Sea Creatures

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I must be easily influenced! One of my friends mentioned interest in Horseshoe Crabs and off I went to work on Horseshoe crabs. Never would I have thought to do a painting of this particular sea creature. But, it was super fun! And, I learned a little bit about them too. I am going to do a series of 3. One more to do. I actually love their shape and design. These lent themselves to the encaustic medium as a finish…and the addition of white broken shells. Both of them are done on cradled birch panel, using a combination of oil bar, watercolor and casein, encaustic and the found natural shells. Lots of fun! I just have to decide the color scheme for the last one!

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Cloudscape

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Oil Paint Sticks on Paper

Oil Paint Sticks on Paper

Maybe I am on to a subject/theme with the oil paint sticks. I have never really been drawn to using clouds as a subject matter for painting…I think because I see a lot of them by other painters. However, it might be a good learning subject for me. They are difficult! But, they are also fun, open to interpretation and I have lots of photo resources in my personal library!

Not only will I learn a lot with the medium, I will have a bunch of pieces that look like they work together! I still don’t know how important that is, but the subject matter will make it happen anyway. I wonder how many of these I will actually do before I get distracted.

Great tip from my friend Susan Renee Lammers for adding color into the clouds…I am not sure I didn’t overdue it, but I feel good about the direction it took me!

Beach Clouds

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Oil Paint Sticks on paper: 10" x 8"

Oil Paint Sticks on paper: 10″ x 8″

Back to the oil paint sticks on paper. I was thinking that the simple shapes of a beach scene would be a good way to practice with the oil paint sticks. And, it is, but it’s not easy by any stretch! Beaches are difficult in their simplicity! Clouds are much harder than they seem! But, I do think that this is a good approach for me, scenes that are not too complex, and I can concentrate a bit more on how to lay down the paint…mixing on the paper and layering to achieve what I want. An artist friend gave a great suggestion that I will employ next, bring some sand color up into the clouds.

I found my friends blog post as a good resource to go back to: Edward Seago Inspiration

A Sporadic Inktober

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Watercolor and Ink

Watercolor and Ink

I am doing a miserable job of keeping up with #inktober. But, I am inspired to do as many ink drawings as I can. This year I am not feeling so bound by rules…so while ink is the main ingredient, I feel fine adding color with other mediums.

While I was in Frisco, NC I stopped in to the Indian Town Gallery and they were gearing up for their Tiny Art Fundraiser. I decided it would be fun to donate a piece of art for this. Everyone that participates gets a 5×5 canvas to paint on, at the show all works are $20 donated to a good cause. I am only sorry that I can’t be there for the show! Tiny Art Show

Sardine Surprise: Tiny Art Donation

Sardine Surprise: Tiny Art Donation

Feeling a little unsettled about subject matter right now. Not so much for sketching and experimenting, that comes pretty easy. But, I still feel a little overwhelmed by my goal of completing a body of work. I am not very disciplined…or maybe I am just easily distracted. Maybe I should make a list of what I want to paint, settle on a size for all, and just dig in to that. If I could get 2 oil bar paintings and two watercolor/ink pieces done I would be happy with that. That is two less than I hoped for.

Puffy Fish: ArtSnack materials

Puffy Fish: ArtSnack materials

Painting and Sketching

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Oil Paint Sticks: 6 x 9 on paper

Oil Paint Sticks: 6 x 9 on paper

More practice with oil paint sticks on paper. I am going to try and stay within 6″ x 9″ and 8″ x 10″ sizes on paper for now. This is a good size to work on to get a piece done within a reasonable time. I think this is a good way to get my technique refined before moving over to larger work. I did get some Shiva oil paint sticks that are not student grade, the color seems to be richer. They are “hard” but that seems to be working to my advantage right now.

Practicing Faces: inspired by Modigliani

Practicing Faces: inspired by Modigliani

My other goal right now is to improve my drawing skills for faces.  I have some pieces that I want do that involve things like mermaids and they need to have nice faces! So, I am sketching faces, mostly from expressionist and impressionist painters…I don’t want to get to tied tight with them.

Like Butter!

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quick study: R&F paint sticks on paper

quick study: R&F paint sticks on paper

So, the quick small study reveals that R&F oil paint sticks are super buttery! Which, in some cases will be exactly what I want. It makes them more difficult to work with on a small scale. The next experiment will be on a larger scale…maybe 9x12ish. I need a broader range of colors in these paints–and I probably should do a little color mixing with them to see what colors I can make. These paints will work very nice using a brush I think.

Next up to try will be the Windsor Newton Oil bars!

Beach Inspired

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Happy Whale: oil paint stick on canvas 11 x 21

Happy Whale: oil paint stick on canvas 11 x 21

Finished up the whale painting today–tail is more proportional in the larger version. I like using the oil paint sticks on canvas…it’s a little different than working on a rigid substrate for sure. I found that I could use the edge of a plastic palette knife to make some really nice marks on the surface. And, the knife did a great job of blending the colors the way I wanted. I think that I will keep going with this technique for a couple of pieces.

I am going to try to do a similar scratching technique on paper to see if that works, but the surface may be too soft. I need to get more canvas!

Oil Paint Sticks

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Playing around with oil paint sticks

Playing around with oil paint sticks

Loving the oil paint sticks! I got a starter/student set of Shiva oil paint sticks to try while on vacation. The color selection is a little primary…but that is good to learn with. I also got a set of mini iridescent oil sticks–they are very nice colors and not too metallic.

Working on paper is actually very nice with this medium and it dries pretty much overnight. Dry enough to close my journal anyway. I love the fact that the sticks are kind of chubby, so it forces me to stay loose. I have gone into little spaces with a brush as well. The Shiva product is not as buttery as the R&F that I was using at home. I like the quality of the Shiva for paper…I think that the R&F will be better for canvas.

Study 4x6 for painting. The tail is too big!

Study 4×6 for painting. The tail is too big!

Playing around with some small studies–working on a larger painting from the small study. Interesting feeling going from paper to canvas.

Beginning of larger painting with oil paint sticks on canvas.

Beginning of larger painting with oil paint sticks on canvas.