Untitled from 1992 (Painting)

An old painting from 1992. Acrylic, pastel and ink on cardboard. 15″ wide x 11.5″ high.

See this painting large (790kb)

[IMAGE] Untitled 1992 - Acrylic, pastel and ink on cardboard. 15″x11.5″

I tried to finish a painting this week and got really frustrated it didn’t work out.

Really I wanted to be trying to do work like this again. I recently brought this home after it had been stored at my moms for many years.

So my husband said maybe I should blog this old painting as inspiration.

Here it is on my easel and you can see how raw that cardboard is!

I wasn’t exactly encouraged to do work like this back at school (but I did it anyway). Now I’m not sure I know how to get back to that and develop it.  Hmmm.

Powerstation - Work In Progress (Painting)

Just lately I haven’t been able to get the image of the powerstation in the next town out of my mind.  I mean that in a good way - it fascinates me. It’s not your traditional landscape filled with beauty - but there’s something about Powerstation Approach that I love.

So I revisited photographs from earlier in the year and decided to try another painting.

I don’t usually go public before a painting is done - just in case it goes horribly wrong.  But my sketches for planning have gone ok today and I’m excited about having a new project after a long dry spell … so I can’t wait to share!

It’s a challenge - to try and show you the viewer the beauty I see when I drive past these cooling towers.  We’ll see if it works

I started with my source photo, did some digital adjustments to get to grips with the colours and light/shade (I’m still learning and exagerating these in Photoshop really helps me).

I tinkered with the street lights.  The one nearest the camera really messes with the composition.  I tried moving it further away in Photoshop but it still overpowered the cooling towers and unbalanced it.  So I took them out … and it works ok for me.

I did a couple of loose sketches (look at those wonky boxes!).

Later I did another sketch - getting to know it better and finding my style/interpretation of how I see it.

I was worried about the colour of the cooling towers.  In my first sketch with colour wash earlier on it just wasn’t working.  I tried to remedy the colours and ended with a bit of a muddy mess.  I don’t want that to happen on the final piece so thought I had better do some planning and experimenting!

The first colour study works really well.  Looking carefully at the source photo and being faithful to the colours in reality worked out!

But the chimney on the far right didn’t seem quite right.  Something is wrong.  Loking at the source again I saw I had overlooked the shadows of the steam from the neighbouring cooling tower.  So I showed that in my second study.  I don’t know if it’s the way I hatched the shadows, or something more fundamental - but it’s still not quite right.  I may have to tinker some more before I start on canvas board for real.

Oh.  Also … to get a feel for the shapes and lines I did a quick digital trace of the source photo.  It turned out pretty well.  So much so that it rattled me for a moment and I wondered if I should carry on with trying to do an acrylic glazed painting.  But the glazing is a much more subtle technique so the finished piece should be quite different in feel to this.

I’m looking forward to finding out!

So there we go.  Not bad after two months of struggling.

Crab Apple Study Updated (Painting)

I painted an acrylic glaze study of crab apples back in October 2006 but was never happy with the background.

 

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As I have had my paintbrush out (and lots more paint these days) I decided to try and rescue it - so darkened up the background and put some reflections on.  A bit better … but too much background! Learn and move on.

 

[IMAGE] Acrylic on canvas board

Old House - Roof Detail

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I’ve attempted to take a better picture of the roof with my attempt at suggesting mossy loveliness in my Old House painting.  Excuse the glare (gloss medium!) and the photo got a bit skewed in Photoshop I’m afraid

Old House (Painting)

My latest acrylic glazing technique practice from a source photograph on WetCanvas

[IMAGE] Acrylic on canvas board 10×12 inches

Click on the image for a larger version in my Flickr album

There’s a lot more variation in the colours on the roof and ground which haven’t come through in the photo unfortunately.  But hopefully this gives you a good idea.

There’s some problems with it and this is an exercise in technique so not much of my own style coming through yet.  But I learnt a lot, I’m pleased and I’m happy to move on.

Here’s a summary of how it developed …

Looking back at work in progress:

The source photo (this version with the contrast and set high):

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Initial sketch onto the board (after some sketching on paper and studying light/dark) - looking quite iffy at this initial stage.  When I looked at the photos on my pc alongside the source photo I found I have squashed the picture to fit the proportions of the canvas board …

 

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In with the first underpainting (just burnt sienna and my new acrylic retarder fluid) …

 

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Spent quite a bit of time getting more definition in that underpainting - eg. lost the guttering shadow as it wasn’t working for me window frames were really frightening to do …

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After a couple of early glazes …

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Some glazing later I’m starting to see where some tweaks are needed (lighten the sky, shorten the chimney, straighten out the gate, highlight on the roof edge, etc) - should have spent longer on that drawing after all …

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 The final piece - not perfect it will do and it’s time to move on …

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Get the Girl 2006 (Painting)

Another piece from 2006 not posted before.  This painting plopped into the world much of it’s own accord - I think I was just a conduit.  Up to this point I hadn’t done a painting for years.  It might have been due to 2 weeks of Julia Cameron’s Morning Pages - or just the beginning of a new phase in my life (even if it is a sad face!)

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March 2006. Acrylic, pencil and gold ink on canvas board. 9×6 inches.

Door detail in acrylic

Acrylic on canvas board 8″x10″

Finished piece:

Stage 4 - Nearly finished:

Stage 3 - First glazes:

Stage 2 - Underpainting: 

Stage 1 - Drawing onto board:

Crab Apple Study

Study of crab apples and acrylic glazing technique.  On canvas board 9″x6″.

Study of Acrylic Glaze Technique

Study of an apple following a lesson in glazing in acrylics. On canvas board 6″x9″

The first painting I feel actually proud of for more years than I can count.  Amazing what a bit of application and and a bit of guidance can do.

UPDATE 18 Mar 2007: I see a lot of people searching for information about acrylic glazing technique :)  Here’s  a link to the lesson I followed off the WetCanvas forum.

 The steps are embedded within a loooonnng thread of discussion which is old and closed now - but keep trawling through the pages - all the steps are there. 

I learnt a lot just from this one lesson - I never painted a picture like this one before that lesson!  Have fun.