A Few Little Sketches

Looks like I wandered off for a while again. That's partly due to not doing much of anything, and I managed to screw up my shoulder playing lumberjack a few weeks ago. Well, at least I have plenty of firewood for the winter. I did get quite a bit of designing done. There's three good size paintings all designed and draw all ready to go with another two right behind. Nothing to it but to do it now. (Note to self, get those canvases stretched and grounded so they'll have some time to age.)

Since it's been so long I thought I should put something up even if they're not the greatest things I've ever done. So three little sketches today, not much more than background studies really.


Oil on Panel
6 x 12
Not much to say here. Moving on.


Oil on paper attached to panel
5 x 12

If you've never worked on paper it's a really nice surface for sketches. This is an old piece of Whatman's watercolor paper. As it turns out I absolutely hated the paper for watercolor, way too absorbent. But with a thin coat of acrylic matte medium it makes a nice surface for oils. Good for outside work too because as you may guess it weighs next to nothing. Just tack it to a thin board or even some foam core and off you go.

At one time I had considered using something like this as a background for a Lady in the Lake painting. I may have to come back to it. Still think it has some possibilities.


Oil on panel
6 x 12

I think this is easily the best of the three. There was a paint out up on one of the river towns a while back. Seemed like a good idea so off I went. The weather didn't cooperate at all so I turned around and came back home. I did take a few pictures along the way though. This is one of them so the day wasn't a complete wash out.