old photos 2

After messing up the painting with the glowing washes, I revisited this subject, maybe with more restraint.

Also began to think about two other subjects: my nana (left), summer on 92nd Street, and me, summer on Montauk.

Both watercolor pencil.

value studies

Here are the value studies from the sketches I posted previously.

The one above I think worked out pretty well. I may move on to color.

In the ones below, the value study highlighted some difficulties.

In the first there isn't enough variation in the values; but I can make some decisions and add some midtones.

This last one has too much light value. It's also not such a good composition, I think.

Weirdly as I painted it I became more interested in the chair than I was in the people, which made me think I was on the wrong tack.

old photos

 I was pretty happy with the first washes I put down ... but I didnt know what to do next. Next night, I plunged in: bad idea. 

It might have been salvageable but I kept putting the facial features in the wrong place--which led to a lot of correcting and anxiety, and really ruined the freshness that was so appealing in the first wash.

So, I felt pretty disappointed, but I'm over it. Going to do another ... where I hope I will not make the same mistakes!

This is my first go at a photo of my maternal grandmother with her father.

I king of like that when I begin these I have no idea what I'm going to do. I just do something, then react to it, do something else ... It's an interesting process, in which I have to treat time differently than I normally do, which is as a precious commodity to be rigorously tracked and parsimoniously spent!

slow

Another painting from a photo I took kayaking in the back bays. I kept the background wet and grayed, but it still competes too much with the subject, the tern.

Below is a sketch, trying to improve on a previous try.

shorebird class

A killdeer and a yellow-crowned night heron painted in a class with Ian de Hoog at Winslow Art Center.

It's funny how I often paint better in a class environment.

I think for one thing--an important one--when I'm painting in class I am less likely to make the mistakes I usually make on my own. E.g., not paying enough attention to my psint:water ratio and overworking.

some sketches

Small sketches made from old  family photos. 

Next: value studies.

Then: who knows?

plein air: assateague

My brother and I camped at Assateague National Seashore in Maryland for a few days this week; this was our fourth year. Camping--especially tent camping--is some work, but what beats sleeping on the beach; looking up from your sleeping bag and seeing the stars; seeing the sun rise over the ocean?

I had intended to paint more, but there's never enough time! 

I managed these two sketches of a view from our campsite.