Category Archives: Landscape

My First (Real) Acrylic Landscape

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I’ve taken a little time off from painting the last few weeks.  Spent a week tending to family matters, then just struggled to get back on the painting wagon.  I finally found the time, energy and motivation to dig out my paints.

Landscapes have always troubled me.  I enjoy looking at them – even the not-so-great ones; but I struggle to capture them well.  Add to that the fact that I’m still very new to acrylic painting, and you get the above.  Now before I go any further, let me just say that for where I am and what I’ve done in the past, I’m relatively happy with this.  However, I struggled with most everything about this except for the under-drawing.

But that IS the point, isn’t it?  To struggle?  If you aren’t struggling, you aren’t improving; right?

 

Boats

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This small (5 x 7 in) painting is from a photo my wife took while on a trip to San Francisco.  I’ve drawn from this photo set before, and I just really enjoy looking at boats; so despite the complexity here, I decided to tackle it anyway.

I was challenged by a lot of things in this painting. Perhaps I was trying too many things at once, but I learned quite a bit.

I didn’t care for the pronounced canvas texture in my last painting, so I coated this one in several very thick layers of gesso earlier this week.  I’ve only done a couple of paintings, but I’m fairly certain I prefer the smoother texture.  I will alternate the next several paintings to see if I change my mind.

I started this painting with brushes that were probably inappropriately large for this size painting.  By the time I finished, though, I was using a much smaller brush.  I tried to use a palette knife to create the masts, but I haven’t figured out the touch for that yet, resulting in a mess; I actually did better using the tip of a flat brush.

I screwed up the hills in the distance. They were a nice gray-purple, then something possessed me to wash them with raw sienna – turned them to mud.  I desperately need to spend some time working on color theory.

But the big thing for me, was that I loosened up a bit.  I focused more on the big shapes than on producing a photographic representation.  I worried very little about getting the details in – you’ll notice most of the masts in this painting don’t actually connect to anything.  It was a lot of fun.

Plains Crossing

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I hate this one.  Hate it.  Just… hate it.  But this blog is about my progress as an artist – not a showcase of only my best stuff. I know that, at some point, I will get better and I’ll start making stuff I actually like.

Grain Mill (attempt #2)

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I tried painting this last week with pastels, and it was a disaster. I could not get the shadows dark enough, so I put it away frustrated. This one (done in watercolor) is better, but I’m still not thrilled with it.  I just can’t seem to make darks that don’t turn out muddy and overworked.

Autumn Fruit

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I have no idea what kind of fruit this is; just something my wife snapped while on a morning trip to Morton Arboretum last year.  I was looking for something with simple shapes so I could focus on mostly on my approach to color, and this seemed to fit the bill.

What I learned is, I have a lot to learn.

Specifically, I need to figure out how to get darker darks and lighter lights from my pastels.

Portland Headlight

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As most of you have figured out by now, I’ve been avoiding color work; at a certain point though, you have to face your fears.

While on vacation in Maine, I noticed a proliferation of pastel paintings.  I was inspired to buy a small set and give them a try. These things are amazing.  Dry media, that blends like and looks like oil paint.  They can even be erased with a plain old plastic eraser!  It took a few tries to find a decent paper to use with these, though.  I landed on something that resembles fine-grade sandpaper.

Anywho… This painting was really just to try out the pastels and see what they can do.  I wasn’t too concerned with getting the proportions just right or about making a realistic image.  Also note that the image above is a bit more red than the actual painting due to the fact that I shot the pic with my phone under the dining room lights.