5×7, acrylic on prepared hardboard.

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.

Never quite satisfied with the tools I have available to me, I decided it was time to venture beyond the limitations of soft pastel and try my hand a painting with actual paint.

I chose acrylics because of the low odor and fast drying times.  I had no idea, though just how fast acrylic paints dry.  Really, they dry almost too fast for my taste (for those of you who don’t know, think along the lines of 15-30 minutes).  I hear that you can buy extenders that will lengthen the drying time, and I am going to have to hunt those down.

This media is, I fear, going to be a bit of a double-edged sword.  On the one hand, I can (theoretically) mix up any color I want; on the other hand, having an infinite amount of choice could actually inhibit some creativity.  Also, having a severe deficit of color theory knowledge doesn’t help.

All that said, I really enjoyed working with paint, brushes, and canvas board.

I think this is the first pastel painting that I am actually pretty happy with. There are certainly some things I could do better; but I am fairly satisfied. The image is from the photo reference library at wetcanvas.com.

I started this one a little different from my previous efforts: I did the initial drawing with black pastel and laid in the values, then went over the black & white rendering with an alcohol wash. This did a good job of keeping me focused on laying in the correct values and forced me lose an edge or two.

I work with a talented photographer who snapped this pic a few months ago.  I’m not sure I did it justice, but I did enjoy mucking with all those blues.

I’m fairly pleased with how easily these colors blend, but I have a long way to go figuring out what works best in each situation.

This piece is only 6×6 inches, and even with the harder pastels, it was still tricky to get a nice sharp edge on sanded paper.  More work to do there, too.

One last note: this painting was done from life (a departure from my earlier pastels which were done from photographs).  I built a shadow box this weekend from black foam core, and lit the setup with a small clip-on lamp and a daylight bulb.

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.

I’m a bit depressed about the intensity of the colors in my paintings. I really want to get some nice lively grays, but I am really struggling. I’m beginning to see why some pastel manufacturers sell nearly a thousand different colors. This might get expensive if I don’t get it figured out soon.  Either that, or I may have to find a new medium.

In the meantime, I’m going to go make some color swatches. Yuck.

I’m still trying to get a handle on these soft pastels.  The tooth of the Mi-Tientes paper fills up fast, but a bit of SpectraFix fixative opens things up a bit.  Unfortunately, the pump spray bottle has a tendency to splatter a bit.