Illustration
I’ve been working on a commission to do a painting of someone’s dog, but before jumping into the finished piece I took a break to do this little test painting. This test happened to coincide with a friend’s birthday, she has a family of Yorkshire Terriers, so I used them as my inspiration. The commission I’m working on will be for a dalmation, fun fun! I love animals and having more reasons to paint them totally works for me.
Oil on canvas
8″ x 8″
Had some fun sketching at a cafe while Kimi made a quick appearance at work. I was doing my usual free form sketching and as I went further along, this guy started to take shape. The rough sketch suggested he might be more of a water creature. I started on some horns, but they looked almost more like a natural crown. That gave me the idea to create the creature behind the myth of Neptune.
I did a few sketches today with oils, it was fun working with no particular goal in mind. It was a nice way to just play with the medium.
I didn’t want to wait to photograph and post these later, so I’m dealing with less than ideal images. On the second sketch I ended up doing a few paint-overs to help figure out where I might want to take the sketch.
I was just working on canvas paper again and used a limited palette, pretty much just used white, black, and burnt sienna, plus a bit of blue for the background (greyed down).
Well, I didn’t really get any painting done on my plein air camping trip. I did some sketches and one little watercolor study, but that was it. Kind of a bummer, but my own focus is to blame. The trip was incredibly inspiring though and totally worth it.
I went out to Brentwood today to do laundry while Kimi was at work. After lunch I went exploring and found the Contra Loma park in Antioch. The lighting was incredibly boring and flat (in regards to distant hills etc). It made it much harder to try and show depth and form. I exaggerated what I was seeing, while also trying to stay true to the lighting.
The second painting was a study of some trees on the otherside of the reservoir. I was in the shade this time around which was nice, my arms got rather burnt during the first painting. I need to add sunscreen to my plein air kit.
Contra Loma Reservoir 01
Oil on canvas panel
6×8
Contra Loma Reservoir 02
Oil on canvas panel
6×8
