A Little Here...A Little There!

Another rainy weekend...
time to work on

a little here...a little there

The beginning of "Morning Aloha Coffee"
I found this plumeria on a walk on the beach before breakfast in Napili

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Below I'm working on a Palm Tree I'm copying for a friend.
It is three panels and I'm trying to keep the layers happening.

You can see I did a test small sample (6 " x 8 ")
to get the colors right and practice the layers.


Then I imaged it on the three panels...
so confusing to follow....
keep thinking about the layers


Layer One...the darks.


Layer two and three....the mid tones and beginnings of the green layer.

More to go, but happy with the results so far.

ALOHA!

Art Lover's Chair

Art Lover's Chair
(12 x 12 oil)

What a great way to spend a rainy morning!
Inside a warm and cheerful room
with beautiful light,
kindred spirits
and a lot of
ART HAPPENING!

MY PROCESS
*about 2 hours*

First...blow off the nerves...just dive in!
Second....decide what to paint
Third....take a few photos and look through viewfinder for composition ideas.
Fourth....sketch a thumbnail.
Fifth....measure and remember your perspective lessons.
Sixth....make a larger sketch and remember the values.
Seventh....for gosh sakes get some paint on the canvas!
Eighth...take a stroll around and see what others are doing.
Ninth....look with fresh eyes at my work...make adjustments.
Tenth....Breathe and Give Thanks for the Opportunity no matter the result!

Simply....Plein Aire in 20 Minutes

2010 Plan
I'm going to try to post on my blog more often, but less. I seem to have a pile up of things I want to post and then I keep waiting to post until I have enough...and then I run out of time.
...BLAH, BLAH, BLAH
So for 2010...my plan is to post at will - freely - just one here and there. I'll start with this one since it has been sitting here waiting for me to add more to it.


20 MINUTES OF PLEIN AIRE!

This is a bench at the San Jose Historical Park. We went on a Plein Aire day to this park and there was so much to pick from to paint. I just couldn't decide. It took up most of my time to settle down and then I really wanted to paint this bench...

I have a thing for benches??? (to be thought through later)

I sketched it out and it didn't look good in my sketch...it was just too busy. So then I started on a Barn. It was okay, but I really wanted to do the bench. Just then my teacher, who is in our Plein Aire group strolled over to check on his students. Before he knew about my struggles...he pointed to this bench and said..."Hey Julie did you see this bench? You should paint this."

Well I started laughing! I told him of my struggles and said I had been trying to do the bench. He looked at my sketch and said, "You should do the bench, but SIMPLIFY!"

OH YEAH....SIMPLIFY!!!!

After that I got it. I simplified all the extra lines and blocked in the brown for the bench and popped in the highlights of the bench and VIOLA!

I had the bench nailed in 20 minutes with 1 1/2 hours of struggling before.