found still life

 (5x7)
A subject I would not normally attempt: bottles on my dresser.

I pick up all kinds of things at secondhand stores and elsewhere always saying I'll use them in a still life. I've used the "milk" jug before, but I may try a couple of simple setups using some of the things I've collected.


 (11x15)

bluejays

(5x7)
Above: Another go at the pair of bluejays.
Below: A bluejay I painted several months ago, before starting to try to learn the anatomy of wings. The beak is too big and curved, but otherwise, I like the head.

 

more lbb

(5x7)
Another sparrow, above, and, below, inspired by Rhonda, one painted without any drawing.
It was interesting to me to do these together: without the guide and/or "safety net" of the drawing, I felt I had to push myself a little (a good thing) and respond more to what I was looking at on the page than to the reference photo. It's not as "accurate" as the drawn one but it seems livelier ... Perhaps one day I'll be able to combine the best of both approaches!

(5x6)

cyclamen

 

(5x7)

 Plucked off a drooping flower then decided to use for a little practice, trying to paint the flower without drawing and letting the running pigment suggest the petals.

 

(8x10)

cyclamen

 

(11x15)

There was an artist in Cape May, Alice Steer Wilson, who was known for her watercolors of the Victorian buildings and sycamore-lined streets. I was always partial to her interiors and still lifes, especially those with cyclamen; she really painted the leaves beautifully. Because of her I nearly always have a cyclamen, or two, and occasionally have a go at them.  

I started with this one, and wish I hadn't started adding the background ...

 so I started this one, without the background ...

 

and this is as far as I've gotten.

a little ...

 

(5x7)

A little 30 Days/30 Paintings effort ... things on my desk. I debated adding a background, doing something, to make it more of a "painting" ... but opted against it. It's just a little study, a little trying to get comfortable with the paint.

(11x15)
Following up (in a way) on yesterday's post, here are three paintings I started that I can't finish.
People waiting for their order at Hooked Up, a takeout seafood place. From a photo I took. I'm worried I may have begun too tentatively and piecemeal to pull this together now. It may be salvageable ... I hope so; but, of course, now I'm stuck in that place where I don't want to go and ruin what I have already done!

(11x15)
I think this is a case of just not knowing what to do... all those overlapping feathers! I have been looking at a book by John Muir Laws, The Laws Guide to Drawing Birds, and it's been very helpful to me in understanding the feather groups. I may finish this one.

(11x15)
A woman walking down Jackson Street in Cape May. From a photo I took. It's a good photo, and a nice scene, but I really got off on the wrong foot going in with so many details and hard edges right off. There's so much going on the street, with planters and flowerbeds, and the perspective and buildings ... I think I should begin with wet-in-wet, over all, and then add the woman and the tree and as little else as I can manage.

overdoing it

(5x7)
Overdid the salt in the background, and also the bird's feathers, the patterns of which I was trying too hard to define, especially on the back, or mantle. (See this page for a good diagram labeling all the feather groups.) I kept adding and adding, which is not good.
Wet-in-wet seems to yield a better result, but it's hard for me sometimes (many times?) to let things happen instead of trying to control them.

Tried to fix the background a bit ... but the main problem's the bird. So I'll juts set it aside and try again another time.
I think I need to move on to another subject for a day or two.

jay

 (5x7)
As much as painting the birds, I'm enjoying trying to find a way to convey a background without doing too much or using a lot of detail.
I think this background could probably use a few more darks, but I'll leave it for now.

miah mull

(5x7)
A little quickie ... Normally I would say this is unfinished, but I'm thinking now maybe "unruined."
I could go a little further ... But once I stop, I have trouble going back.

sparrow cards

I still owe a couple of holiday cards (!) so I painted these on artist trading cards (2.5 x 3.5).
You can buy little "frame" cards for the ATCs that come with a cellophane sleeve, the frame, and an envelope. I think they add a little polish.

  

european robin

(5x7)
I've tried this one before ... and at least I can say this is an improvement ... and that I'm glad I decided to leave the holly leaves out.

 

(4x4)

Today is the 50th anniversary of President Johnson's War on Poverty speech. You can watch it on YouTube. It's touching to see the what seems to me genuine, simple humanity of this speech, and it's discouraging to think we've not only not won the war on poverty but stopped even aspiring to it.

chickadee

(5x7)
Day ... I think it's Five? I'm not going to count the days, but just paint everyday.
 

holly & pine

(5x7)
Day Four.
A little change of subject: the perpetually difficult pinecone. (Although I have to say, the holly don't look too good either!) The one good idea was adding the white pine needles.

Having another go at it ...

chipping sparrow

(5x7)
Day Three.

bluejay

(3x4)
Day Two.
A small study ... trying to not fret or overwork. I have "Don't Correct" written across the top of my drawing board but too often I get carried away and start automatically "fixing."

And a couple of photos I took in the yard today.
We got about eight inches of snow overnight--beautiful dry icy snow blown into drifts.

 

 

 

lbb

(5x7)
Perhaps I shouldn't say, since last time I only lasted 4 days, but I've signed up for Leslie Saeta's 30 Paintings in 30 Days challenge.
This is Day One.
I should have checked my proportions--the poor little bird's head look a bit pinched ... Need more practice drawing.

Jane asked if I mix my own browns and blacks. I do mix black, usually with blue and a brown, sometimes a red and green, but I use the earth tones--yellow ocher, raw sienna, burnt sienna, burnt umber--from the tubes, sometimes mixing them together or with other colors.
I'm finding that to get the darks, it's not only the colors, but the thickness of the paint: when there's more paint and less water, the paint doesn't diffuse as much and therefore stays more intense.

 

 

tufted titmouse

 

 

I took these in October, of a tufted timouse at one of my feeders. He was very shy, so I was happy to get these.
And a little painting of a titmouse-like bird from a photo I found online.

 (5x7)
Happy New Year!