64. Day Twenty-One: Work in Progress - Man with Eggs

Urban landscape, oil on 10" x 8" stretched canvas

I have been 'umming and ahh-ing' about posting this as it is not a new piece but a work in progress (see post number 60, Day 9).  However, since posting last time, I've added paint to the underdrawing, doing a little bit on it each day.  Eventually, I hope to show the gentleman in shade with the sun streaming in beside him on the grassy area.  For this, all the tones will have to be absolutely right.

I used MH Burnt Umber to put the darks in the foreground; isn't the colour rich and fabulous? I could have used Raw Umber but I'm hoping the intensity of the BU will make the subsequent blues look more vibrant. Seeing how luscious his RU and BU are, I am so tempted to buy his Burnt Siena, simply to experience the vibrancy of that colour in his range but maybe that's not a good reason to splash out on a tube of paint, even if it is only Series1. The website says: "Its tint power is noticeably stronger than the more opaque Earths." Gimme, gimme!!

63: Day Eighteen: YS Falls

Waterfall, oil on Pebeo canvas board, 10cm x 10cm (approx. 4" x 4")

I did this quickly to avoid missing out on posting yet another day. (I've been in hospital so am somewhat out of kilter and hoping to catch up soon.)

In case you're interested...
YS Falls is in Santa Cruz, Jamaica.  It's a beautiful, peaceful spot where you can take the family, swing across and/or have a swim and it consistently gets good reviews.  To gain access, you park then travel on an open-topped, long vehicle. (Sorry, I don't know the right name but it's very safe and you shouldn't feel ill going to the top.) The tour guides are polite and helpful; they'll take photographs if you ask and won't hassle you.  So pack a picnic, your shades and 'cozzie' and give it a visit.

Initially, I used fast-drying alkyd white for the waterfall but my husband couldn't tell what it was supposed to be so I scraped it off and re-applied it - no better.  After scraping it a few times, I remembered my Robert Gamblin Radiant White!  What a difference!

For the dangly foliage that drops down to the water, I scraped back to the warm yellow imprimatura layer.  I have quite a few colours but for each painting only normally choose a handful (as you would with pastels) - my choice is different every time - but, as I wanted to complete this quickly, I used pre-mixed greens.

Colours:   MH Permanent Sap Green and Schminke Atrament Black (for the deep darks), MH Oxide of Chromium, MH Bright Green Lake and Schminke Turmaline Green (free sample!).  Also, MH Burnt Umber, MH Unbleached Titanium, MH Yellow Ochre, W&N Naples Yellow Light, Gamblin Radiant Blue (to cool the water; also in the leaves directly above the fall) and, as mentioned, Radiant White.  The water at YS Falls is very clear but that's not obvious as I used RB and YO, opaque colours - very nice, but opaque nonetheless.

Phew! Can I go back to bed please?!

62. Day Fourteen: Road to Harpenden

Landscape, oil on acrylic-primed Pebeo canvas board,

10cm x 10cm (approx. 4" x 4")

Good morning fellow painters, I didn't envisage having time to paint today but woke up at 4:30am and, still wide awake an hour later, decided to do this little study using only a palette knife to apply the paint.  It's fiddly to work so small with a knife but, like most things, I guess it just takes a little practise.

The colour you can see peeping around the edges of the image is Quinacridone Magenta acrylic.  It was left over from something else so I used it as an imprimatura layer on a few little supports.

Off to work shortly; wishing you all a successful day.

61. Day Eleven: Negril Beach Painting

Seascape, oil on W&N stretched cotton canvas, 14" x 10"

As I mentioned in post No. 59, this is the little version of a larger painting I have been doing for my office (see below). I may add writing to the billboard on the right (on both); it advertises a bar so should enhance the scene but I just wanted to get it done and posted so I can move on to the next one.

We've got sunshine today which is lovely.

Rather than use a lot of words, I'll show you the stages of this painting.

Initial sketch/drawing in pencil, pen and ink

Blocking in the sky and foliage

Blocking in the sea and sand

Painting around the edges

... and the RHS

Mini me!!!

There are quite a few differences; can you spot them?  Who said "One's bigger!"?  :D

I have a little bit of fiddly work to do on the larger one, such as the billboard signage, tidying up a small part of the background foliage which I had wiped out and painting a small fence. Whenever I go back to it, I enjoy painting it as it is so big and I feel like I'm actually in the scene.

Have a lovely weekend and happy painting everyone!

60. Day Nine: Drawing of Man with Eggs

Landscape, Mars Lumograph 100 2H pencil and Staedtler 0.1 'Fineliner' 

pigment pen on 10" x 8" stretched canvas

This is what I did on Day 9 of Leslie Saeta's '30 in 30' challenge but I shan't be posting it to her blog as I intend to do that when it has been painted; however, as I did some art on Day 9, I am posting it here.  It's proving difficult to complete a painting every day, go out to work and get a bit of sleep but I'm still 'as happy as Larry' because this challenge is again forcing me to create something every day - thank you so much, Leslie Saeta, you're a diamond!

I love drawing and this was no exception.  This time, however, I did use a ruler to get accurate lines on the building; I probably won't be too rigid with the paint though.

NB.  You may remember from post No. 56 that I'd ruined my salon picture by adding paint to it. Well, I had nothing to lose so I took a big brush and loosely painted over it with much warmer colours (W&N Cadmium Red, W&N Indian Yellow, W&N Naples Yellow Light, MH Unbleached Titanium, MH Phthalo Blue, MH Cobalt Blue (Christmas present!! :D :D :D) and some fast-drying Titanium White) and when my husband saw it later, he said "That's much better!"

Exodus 31:1-5 - Your art is a blessing and it's important - enjoy it. xx

59. Day Seven: Negril Drawing - No Rules

Seascape, Derwent Onyx (dark) pencil and Staedtler 0.1 Fineliner

on W&N stretched cotton canvas, 14" x 10"

This is a section of a scene I have sketched and painted many times.  I painted a 4ft x 3ft version of the whole scene just over a year ago and have since painted little versions of part of the scene.  

In order to get straight lines for the buildings without a ruler, I held the pen securely whilst running my little finger along the length and width of the support.  It's easier if you have a 'plate' surface but can still be done on something as 'notchy' as canvas if you go carefully.  It's impossible on a larger support, of course, as you'd have to have really long fingers.  Again, it needs to be re-photographed in daylight.

58. Day Five: Dreaming of Parrottee

Seascape, oil on Pebeo canvas board, 10cm x 10cm (4" x 4")

It is so sad to see the way the US and UK are being battered by terrible weather.  To those of you being hammered by snow, wind, rain and general greyness, here is something more pleasant to look at.  Roll on Spring.

I may have to re-photograph this in daylight and re-post as it's dark outside. (Now done.)

57. Day Four: Homeward Bound

Landscape, oil on Pebeo canvas board, 10cm x 10cm (4" x 4")

I rapidly painted this but was disappointed because I missed posting it to Leslie Saeta's site in the requisite time but then realised it could still be posted to my blog as that is always available!  This is one of the great things about Leslie's challenge - it makes us more productive than usual.  

The rather straight white line was applied with a palette knife but the rest of the painting was done using a couple of Monarch brushes (lovely!).

No worries, although the original image was taken on my phone on a rainy evening, I wasn't driving at the time!  I'm off to work now.  Happy painting folks.  :)

56. Day Three: Salon Drawing

Landscape, Mars Lumograph 100 2H pencil and Staedtler 0.1 'Fineliner' 

pigment pen on 10" x 8" stretched canvas

This is the 'SOS Beauty Salon' in Jamaica, close to where we have the car serviced. It's a very brightly-coloured building with descriptions of some of the treatments neatly written under each window, including a little drawing of a lady's head and shoulders.  The owner was friendly and let me take a photograph.  

The scene looks calm and quiet as a drawing (I have omitted some of the loose elements, such as chairs, a table, crates and bits of foliage) but it is a very lively place with lots of activity - the buildings on the right are Hanks Cafe and Bar and lots of other shops are to be discovered down the path behind the salon.

This drawing took me a while and I notice the roof line is a bit 'off'; however, the roof on the left is actually like that.  When I was happy with the drawing, I went over the pencil lines with a permanent black pen then erased most of the pencil.  I then applied acrylic paint...
... oh dear!  Maybe I was tired but I made a proper 'Horlicks' of it!  I intend to paint over it using different colours and, if that improves it, I'll do another post.

I'm enjoying looking at all the '30 in 30' entries - so much talent out there!  Well done everyone and thank you for sharing.

55. Day One: Boxing Day in the Tropics

Seascape, Oil on canvas, 12" x 10"

Hello everyone.  This morning, my cousin sent me some photographs of how she and her family spent Christmas.  This one is Boxing Day.  They are so lovely that I decided to paint one to kick off Leslie Saeta's '30 in 30' January challenge.  

Good luck everyone; remember, as our Prime Minister keeps telling us here in the UK: "We are all in this together!"  Happy painting! xx

54. Autumn in Blighty

Landscape, W&N Griffin Alkyd oil paint on Arches oil paper, trimmed to 8" x 8"

Before trimming (9" x 9")

This is to be cut and displayed on mount board so I used alkyd oils for speedy drying. It needed an autumnal look to it and nearly all my paintings end up predominantly blue (as opposed to red or yellow) so I used the 'Zorn' palette (Cadmium Red, Yellow Ochre, Titanium White and Black*). I was very pleased with the nuances of colour achievable, including pale yellow and some good greens.

*  I wanted a black that was completely transparent so I mixed together Alizarin Crimson and Phthalocyanine Green. I thoroughly mixed it out with a small palette knife on a transparent party plate then tested it by adding white to ensure it was not biased to either red or green.  This gave me a very deep, luscious black without any chalkiness at all and resulted in a darker mix than the equally good Ultramarine Blue/Burnt Umber (or Burnt Siena) mix.

I agree that most mixes should still show a hint of their components but if I'm mixing two colours to get a third colour, the plastic plate has two benefits. I can turn it upside down to check that the two pigments have been blended completely - no streaks at the bottom of the mix - and I can also lay the 'palette' down onto a surface which is the same colour as the support I'm using to give an accurate reflection of how the paint will look on the actual painting.  My ground colour is often black, an umber (see previous post) or white so I usually have at hand a second support in the current colour placed under the transparent plate. Some artists paint their support and then the bottom of their glass or perspex palette; the party plate is less hassle and there is no clean-up or scraping off afterwards.

Phew!  If you've read this far, please will you let me know if all this information is helpful or if you'd prefer a shorter post? I'm happy to continue sharing my findings with you if you wish.

(Btw, Santa brought me a lovely present which I'll share with you soon!)

Happy New Year to you and your families.  x

53. Pink House, Cumbria

Landscape, oil on Pebeo canvas board, 30cm x 30cm (approx. 12" x 12")

Hello again, everyone.  I'm sorry I have not posted since mid-November (shocking!). Although I've done a fair bit of artwork, it was nothing I could post.  Some of it is for a friend's upcoming wedding, the last bit of which I finished yesterday so am now able to return to my own work for a while.

You may remember the underpainting above, done for Day 29 of Leslie Saeta's September challenge.  A week or so ago, I quickly blocked in some of the colour (middle image) but had to abandon it again until last night when I painted the distant mountains, tree, gate, road and finally the house.  I also tidied up the background trees and the dry stone wall.  I had originally shortened the fence (which in real life runs behind the gate and past the tree) but eventually ditched it altogether to achieve a more open space.

The only four colours used are from one of my major bargains - a pack of Royal Talens Rembrandt oils: Permanent Red Medium, Permanent Yellow Light, Ultramarine Deep and Titanium White.  I've heard it said that Rembrandt paints can be too oily but I get around that by simply using less medium than I would with, say, W&N paints.  My mix is Refined Linseed Oil, Stand Oil and Gamsol OMS at a ratio of 2:1:1 (Carol Marine's recipe).  I buy Gamsol from Stuart R. Stevenson on Clerkenwell Road in London - my first bottle was a free sample!  This time, I used two Liquitex brushes (soft, synthetic and great with oils) and a tiny palette knife for the pink blossom in the trees.

Anyway, thank you for visiting my blog and for reading this far!  I wish you a very happy Christmas and a prosperous and colour-filled 2014.  xx