cropped the image, trying to balance the composition. Too much snow can be an obstacle, even a danger, and nobody wants to have too much of it. But still, I agree with our little dog that snow can be fun and it makes me feel like a kid to walk around in the snow just to look at everything. Snow changes how we see, bringing out patterns and textures and lines that usually go unnoticed.
Here is my clock collage as it looked when I had finished working on it yesterday. For the area underneath the clock, I decided to use a printed paper napkin that I had at home (part of a set received as a gift). I cut the napkin into strips and pasted them down. Then I added the two strips of gold mesh ribbon that my daughter had saved for me. Because the ribbon is transparent, I used acrylic gel medium for the glue. It will be completely clear when it dries. Later, I will coat the entire collage with acrylic medium, but it is easier to photograph before it is coated. I decided to take a picture of this collage in the sun that was coming through the windows at Red Brick, and I think it is easier to see this way.
When I returned to Red Brick to work on my collage, I concentrated on the clock's face, for which I used paper cut from a coffee filter. As I pieced the circle together from triangles, I liked the effect of the overlapping pieces of paper. The reflection makes it hard to see in the photo, but to suggest the numbers on the dial and the hands of the clock, I used silver ribbon (courtesy of Chico's I think). I worked a bit more on silver body of the clock, and then it was time to stop for the day. The area below the clock is the cardboard that I used for backing (courtesy of Amazon packaging!) I left for home without any idea what I was going to do with that area of the collage. To be continued. . .
This is the new collage I started on Tuesday. It is almost time to turn the calendar to 2007, and I was thinking about making an image of a clock. I had a particular clock in mind, a little silver desk clock that I received as a gift several years ago. I took a good look at the clock before I left for Red Brick, and then worked from memory. I cut the shape of the clock out in brown pantone paper, thinking to make a wooden clock. But then I decided to use some silver and brown paper (from a J. Jill shopping bag). I drew a circle for the face of the clock, and pasted the patterned paper around it. Then I started the background with ribbon (also from the same shopping bag) and pink tissue paper that my daughter had saved for me. This is what it looked like at that point. That is as much as I had time to do, but I had done enough to see that the idea might actually work. To be continued. . .
Over the weekend, I had an idea for a new collage. So I went to Red Brick on Tuesday with that new idea in mind. But before starting something new, I wanted to do some work on this collage, which I started back in November. So I added more leaves, trying to balance colors and shapes. I was happy with how it was going, but after a while, I began to feel I was rushing because I wanted to get the new collage started. So I stopped right then and switched projects, and will return to this one soon. Sometimes if you rush to try to finish something, you aren't careful enough and can ruin it at the last minute. So this collage is still a work in progress. To be continued. . .
Sunday was a great day for a morning trip to Cambridge. Because it was Christmas Eve Day, the Harvard Bookstore opened at 8 AM. We got to Cambridge early enough for coffee at Peet's, then it was time for the bookstore. (I bought Hockney's book SECRET KNOWLEDGE, about the old masters and optics: very controversial but fascinating.) As I left the bookstore, the building opposite, with its archway leading to campus, caught my eye and I took some pictures. Tonight I chose the photo with the best geometric composition, then cropped the image to focus only on the archway and the view beyond. Then I posterized the image in Painter IX, adjusting the levels to get the amount of detail I was after. Hockney has interesting things to say about photography, painting, and computers, ideas relevant to the kind of manipulation that programs like Painter make possible.
I started this oil bar painting about six weeks ago at the first session of a class I have been taking at Red Brick. During the final class meeting (December 18th), we had a demo of glazing with galkyd. I only had a short time to try glazing that night, so I added a little blue-green to the vase and background of this painting. But a few days later, I went back to Red Brick and continued glazing on my own, adding some purple to some of the flowers. (Some of the flowers in the still life set up were really red heading towards purple.) I also added some purple to the background. I was having so much fun with this new technique that I decided I had better stop a bit before I glazed everything in sight.
Last Monday night was our last oil bar class. Towards the end of the class, the teacher demonstrated using galkyd and wax to glaze oil bar paintings. Because glaze has to go over a dry painting, I decided to try glazes on the painting I did during the very first class. Glazes can add color, so this was great because I was struggling with limited colors that first night. Glazing would let me add some of the colors I saw in the still life, but could not manage to mix in paint. So with only had a few minutes left in the class, I mixed some soft greenish blue with galkyd and used it to color part of the vase and the upper right hand corner of the background. I liked the effect and knew I wanted to do more, but it was time to pack up and go home. To be continued. . .
This landscape is a piece of digital art that I created recently using Painter IX's digital pastel. I decided to use this image for holiday greetings.
This is the painting I was working on in my oil bar class last Monday night. I have not worked on it since then. But I did decide to photograph it again and re-post. At the end of the class, I was in a hurry and took a quick photo with my phonecam, but the paint was so wet that I was getting too much reflection from the overhead lights. A few days later, I went back to Red Brick to work on other projects, and while I was there, photographed this painting again, this time in daylight, to get truer color and a lot less reflection. So this is really how the painting looks at this point. I am going to keep working on it. To be continued. . .
This morning I went back to Red Brick and used the time I had to finish up this drawing. I shortened up the two buds just a bit to make the perspective more believable. Then I worked on the vase. I checked the shape of the vase by turning the drawing upside down and also by holding it up to a mirror. Then I added depth and reflections. I also finished up the background. Although experience tells me that I may see something in a few days that I need to change about this drawing, it is basically finished, so I signed it. I think I might donate this drawing to Red Brick for their Art Auction in January because the theme is "bleu".
Today I went back to Red Brick and worked on this drawing a bit more. I added shadow to the vase, then worked on the background a bit. It is not quite finished, but I can tell that I like the composition better now.
This is my pastel makeover after one drawing session. My goal was to resolve the off-center composition. First, I widened the vase on its left side, moving it closer to the center. But the flowers were still off center. I did not want to draw more blooms because I had drawn these from observation. Anyway, it would have been impossible to get the same bright white, which you can only get by letting the white paper show, because I would be drawing into dark blue pastel. But to balance the composition, I needed to balance the left and right margins, so I added two buds on the left. I figured that the buds are usually a bit darker than blossoms, and because of their position, they seem to recede, which would make them look darker anyway. And buds are simple to draw. Why two buds? Maybe to echo the two blossoms on the other side. I added some leaves, guided by the shapes of the leaves I had previously drawn from observation. That was all I had time to do, but this is still a work in progress. The white mums are finished just as they are and I do not plan to touch them. But I still need to work on the buds, leaves, vase, and background (some of ended up on my sleeve.) To be continued. . .
Several years ago, I was part of a drawing group; one artist would host, and we would get together and draw in the evening. I always worked with pastels, snagging any available flowers or fruit for my still-life setup. Time was always limited (we worked for two or three hours only) but I produced a number of good drawings with that group and really enjoyed their company. The other day, I came across three or four pastel drawings that I had started with the group but had not completed. This drawing of white spider mums is one of the pastels, and it really caught my eye when I found it. I really like the white flowers against the blue, but why hadn't I finished it? Well, time of course, but also the composition, which is obviously off center. No doubt I was so excited about the white flowers that I didn't notice till it was too late! I remember putting the drawing aside, thinking that sometime I would crop it to fix the composition, and then finish it. But when I found it last week, I decided to make it a project and do a make-over: take it to Red Brick, finish the drawing, and try to solve the compositional problem but without cropping the image. This is the BEFORE picture. To be continued. . .
I worked on this painting again tonight in the oil bar class I am taking at Red Brick Studios. I made the colors more complex (for example, put red and purple shadows in the green foliage). I also added areas of light. This week I worked only with the palette knife, rather than a brush. The palette knife produces more interesting textures and also forces me to mix colors right on the canvas. I could have worked on this for another hour, but it was time to stop. I took a quick photo with my cameraphone; the wet paint caught some reflected light (upper left corner), but this photo still gives a pretty good idea of what the painting looks like now. Although this was the last session of the oil bar class, I will keep working on this painting.
Here's another photo from Long Hill Gardens. I liked the way the winter light hit the trees, and the typical New England stone boundary at the side of the path. I took a picture with my phone cam. Today I edited the picture, cropping it to capitalize on the long diagonal line of the road.
The weather has been warm this week, good weather for walking at Long Hill Gardens. When we were there this week, the light was amazing. When we passed the house and the old chestnut tree, I took this picture with my phonecam. Although I was in a hurry when I took this picture, I like the effects of the light in this image.
This morning I went back to Red Brick to finish up this collage. I used red paper on the flames, then pasted yellow paper against the green to make the menorah look like brass or gold. I liked it but decided that I wanted the candles to be brighter than everything else, so I pasted little pieces of yellow paper in the flames. I am going to use this image as is for Chanuka greetings. Later I plan to coat it with acrylic medium to finish it, but the image photographs better without the acrylic coating.
Yesterday I had a meeting at Redbrick, but I arrived early so I could go up to the studio. I didn't have much time, but I did manage to cut out the shapes for the flames and paste them down.
Yesterday I woke up with the idea of making a menorah with collage, to use for my Hanukah e-mail greetings this year. I was heading over to Red Brick Studios, but only had a short time to spend there, so I decided to get this collage started. (I always seem to begin with the delusion that collage is faster than painting.) I began by pasting brown pantone paper onto cardboard for the background. I also used pantone for the menorah, which was great because the paper has a grid on the back which made it pretty easy to cut the menorah in one piece. Originally, I was thinking of the little flat menorahs for children; those usually have the highest candle off to one side. But I decided to put the highest candle in the center, for the sake of the composition. Then I cut the candles out of some nubby pink paper. By the time I had those pieces cut out and pasted down, I was out of time for the day. But I couldn't resist pasting just one flame onto the collage, to see how it is going to look.
This morning we had frost on the lawn and I loved the color and texture in the early morning light, so I took this picture with my phonecam before I brought in the newspaper. Tonight I cropped the image to get an even closer view.
This is a painting in progress that I started last night in my oil bar class. The instructor suggested starting a new painting that uses the same composition as one I painted a few weeks back, "Mountains and Field", but changing the colors and using a bigger canvas. One of my college painting teachers used to say that I should use a color that is out of my comfort zone, because it would give me a problem that I would have to solve. That is certainly true in this case, and I will have to work hard to solve this one! But meanwhile I am having fun figuring out how to mix a lot of colors with oil bars. I was making the sky lighter towards the end of the class, and just as I had decided to add light to other areas, it was time to pack up and go. So I made some quick marks with the brush to indicate where I wanted to put more light next time. Then I took a quick picture of the shiny wet canvas with my phonecam. To be continued at next week's class. . .
This is the portrait I have been painting for my friends. Today I changed the shape of the chin just a bit. Then I modified the relative size and position of the eyes; this helped a lot with the 3/4 view perspective. This is the version that I am going to send to my friends. Tomorrow I will have a digital scan made of the image. Then I will seal the sides of the canvas so the portrait can be displayed without a frame. Then I will get it ready to mail to my friends.
Today I made a number of small changes to eyes, mouth, and hairline to improve the perspective for a 3/4 view. Then I finished painting the nose, making the tip more rounded. I lightened the area under the nose. Then I added some tiny shadows to the mouth that brought out the expression in the smile. This is almost finished, just a couple of small adjustments to make tomorrow. . . .I have been focussing on this painting all week because I am trying to get this mailed off to my friends in time for the holidays.
I worked on this portrait again today. I adjusted the shape of the face by moving one line, which really helped with the three-quarter view. I also softened the nose and repainted the neck. Then I added the necklace. There may be a few small changes ahead, but we are getting close. . . .
I worked on this portrait again today, making another round of small changes. The main changes were to shorten the chin even more, and make the nose look slimmer and shorter. Although I have a few more changes to make tomorrow, I think this is almost finished. I hope to mail this to my friends in time for the holidays.
Today I made some changes to the portrait I am painting for my friends. I shortened the nose and the chin slightly to get the proportions right and improve the likeness. You can still see strong shadows where I made changes; I still need to lighten those areas because the shadows make the features look too sharp. Tomorrow I plan to reduce the size of the chin just a bit more. At this point, I try to keep the changes I make to between 1/16 and 1/4 of an inch at a time, because small changes make it easy to follow the lines that are already there, and also make it easy to reverse a change if I make a mistake. In a portrait, everything is related to everything else. A major change in once place can start a domino effect, so I move slowly and carefully. But small changes are important in a portrait, so it is worth the effort to try to get it right.
Over the past few days, I have made several small changes to the portrait, moving slowly so as not to lose the likeness in the process. I made a number of changes to hair and teeth to get as natural a look as I could. Then I raised the hairline and moved the eyebrows and top of glasses down a bit. Each change was only between 1/16th to 1/4 of an inch, but the cumulative effect was to change the proportion of the eyes slightly. I made the lower half of the face slightly wider. Then I made the space between top and bottom lip slightly larger, and extended the corners of the mouth (again, by 1/16th of an inch). This made the mouth look slightly wider. Even though it is hard to see each change, I think all these modifications improved the portrait.
This is a painting I worked on in my oil bar class tonight. I am still concentrating on learning to mix colors. Earlier in the day, I picked up a couple more oil bars to make it easier to do. I thought I would see how many kinds of blue I could make. Then I decided to work on the small 8 x 8 inch painting for the Red Brick Auction because the theme is blue. I had been thinking of doing a painting of a mountain lake. Although I had looked at some of my Colorado photographs (trips to Dillon Lake, etc.), this image is from imagination and memory. I don't know if this little painting is finished, but this is what I was able to do in tonight's class.
This is the portrait I am painting for my friends, as it looked two days ago. I am still trying to get the teeth the right shape and color. I added more lines to the hair to get the right texture. Things don't naturally look natural in a painting; you have to work at it. Although this portrait is almost finished, it is still a "work in progress". In fact, there is a more recent version which I worked on today, which I plan to post after my friends have had a chance to see it.
Yesterday I put the finishing touches on this painting; I added some pink to the mountain peak on the left side, just to complete the line of the mountains. Then I hung it up, just in time for the Red Brick Open Studios today.
This is the portrait I am painting for my friends. Over the past few days, I have been working on details, especially hair and mouth. I dated this November 30 because I worked on it again tonight and there is a more recent version, but I am not ready to post it yet. So this is still very much a work in progress, with more changes ahead. But it is really worth it to get this right. Small changes can make a big difference in a portrait.
