tryouts

(5x7)

(5x7)
Two quick (about 10-15 minutes each) tries at this month's Virtual Sketch Date image. I used Winsor blue (gs), because it's so cool, but I don't usually have it on my palette; it's very strong and staining too.
I like this subject--the strong shadow, the receding shapes, the reflection in the water. I'll probably do a couple more trying out different blues.



I haven't seen any of the films nominated for Academy Awards this year. Movies I want to see like Doubt, The Reader, Milk and Slumdog Millionaire don't make it down here; we're more likely to get Shrek 8 and Batman 12. So last night when The Visitor, with best actor nominee Richard Jenkins, came on Starz at midnight, I had to stay up to watch it. Jenkins must be one of those working actors who's in everything but who you never notice because he's so good; he was superb in this quiet movie about the expansiveness of the human heart.

august virtual sketch date

(7.5x11)

This month's Virtual Sketch Date painting. The subject was daunting, so I tried to keep Charles Hawthorne's advice in mind: "Painting is just getting one spot of color in relation to another spot of color."

After I was done, I saw another Hawthorne quote that I wish I'd seen first: "Always remember that the thing which to you looks difficult may be very easy"!
I wouldn't say this was "easy," but it was a subject I would never even have attempted--for that reason alone, I'm glad I tried.

Please visit the Virtual Sketch Date blog for links to other participating bloggers--it's very interesting to see how different artists approach the same subject!--and sign on for next month!