Posts made in June, 2009

"Stones" by Lesley Spanos. A country lane in Kettlewell, Wharfedale, Yorkshire. M. Graham Gouache on paper, 6 x 6". Copyright ©2009, all rights reserved.

I’ve become a Challenge Whore. I’ve taken hundreds of photos I could use as reference, yet I roam the net at night, searching for something different to paint. It’s not that I’m bored with my own photos. It just seems that I get into a rut when I get to choose every subject. Sometimes I need an assignment to force myself to break the mold and learn how to solve new problems. Often the photos posted in these challenges are things I’d never paint in a million years. For example, quaint little country lanes and old stone barns are far outside my personal experience and so NOT ME. So I had to try it.

This challenge was found in the Landscape forum on Wet Canvas. Thanks to the photographer, Yorky, for sharing this photo with the artists.

Here are some images captured along the way:

Since I’m not comfortable with architectural elements, I spent a little extra time on the drawing.

Talk about the “ugly stage”! Diving in with watery gouache and some bright color for the underpainting. Bright yellows and reds work best for me underneath foliage. It keeps the greens looking more natural. All the colors of Fall are always present in foliage. They’re just masked by green chlorophyll. It’s my job to expose them.

See how dull it looks now that I’ve added some greyed greens on top? But the underpainting is still there, influencing the paint in subtle ways.

I actually liked how the bush on the left turned out…

… so why’d I have to go and mess with it some more? That’s the story of my life as an artist – I never know when to stop. Uggh. It was looking so bad so I had to wipe it off with a wet paper towel. That’s the great thing about gouache – you can erase! On the down side, because it remains water soluble you have to work really fast if you want to keep previous layers from lifting. You get only one chance to lay down a good stroke.

The photo reference was taken on an overcast day, but I found myself adding some sunlight.

Fixed the bush, sharpened up the details, and we’re done! Now on to that Lake Michigan rower that Karin posted last week on DSFDF…

"Concertgoers" by Lesley Spanos. Acrylic on paper, 7 x 11". Copyright ©2009, all rights reserved.

When I saw this beautiful couple at the opening concert of the Symphony On The Prairie season, I knew I had to paint them. In honor of the Grateful Dead theme that night, he wore tie-dye, while she had a ’60s vibe going. Her loose, flowing pants were a colorful floral print (which I didn’t dare attempt in paint). There was color everywhere, yet it all coordinated somehow.

Here are some shots taken along the way:

The drawing done in light grey pen.

Starting to add some transparent color. At this stage I had no idea where I’m going with this one. My light grey lines were already starting to disappear under the paint, so I reinforced them with strokes of red. Cool.

I wondered if I could leave it just like this… but decided to forge on.

I tried to keep as much of the green undertones exposed as possible. For example, the green on his cheek is entirely the green of the underpainting.

The blanket had tons of pattern and color, but I needed to simplify it so it wouldn’t attract all the attention.

Finished!

Here are some detail shots:

My flesh tones usually suck, so I challenged myself to keep the flesh tones fresh and reflective while using a minimum of detail. I reminded myself to use lots of green:

Loved the colors in the chair:

"Sweet Georgia Grown" by Lesley Spanos. Acrylic on paper, 14 x 7". Copyright ©2009, all rights reserved.

Sometimes the paint flows, and sometimes it doesn’t. This was one of those weeks when the paint was not my friend. When I saw the reference photo on Karin Jurick’s Different Strokes From Different Folks painting challenge, I thought it would be an easy assigment after the complicated Amish farm scene. I thought I could blow through it in three hours or less.

Oh, silly me.

Here are a few images taken along the way:

The drawing in pen. Not worried about being neat, because most of it will be covered with paint eventually.

Starting to put some transparent color down, keeping it sloppy. All the veges get a coat of cad yellow before I layer on the other colors. Reds and greens have a nice glow when painted over yellow.

The colors in the onions looked pretty good in this step.

But I couldn’t keep it fresh as I added more detail. There must be twenty layers of paint on those onions, every one of them an attempt to “fix” the previous layer. Instead of getting better, things got progressively worse as the acrylic paint piled on. I find it hard to mix light colors in acrylics, because they dry so much darker and yellower than they look on the palette. It’s like painting blind because I have to guess how it will look when it’s dry. Oils would have been a better choice.

In the end, I didn’t finish the onions… I simply gave up on them.

The upside is that they have plenty of texture.

I learned a lot about tomatoes. Not having painted tomatoes much, I assumed they were red, but as I worked, I discovered oranges, fushias, and green. Lots of green especially on the stem end.

The corn silks didn’t turn out well (OMG, did you see Karin’s silks? Such flow!), but I was happy with the husks. I barely did anything to them – I spent maybe twenty minutes total – yet they look okay. I love it when that happens.

The finished piece. Or is it? I’m still playing with cropping. Since the corn silks didn’t turn out well, the right side of the painting is dead, so I’ll probably cut it off.

As always, thanks for stopping by for another episode of “As The Paint Turns.”

"She Brings Lemonade" by Lesley Spanos. Acrylic on panel, 14 x 8". Copyright ©2009, all rights reserved.

She brings lemonade for her man, and water for the horses. Is it any different than when I bring my husband a beer while he’s working on his Jeep on a hot day?

This is another painting for Karin Jurick’s Different Strokes From Different Folks painting challenge. This time we’re in Lancaster County, Pennsylvania. I’ve never been to Lancaster County, but my ancestral roots run deep there. I’m only a couple of generations removed from making quilts instead of paintings.

A few images captured along the way:

Photograph by Karin Jurick. Copyright ©2009 Karin Jurick, all rights reserved.

My photo of a farmer and horses laid over Karin's photo.

I’ve got to admit that empty landscapes don’t hold my interest. Maybe because I’m a city girl, they seem sad and lonely, like empty stage sets waiting for the actors to bring them to life. That’s not to say that I don’t appreciate other artist’s landscapes – some painters do fabulous things with dirt and sky! I just feel that if I want to enjoy this painting, I need to add some people. Amish people.

I use Photoshop to layer images together so I have only a single reference to work from.  I was envisioning a farmer working the fields, and luckily I had photos I’d taken of a man with some horses at the state fair last summer. With a little makeover he might pass for Amish, so I traveled to Google Land to look for tips on clothes, hats, and beards. A lot of their fabrics are blue or purple – I wonder what kind of dye they’re using? Must be a natural plant dye. My guy’s going to get a nice purple shirt, because I love purple.

This time I’m painting on a bright yellow/orange/red background. The yellows will help the transparent greens to glow, and the complementary red and orange will help tone down the greens.

Blocking in the colors. I’m trying hard NOT to cover all that orange. I need some peeking through for interest.

Here I’ve added the Amish women.

The horizontal lines in the field have been changed to sweeping curves to show the woman’s path. Also, I’m hoping it helps show that we’re on a hill.

I don’t know why, but this exhausted me! Nothing seemed to go right, and I really struggled with the horses and the man. By the time I got to painting the landscape details, I realized I was out of time. Karin’s deadline for the DSFDF challenge is in a couple of hours, so I’m calling it done and submitting it. Maybe later I’ll go back and fix a couple of things, like the man’s shirt and hat.