A Different Painting Process

This awesome house in Edmonton had a yard full of tulips this past spring.  It is screaming to be painted!

 I have learned over the past few years that there are NUMEROUS ways with which to start a painting.  For some bright spots or warm undertones I like to do an acrylic underpainting in complimentary colours.  So if the leaves or grass will be green, then the compliment is red or a shade of red.  For this painting I started with red, orange and purple acrylic in my underpainting.

I drew out my design and had a lot of fun putting on BRIGHT COLOURS.

Quite a bit different style from my last one, but I like changing things up every now and then.  Keeps me interested!

Painting Process Continued

 So I am close to done on this painting process.  I like to leave it sit for awhile and re-think things before finally signing it if I am finished.

This was almost finished but it seemed a little washed out to me. So I proceeded to paint the sky a much deeper blue around some clouds.  Things I am still considering - is that lake snow a tad too yellow and does the close by snow need some more work.  Sometimes I just need to ignore it totally for a week or two before I have fresh eyes and decide if it is okay.  Time will tell

Painting Process

How I sometime tackle a painting, some beginning steps.

First you must go on some kind of outing or adventure and snap a ton of pictures.  This was a super day we spent cross country skiing near Fernie, BC

Decide on a picture and do some ROUGH sketches to help determine what is relevant to paint

I like a vivid acrylic underpainting that will show here and there with some pops of colour later

 and warm up the painting a bit - especially in these snow scenes

I use some black gesso to establish some of the darkest dark areas - it will mostly get painted over.  You can't really see it but I did a transparent red earth glaze of oil paint over the large tree area to add warmth to the trees later too.  I begin laying in the sky first, then randomly start working all over.

This is as far as I got this week.  I will let the painting dry before I tackle the closer trees, as they have that red glaze I don't want mixing in and making muddy later.  

Now I hope that it will continue to work out and sometimes I lose courage and don't want to go farther cause I haven't done anything I do not like yet.  I always fear it could go south on me, but if I plan properly, mix my paints out first and not rush it, it tends to work okay!  I WILL post the results when it is finished. Fingers crossed.

 

Handling the Down Times

I have found at some times during this past year I am somewhat unmotivated...surprise, surprise... I am sure many others are experiencing this too.  I have done the recommended things to stay upbeat... exercise, get outdoors when I can, try new hobbies (sourdough still going), we even got a new family member who is loads of fun.  

Like most artists this year, the art fairs and other opportunities I usually relied on were cancelled.  I had a stockpile of paintings building up and painting new ones was at times challenging.  I have enjoyed being part of the Federation of Canadian Artists Edmonton Chapter as it has given me the opportunity as the Education Coordinator to learn new things (how to use Zoom and Wild Apricot), meet some new people (virtually) take part in some art calls / submissions and be inspired by others art.  Even managed a plein air outing in early summer with some members.

Recently, I grabbed the bull by the horns and found an opportunity at the Bountiful Farmers Market to place some of my art up on one of the market walls.  It has been a great motivator as I sold some paintings on my first weekend there.  Like me, many people are wanting to shop local, so now seems like a good time to tap into those places that people go to or look at on-line in our own communities.  Now... to go paint some more pictures!