Oil Paintings #7, #8, & #9

My computer died the end of October, though I did not receive the final bad news until this past Friday, so now I'm using my really old computer. Between my ADD and my slow, old computer, I may wander away before completing this post.

One would think that I would use the time without a computer to practice drawing and painting a lot, but I did very little. Reading how-to art books took up some time, and I hope I absorbed some of the information.

These paintings were done from photographs in The Big Book of Painting Nature in Oil. I did not try to do them like the paintings in the book.

All 5"x7" on canvas pad.

Since these have been drying for two or three weeks, I tried scanning them instead of photographing them. The oil colors are much closer to the originals than when I scan watercolors.

Focus on Watercolor Practice

This blog was started shortly after I decided to learn to draw. Though I've been able to do simple line drawings since I was a child, I avoided anything complicated. To me that included shading an object or more than one object at a time. While at it, I started playing with watercolor.

Now that I'm more comfortable with drawing, it's time to focus on watercolor. This past year I've learned the names of the colors. Vermilion is the red one and viridian is the green one. I've also become familiar with some of the characteristics of the watercolors and how to mix them. The ratio of paint and water and handling my brushes and paper is a major obstacle, but I'm improving. Understanding and showing good values is next.

The few books I have on watercolor seemed overwhelming, though slowly the technical advice from the books and from the internet began to sink in. Last week I obtained Getting Started, a book by John Lovett, and suddenly the demos didn't seem beyond my reach.

The above practice does not match his demo, but it's a decent start. I'm looking forward to trying more of his demos, and I'll come back to this one for another try later.

I also obtained Painting Watercolors by Cathy Johnson, and I'm looking forward to working my way through her examples.