Short Break

I will be taking a break in posting of about 2 weeks.  Today's post is just a photo of an eagle that showed up yesterday when I was trying to feed seagulls some old bread.  I called for the seagulls, and immediately two eagles showed up.  They must have mistaken 'eagles' for 'seagulls'!

#319 Yellow Shrub

This went through a lot of changes because it's an imaginary scene, based on the fall colors I've been seeing on the north Olympic Peninsula.  Oil on board, 5" x 5".

#318 Still Life with Blueberry Jar

This is oil, 5" x 5"- a small repeat of the previous painting subject.  It started out more realistic but I was diverted by color. The image might be a little out of focus - will redo it tomorrow when it's light.

#317 Still LIfe with Coffee Pot

Last night a painting friend told me that he sometimes paints in oils without solvents.  He has brushes that are reserved for dark, medium, and light values, and dips them in vegetable oil/ wipes them to change colors.  I tried it and it works, but this one wasn't planned out as much as maybe it could have been.  OIl on panel 9" x 12".

#316 Deconstruction/Reconstruction

I found a cute house on Google Street View in Bremmerton, and did a little value study in ink.  It was boring.  So then I did an image where only the shadows were blocked in, followed by doing it again looking only at the paper and not the reference, caring more about the balance of darks than whether it looked like a house.  Finally I loaded the image onto the computer and added some highlights, color, and house-ish details.  It was a lot more fun this way, at least.

#315 30 Minute Sketch

There's only so much one can do with markers and a single figure in a small drawing space, so after the model was sketched in, more of the room was added. I concentrated on the main sketcher guy, with his teal jacket hanging on the sketching seat/whatever.  The room was full of concentration, by the model and individual sketchers, so a number of people got sketched and added.  I liked leaving them in different sizes because they were each in their own worlds anyway.  One got duplicated in the digital phase of image development. Maybe she was concentrating more than the others.

#315 15 Minute Poses

These are from two 15 minute poses at Quimper Arts.  Their morning schedule features short poses and the afternoon session, which I missed, features longer poses.  But tomorrow you will see a 30 minute sketch... not like these, exactly....

#314 2 Minutes Each

I actually don't know if these were two or three minute poses!  I just sketched until the timer went off, at the Quimper Arts figure drawing session this morning.  Two colors of markers (gray and brown), then the color was added digitally.

#314 Another Sketch of Borrego Springs

I wanted to mix the ink pencils and acrylics so that the ink lines would stay visible, and chose a previous oil painting of Borrego Springs to work with. 7" x 10".

#313 North of Kathy's

It was warm enough to paint outside today!  This is a building north of Kathy's place, in November sunlight.  Acrylic on watercolor paper, 7.5" x 7.5".

#312 On Water Street

I'm painting these New Brunswick scenes to submit for the Virtual Paintout.  I just learned about it- every month features a designated country viewed through Google Street View.  Acrylic, about 8" square.

#311 North of Britain Street

An acrylic painting of a scene in Saint John's, New Brunswick- for something completely different. (I painted out the dark boxes Nov 2nd). Ink and acrylic.