Kanji...this has nothing to do with oil paint :)

Zander the Zorse!

After a long and involved move, I can now really get back to oil painting. Here is what I have been working on and recently finished.
Vine charcoal on my 24x36 canvas.
Ink over the charcoal, and then a thin layer of burnt umber. (Scrubbed on thinly, no medium.)




This is a zorse who lives at a safari park near where I now live--seeing him at the park was such a great thrill for me, I almost couldn't believe it. :)

Lego Zebra

Some of my friends at WetCanvas and I have decided to try painting "together" once a month--well, virtually sharing painting vibes, at least! I've already found it inspiring--I certainly wouldn't have done this little painting otherwise. :)

Idaho Desert Landscape, Finished

I think this is done now. :)


(This picture probably has the best color reproduction.)

Idaho Desert Landscape, Continued

I'm afraid I got interrupted in working on this, but I finally got back to it and I think it's getting pretty close now after a couple of days' work. (Colors are better in second picture.)
The thing really bugging me was the value contrasts in the hills...today (amongst other work) I scumbled some mid-value paint on them and I like it much better.
This is all about color and I'm getting pleased with where it's going...I need more detail/texture in the foreground sagebrush, but I might be almost done aside from that.

Idaho Desert Landscape, Oil Stick Underpainting

Oops, I haven't posted for a while, though I've done a couple of paintings since February! Geesh. Anyway, here is what I am working on...I went back home for vacation and was terribly impressed by the summer colors this year, so even though it's a shock to me to actually be working on a landscape, I started this and have completed the underpainting in oil stick. I will continue from here on out with regular oil paint. Here are a few steps of my process.

Horehead Nebula, Finished

I have declared this painting finished...and done in just about a week, too, I can hardly believe it. :) I sort of want to continue fiddling with it, but I believe it is time to move on (mostly it just bothers me how much of the linen texture I can see up close, since the paint layers are so very thin).

Horsehead Nebula...kinda lookin' like a nebula

This isn't entirely updated picture--I just took one when the sun happened to peek out for a few minutes, giving better ambient light for a photo. I think I'm close to being finished with this one, hopefully I'll be able to get another good photo of the finish.

Horsehead Nebula, First Color Layer

The photography on this is pretty bad, with glare and the right side is too saturated and the left side not quite saturated enough...just believe me when I say it has delightful subtle color and lots of blending! Very fun to work on still, I can tell the subsequent layers will be even better with all the cool space swirlies and such.

Horsehead Nebula Underpainting

I am in a spacey mood. :) With the upcoming release of Star Trek Online, I have been inspired to look at some of the pictures from the Hubble Space Telescope...talk about beautiful. I can't believe I've never done a space painting before, and I suppose it is high time. So I've started with a small canvas (8x16) of, what else? The Horsehead Nebula.

Already this has been a joy to work on...and something quite different in approach as well as subject. I did not initially intend to do a total monochrome underpainting, but it quickly ended up that way--appropriate, I suppose, for the subject. And nice and relaxing to do with all those abstract shapes and soft edges...that's another different thing to this approach, all the blending I've been doing. (So there *is* a reason to blend, after all! :D)

This makes me want to do a lot more monochrome work...which might help a great deal in various value issues I often struggle with.

There is a lot more work to go into this!

Dining Room "Plein Air", 5x7

The view out of my dining room door. I'm not much for doing landscapes, but I was pretty inspired today, I guess. :)

Boots/Self-Portrait

Well, Jessica says I need to update my blog, so here I am. :) My excuse this time is that I've been thinking of "updating" to a "regular" site to make it easier for casual viewers (whom I suspect make up the vast majority of anyone looking at any of this), but after rummaging around looking at domain names, maybe I just don't want to bother. :p I don't know. But I suppose I've no real reason not to update my blog, anyway, hmmm?

This painting (16x24) was done entirely with Sennelier oil sticks, a new media for me. I made a rather extensive post on WetCanvas about these sticks and the process of this, so I won't go into any details here. Suffice to say, I totally dig the oil sticks.
And here's another recent painting, a self-portrait. Don't think I need to say much about this one, either. :D

Please also note, to the left I have provided a link to my "real" site, as it stands.

Mother's Day Rose on Copper, 5x7

This is a quick painting I did today, my first try at painting on copper as a support. I likely didn't prep it the best--just sanded and wiped it--but I liked the feel of my brush on it, and thinner parts look neat with the copper showing through (for the moment at least, don't know how it will hold up with corrosion, though perhaps varnish will help...)

Mangalarga Marchador, oil on canvas, 9x12

The other day I did probably the best drawing I have ever done. Then I decided to do a larger version of the drawing. Then I decided heck why not paint it, too? (Now I guess all I have left is to do a sculpture of it, lol.) Ta da, the best drawing I have done to date might also be the best horse I've ever painted. I guess I'm on a roll!

Baby Zebra 6

After working a bit more on this, I asked for some advice from more experienced equestrians and got an excellent suggestion to solve the unhappiness I had with the colt's legs. I was always uncertain of them (having pulled this composition together from various references) and I don't think I would have been able to fix it previously without my recent drawing/anatomy experience this year. (I'm very pleased to know that I've been learning and can apply some of that knowledge!) I am *much* happier with the direction this is going, in fact I'm rather ecstatic. The change in the legs creates a lot more energy and is more in keeping with the atmosphere I would like to achieve here. I'm very excited!

Baby Zebra 5!

So this has been unfinished now for a year and a half. I finally got some motivation to work on it this last weekend! (It helps that I've been sketching zebras at the zoo lately, complete with little babies! So I feel a little more prepared to do something with this now...also it helps that I had company coming over and I didn't want anyone to see this in the terrible state it was in!) Sorry there has been a good bit of progress since the last photo I took, but a lot of the big changes were this weekend when I was carefully fiddling with the background and still was not happy with it, so in frustration I cursed and started literally slapping paint on...and voila, I felt a whole lot better about this. :p Nothing is finished here by any means.

The Queen's Bay, 20x24, oil on linen

This is a copy of a portrait of Queen Victoria by Francis Grant. I cropped the image from the original because as you might guess, it was her horse that I was interested in, and wanted to get it as large on the canvas as possible. :) I learned an awful lot painting this. (And yes, I want a horse just like this one!)

Red Rose 1

Study from life, work in progress, 6x12 oil on canvas

Neunkirchen #2

Here is the adorable little village I now live in. Oils, approx. 6x6

Sketchbook

I have created a new site for sketchbook pages.

It can also be found in the list when you click on my profile (over on the right).