River Walk

Watercolor

Oh my God, he uses black!

Yes, yes I do, even in watercolor.  Works good.  It's a perfectly good color if you know how to use it.  I could get along without it, but it's so nice for lowering chroma, and for this black dress it's kind of a good place to start.  As far as I know, no black on the market is a complete neutral.  Ivory black tends to be a bit on the blue side, carbon black is a little on the warm side, but with either I find color shifts to be less of a problem than with using compliments to dull a color.  If you really don't like black and find Paynes's Gray to be much more useful, you might want to check what it made with.  Most manufacturers make it with ivory black.

Doesn't really matter.  Color is an interesting thing and a pretty personal choice.  You can usually get to a given HVC with a variety of different mixtures.  One mix isn't really any better than any other as long as you come up with the color your looking for.  So have a big palette or a limited palette.  As long as it works for you and you know how to get the most out of it, you're good to go.  Personally I've got a big drawer full of paint -- three drawers actually, one for yellows, one for reds and one for blues, greens and blacks.  Most of that paint stays right there in the drawer.  I find myself regularly using about a dozen go to pigments.  Gets me where I want to go usually.

I didn't put a size on this.  I don't have it handy to measure, but it's not very big, about 12 inches high if I remember right.  It was a piece of leftover not pressed paper.

Curled in a Ball

14 x 12 1/2

Silverpoint on off white prepared paper

This is what I consider a perfect subject for silverpoint.  Light on light with no large areas of dark.  Yet I still think the lights and darks balance out fairly well.   It has the light, airy, etherial quality that plays right into the strengths of silverpoint.  Pretty happy with this one.

Child of Water

Silverpoint heightened with white gouache on light blue gray prepared paper

15 x 11ish

A lot of my favorite things here, white dress, reflections in water, hazy background, curly hair.  Well, maybe not so much on the curly hair.  Not that I don't like curly hair, drawing it can just be a bit of a challenge.  

detail about actual size 

This is a second version.  The first was doomed from the very beginning.  After I'd started and gotten well into it I just felt the paper was too dark to convey the mood I wanted.  After that it just got away from me probably because I'd already lost confidence in what the final piece would look like.  Lesson to be learned -- get it right from the beginning.  If a mistake is made, fix it right away or if it can't be fixed, cut your losses and start over.

A Little Drop of Rain

Watercolor on Hot Pressed Paper

22 x 30

They've changed a few things here on me.  I guess that's to be expected if you don't post in, what, two, three years?  Well, maybe that will change.

This seemed like a good image to start with considering all the rain we've had the past week or two.  Really squishy walking out there right now.

Normally you do the painting first then get it framed.  In this case I've had a frame for quite a while, and I've been looking for something that will look good in it.  This should do quite nicely due to the dress color.  Besides it kind of a nice image, at least I think so.  I think it's a nice blend of tight rendering on the figure along with a more splashy approach on the background foliage.  A lot of lifting off was done there.  That's one reason I chose to use a hot pressed paper.  That along with an addition of some extra gum arabic makes lifting out quite easy.  Much easier that painting around lighter areas.

One last unrelated thing for anyone that has commented lately.  Sorry I didn't get back to you, but I had to change me email and the link never got updated here.  So I didn't know there were any comment to get back to.  Hopefully that has been fixed.  All for now.

River Access

18 x 36

Oil on Canvas

I originally did this one quite a while ago, several years in fact.  I don't think I ever posted it simply because I could never get a good picture of it.  Just as well because I wasn't particularly happy with the first version.  So I started over from scratch, and within a couple days it's all done pretty much the way I'd envisioned it all along.  Still don't have a good picture though, please pardon the glare.  

There's a couple things I'd like to talk about in this picture.  First is the use of a limited palette.  In this particular case I used Prussian Blue (Milori Blue actually.  It's supposed to be a more stable version, but handles just about the same) Venetian Red and Yellow Ochre along with Ivory Black and Titanium White.  The blue and red make a really nice range of grays and they're dark enough together that the black was not all that necessary.  I'm not entirely sure I used it at all now that I think about it.  I do use black to gray colors as necessary so I'll include it here just because it's usually on my palette.   For this image those three pigments plus white is all that is needed and they worked perfectly.  There is nothing that says you can't add a higher chroma pigment if you need something to pop.  A limited palette is not magic.   It does have the advantage of making it easier to harmonize a painting's color.    There just aren't a whole lot of color combinations to deal with, but with these three colors you might be surprised at just how much color range you can get.  Again, if you want or need higher chroma passages use a higher chroma red or yellow.  The advantage of using an earthy red is that you can get a range of grays without adding the third color.  This isn't the only combination that will work of course.  Ultramarine and burnt sienna works nicely as does french ultramarine and raw sienna.  Both of those will give you a nice range to play with.  Another advantage of the limited palette is cost.  I know I have a lot of paint tubes that I haven't opened in quite a while.  Keeping it simple can keep the cost way down and in these times that can't be all that bad.

The other thing I wanted to mention about this painting is details.  This basically a simple image, just a  basic value arrangement.  As such, I think it works fairly well.  But in something like this I like to hide a few little nuggets for the viewer to find.  Take a look at this detail. 

That egret just one example of what's hidden here.  It might not be big enough to see here, but there is a great blue heron and a handful of ducks to be seen if you care to look.  So the thing is give the viewer something to look at.  There's nothing wrong with a simple image, but that doesn't mean you can't make it rewarding too.

One last thing, there are a few things for sale over at the Drying Rack.  There's a link over on the side here.  If you'd like one get it now.  Prices will be going up the first of the year. 

Silverpoint Landscape

I did this one back in the summer when it was about 1000 degrees outside.  I thought maybe drawing a nice wintery landscape would cool me off some.  Didn't work, but it kept me occupied for a while.

Silverpoint on light gray ground

8 x 6.5

I've never really done a landscape in silverpoint before other than something seen in the distance through a window.  There's a reason for that.  Silverpoint just doesn't have the range of values to quite do the job. Now, this image isn't horrible, but if those closer trees were darker the whole scene would have so much more power.  This image really needs to have a more graphic quality.  I had wanted to do a version of this in ink just to illustrate the difference, but I just can't seem to find the time.  You'll just have to use your imagination.  If you're going for a more etherial look, silverpoint might be just the thing so maybe this is just a case of the wrong medium for the wrong image.  

I've seen a handful of silverpoint landscapes.  Most left me feeling like this one, not bad, but it would be better if there were darker darks to give some more depth.  I've also seen a few that fit the medium nicely.  They were all more dreamy, fog shrouded images.  But they were all mostly gray of virtually the same value.  So if you like mid-tone gray images there you go.

The thing I'm finding with silverpoint is that if you have one or two they can be really nice if they're not competing with something with more range of value or color.  If you get too many together at one time they start to take on an overall grayness and they start to blend into the wall.  That's a problem with drawing in general.  It just seems to be particularly problematic with silverpoint.  And that's why you don't see many shows featuring just drawings I think.  Remember this is coming from someone that likes drawings.  

Well, I'm rambling today.  Not quite sure where that came from.  Any of your thought are welcome.  Thanks for looking.

Blessings

Once again it's been a while since my last post.  It seems that I get just about as many views as when I don't post as when I do, so efficiency would seem to indicate that I'd be better off using my time on something else.  But that wouldn't really move things along much.  At any rate here's something new.

Oil on Canvas

30 x 20

Since it's been so long since you've heard from me you would think I would have a lot to say.  It certainly seems like I should, but I got nothing.  Tell me what you think, and I'll be back soon I hope.


I forgot that I had some preliminary studies for this.  Maybe they'll be of interest.

Forgotten Images from the Vault

A few days ago I was looking through an old portfolio.  It was full of older drawings and things from several years ago, and I wasn't entirely sure what I would find.  Since they were older I expected to find a lot of junk to throw out.  There was some of that, but not nearly as much as I expected.  What I did find were some of the things I did while relearning how to draw.  Some of them weren't half bad if I do say so myself.  At any rate I thought some of the old master copies would be of interest to you.  So let's see what I found.

Look familiar?  A nice little silverpoint copy of Leonardo's silverpoint study for an angel.  It's heightened with white chalk.  This is one of the earlier silverpoints I have done.  A handful came before this, but you don't want to see those.  Trust me on that one.  The ground is a watered down acrylic gesso toned with some dry pigment, prussian blue I think.

I love old master drawings.  The St Louis Art Museum has a gallery devoted entirely to works on paper, drawings, prints, the occasional watercolor, and I always make sure to spend some time in there.  When a list of the greatest draftsmen of all time is put together Leonardo is always on it.   Albrecht Durer always makes the list too.  If you're looking for drawings to copy he's got some nice ones.  He also has a great list of engravings.

Another pretty famous image.  Well, if you're going to steal, steal the best.  Now this isn't a bad bit of drawing considering it's me and all, but compared to the original it definitely blows chunks.  I've seen the original print several times, and it never fails to amaze me.  It's not very big, only about 10x 8, but there's a lot packed into that small space.

This might not be quite a well known, but still a pretty sweet image.  This is Goya's The Sleep of Reason Produces Demons.  It's from a collection of etchings (maybe they're classed as aquatints) Goya produced called Los Capricios.  Pretty sure I spelled that wrong, have to check.  For all the non-etchers out there an aquatint is a resin dusted over the plate.   The plate is heated just enough for the resin to melt creating a resist to the acid bath.  When etched it will result in a wash-like tone like the background here.  The longer the etch, the darker the tone.  In the case of my drawing here I used charcoal.  I always liked etching.  Really should have broken down and bought a press.

A copy of Rembrandt's etching Woman with an Arrow.  Another of the world's all time great draftsmen and one of the great etchers too.  Nobody's quite sure what's going on in this image.  Venus giving an arrow to Cupid?  Maybe, as good a back story as any.  Personally I don't really care much.  I just like the image.  That's the reason I did most of these.  I also tried to copy them as closely as possible, trying to figure out the whys and wherefores.  Honestly I don't remember what I learned on any individual drawing.  It was more of a cumulative effect.   I have sketchbooks full of quick versions of things like this and other assorted objects.  The more you do the better.   One more today.

Recognize this guy?  If you don't you're in the wrong place.  I'm sorry, you'll have to leave.  I can only take this inclusive stuff so far.  I mean we're talking Rembrandt here.  Okay, the pose is based on a rather well know Titian portrait, but this etching may well be equally famous, and I do like a good etching.

Last thought for the day comes from Rembrandt while we're on the subject.  "Take the brush in hand and begin.  When you have said all you wish say you're done."

Playing with the Wind

Silverpoint on off white prepared paper
14 x 10

This is the companion piece to the last one I posted.  The size and paper color is identical.  The value range is about the same too.  If it looks different here blame it on the white balance.  It also illustrates the problem in photographing artworks.  I've seen the same image posted on different sites, all well respected art sites, that look totally different.   So maybe I'm not such a bad photographer after all.  Well,  I'll admit to being adequate.  Now there's something to aspire to.

I've been trying to think of something to actually say about this piece, but I really got nothing today.  The two drawings do go together fairly well.

or you can put them together the other way which I think I prefer.

That's not so bad a pairing.  I've considered doing a third figure to put in the middle, probably a standing figure about twice as big.  I think that might look pretty good.  Gotta give that some more thought.

Silverpoint and its limitations

I've been posting silverpoint drawings at various places on the net for a few years now. I usually don't get any comments at all which is depressing but I can live with that. I don't say much either so I can see where that is coming from. One comment I do get quite a bit is, "Your darks need to be darker." Uh, how many times does it need to be said, "This is as dark as it will get." Depending on the image that can be a deal breaker. But for the most part silverpoint will give me darks that are dark enough.

Silverpoint on off white prepared paper
14 x 10

 I think the people are used to seeing highly retouched photos with totally black darks and almost pure whites. Very contrasty and eye catching, but not really true to nature. Let's do something I usually don't do. Let's look at the reference photo I used for this drawing.

So here we have a very usable reference photo from the lovely auroradreams. I made a couple minor changes, but nothing earth shaking to be sure. Now look at the darkest darks, hair, eyes and the shadow under the knee. Silverpoint won't get quite that dark, but it will be pretty close especially when its aged and the silver has tarnished. Definitely not a problem though. Now look at the folds in the drapery. The shadows are light and airy with plenty of light reflected in them. Certainly no real dark darks there. But that's exactly where people want to see more contrast. Well, let's do a little retouching and see what that looks like.

That's certainly more dramatic. It's also becoming a completely different image. Better? Maybe. Worse? Maybe. Kinda depends on what you're trying to do. Again look at the darkest darks. All detail is gone including the reflected light on the knee. It just disappears into a black hole. Of course just because it doesn't show up on the photo doesn't mean I can't put it in anyway and I would, but it would have to be extremely subtle or the form wouldn't look rounded. And back to the drapery. The shadows are darker, much more dramatic with much, much less reflected light. A bad thing? Again, depends on what you're trying to do. Rembrandt made a pretty good reputation doing that. To my knowledge he only did one silverpoint though, and honestly it wasn't his best work. While we're on the subject of Rembrandt let's take this a little further.

Not quite Rembrandtesque but it's getting there, and I think we're close enough for our purposes today. I've darkened the midtones a bit more. I actually had to lighten the head and shoulder some because it was disappearing into the background. We've come a ways since the original image. Better, worse that's up to you. It's largely a matter of taste and really what you feel like at the time. Honestly, I think this retouched version is really a pretty good image for a drawing ...... in charcoal. I could get the background this dark in silverpoint, but the shine would be really annoying for quite a while. Charcoal or an ink wash would be a much better choice. I've learned it much better to not fight your medium, and silverpoint does have it's limitations. You want dramatic, use something else.

 I also think that's why silverpoints don't hold up particularly well in big shows. You don't get the high contrast, eye catching images that you can with other drawing media.  Silverpoints also tend to be small simply because they take a while to do. Those darks have to be slowly built up. So you have a big show of large, dramatic, eye catching pieces surrounding a few small, basically gray drawings. No matter how good they are they tend to get overlooked. Now before you start thinking this is all just sour grapes let me say I don't show silverpoints. These are just done for fun, and to keep my drawing skills sharp.

So if silverpoint is such a crappy, unmarketable medium why use it? Because I like it. It's perfect for smaller, intimate drawings.  I like those.  It just has a quality that is like nothing else.

Waiting for Spring

Silverpoint on light blue prepared paper heightened with white gouache
14 x 10

We didn't really have to wait for spring this year. It got here a good month early, and it feels like it's already over now. That's not so bad except for all the lawn mowing. I need the exercise.

Anyway this is the last of my small efforts to give the people what they want. A fair number of people come here from the silverpoint web presumably to see the silverpoints. So here you go. I rather like this one, unfortunately it refuses to be photographed accurately. This is a bit on the dark side. Hope you find it worth the visit.

No idea what's coming next, but I promise there will be something.

Now where was I?

It seems I've been missing in action for a while. Couldn't be helped. Thanks to all the people that keep dropping by. Now, where was I before all this. Oh yeah, I was going over what the stats say everyone likes. First was charcoal drawings, next is the Lady in the Lake theme, silverpoint is coming.

For some reason people seem to really like the Lady in the Lake. It is a nice story, but why the preoccupation? Not that important really. I haven't actually gotten back to the story, but I do have something similar that just might make do in a pinch. It's Greek mythology rather than Arthurian and it is a lady in a lake (technically a river) maybe that's close enough. So here it is The Song of the Potameides.

Oil om Canvas
25 x 36

I can here it now. Song of the what?

Potameides are one of the five types of Naiades, the nymphs of the freshwater. Potameides are the nymphs of the steams and rivers specifically. The other types are Pegaiai, the nymphs of the springs, Krinaia, the nymphs of the fountains, Linmades of Limnatides, the nymphs of the lakes, and the Eleionomai, the nymphs of the marshes. While their essence is directly tied to their specific body of water they are not confined to it. The Naiades are not immortal, but they do have extremely long life spans. However being linked to the water their fate could also be tied to it. If their lake, spring, river, fountain or marsh dries up, bad news for the naiade. Well somebody here seems to be overeducated.

I think this is the first painting I have ever done based entirely on an underlying grid. Somewhere around here I have that preliminary grid with the drawing on it, but I have no idea where it is. I think it wound up on the back of something else that has since found it's way to the trash. But I think it really helped to bring everything together. Placement of objects was pretty easy. Follow the grid structure and put it there. One thing I have wondered about is does it need more? I tend to follow the idea of if it doesn't add to the overall image, it detracts. As a result I don't do a lot of really busy pieces. Personally I like the simplicity and lack of clutter. Of course that can be overdone.

Something for the charcoal lovers

Charcoal and white chalk
14 x 26

According to the stats for this blog a lot of people come here via image search for charcoal drawings and portraits. Considering how few charcoal drawings i do that strikes me as a bit of a surprise. But I'm all about making people happy so here's one for the charcoal lovers out there. I'm still having trouble getting comfortable with the medium, but I like the look enough to keep trying. For bigger drawings it's much better than pencil and a silverpoint this size would take forever. That in itself makes it worth pursuing.

The stats also say there are even more people coming here for the silverpoint drawings. Not today, but there are more on the way. Stay tuned.

Candlelight II

Silverpoint heightened with white gouache
10 x 14

A return to the candlelight theme here today. This is one of those things that practically drew itself, once it got started at least. It had a rather inauspicious beginning. I do all the hard drawing on regular paper with a plain old everyday pencil. Once I'm satisfied with the basic line drawing I'll transfer it to the prepared silverpoint paper. I wish I could tell you that I'm good enough to do it all right on the final grounded paper, but I can't. Deal with it, I have. You've got to remember that the grounds are pretty fragile and you can't erase a silverpoint line. Anyway, after I'd transferred the drawing I noticed a charcoal smudge right off the end of her nose. Being that it was charcoal I could just erase that, except as it turned out the eraser was a little on the dirty side, and it left and even worse smudge than I'd started with. I've tried to correct things like that in the past, and found out that the best way of dealing with it is to cut your losses and start over from scratch. So I had to trash this before I'd even started. Glad I started over.

Wading

watercolor
22 x 15

Today's offering is a watercolor. Watercolors can be tricky little things. To be really good you need to do a lot of them. That's pretty much true of everything. Can't be good without putting in the time to get there. It seems to be particularly true of watercolors though. There's so many little things you need to keep in mind. For certain effects the paper has to be at a certain degree of wetness. A little too wet it won't work, a little too dry it won't work, and the only way to know when it's at that correct point is experience. Unfortunately you have to keep at it or you lose a lot of what you've gained. Lots of little tricks too. Again though if you take some time away from the medium you forget the little tricks.

That being said, I need to do more watercolors or forget about it completely. Can't see me giving it up completely though. I like watercolor too much. I think I actually prefer it to oil.

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.

What to say?

I saw this video over on the Gurney Journey and just had to pass it on. Strangely enough it kinda fits into what I have been thinking about the last few days. You see, I couldn't quite come up with what I wanted to say about today's offering. That's mainly because there's really nothing to say from my standpoint. So I could make something up that may well be marginally interesting or just punt. I've never been particularly good at creative writing so maybe the video will be a good lead-in. So here's artist's statement along with translation.



And here are today's drawings.



Both are silverpoint and 10 x 8

While these are both nice little drawings, more or less competent, let's face it, they're not exactly earth shattering. Don't get me wrong I like them both quite a bit, and I think they're worth looking at, but neither have any great message. And that's all right too. Everything doesn't have to be a metaphor for something else. Sometimes a drawing is just a drawing. I did them because I liked the poses and the overall feel. The second one is actually a rather sissy pose with no face and just the back of a hand without any fingers showing, but I like it anyway. Deal with it. How's that for an artist's statement?

That being said i'll bet that somewhere out there somebody is going to like these even without all the artistic gobbledygook. Maybe they'll even find a message of their own. So much the better. Maybe they'll even want them for their own. That can be arranged too.

Well, y'all take care out there and try to retain your sanity.

Sugar Creek

Oil on Canvas
24 x 18

Have you all been paying attention? If you have this may look familiar. Back in late February there was a study for this. It's finally done, I think, and I've gotten around to posting it. I'm pretty happy with this. It may not be the bright, sunny autumn day you usually get, but that wasn't what I was after besides those are way too common. I was after something more moody. The day was misty at best. It looked like it was about to pour actually so the day of painting outdoors was put on hold. Instead I took a little stroll in the mud up this little stream fully expecting to get really wet. I escaped merely damp and the camera showed no ill effects. Anyway that's the story of what I was trying to do. Hopefully I did more than just give a weather report. Funny thing is that by the time I got home it was bright and sunny, not a cloud in the sky.

Back Study

oil on panel
12 x 11

Another little figure study today. I don't think I've done a figure painting in a while so it seemed a good idea to do one before I forget how to do skin tones completely. Not that I knew all that much to start with, but I have picked a few things here and there. So today's effort was centered on skin tones both in strong light and deep shadow. Can I get that glow that comes from a strongly lit figure? I think it came out pretty good actually.

Unfortunately, this is not the best picture. Sorry but something this dark with a glazed background, strong contrasts, and some pretty thick paint in places created a lot of glare with little hot spots that are beyond my ability as a photographer. I think you can still get the idea though.

Figure Drawing

pencil and white chalk on Bugra paper
20 x 30ish

More in my continuing effort to improve or at least maintain my drawing skills. I really do like doing these larger, more finished drawings. They take some time, but that's all right. I think it's time well spent.

I still can't decide if I like this Bugra paper or not. It's awfully soft and rough for my taste. Still it holds up to erasing pretty well and it does take pencil nicely as long as it's a nice sharp pencil. And then there's the fact that I still have quite a bit of it left.