Yellow Flower, 4

acrylic 4" x 4"

Still trying...

Yellow Flowers, take 2, and 3

acrylic 6" x 6"

I struggled with this one, and so I started over, with this one...

acrylic 6" x 6"

and then went back and forth between the two...

I think it helps to start over sometimes.  Which is exactly what I plan to do next.  Look out out for Yellow Flowers, take 4, and possibly 5 and 6!

 

Yellow Flowers

acrylic 6" x 6"

This was a fun little study, but I went back and forth too much, repainting things... I need to learn to just observe closely first and then paint once.  I need to get "in the zone' and focus and just lay it down instead of putting something close down just to get started, and then fighting against that the whole way.  Easier said than done!  Still, I like these yellow flowers and hope they stay perky enough to paint tomorrow.

Gray Day Too

acrylic 6" x 6"

Crummy weather again and all I really wanted to do today was take a nap...

but one look at my happy-colored flowers, and I was ready to paint.

Gray Day

acrylic 4" x 4"

I was having trouble with the acrylic paintings, which is why I went back to watercolor...but then got tripped up on a certain photo that I had tried in both mediums!  So, I decided I need to go back to painting from life, and that I should stick it out with the acrylic.  So here it is.  I tried to keep it simple and focus mostly on color (my main struggle, but also my first love).  These flowers were just what I needed to get me out of my gray day mentality.

Snow Storm

watercolor 5" x 7"

The snow continues and so does my fear of painting with acrylics...so I went back to what I know (sort of).  And a limited palette of watercolors at that!  I have been struggling, but I think it is so important to paint (with any medium) every day, so rather than get frustrated I did this.  

I read an ArtByte by Carol Marine today on the importance of daily painting, entitled "My Take of Daily Painting".  It was very inspirational and so many things she said rang true in my own life.  She also has many ArtBytes on technique too, which I can't wait to check out!

Inside Day

watercolor 5" x 7"

I thought I'd try to work with watercolor today, since I was having such a hard time with acrylic.

As it snows outside, we are trying to keep busy inside today... 

I did this painting of my youngest daughter, Elsie, playing with her felt "dollhouse".  It snowed all day and she was dying to go play outside but it was just too wet and slushy.  She loved playing in the snow after the blizzard!  And I must have taken a dozen photos of the kids with paintings in mind. 

Today a fellow 30 in 30 artist, Cathy Engberg at Color Notes did me the honor of painting one of those photos!  She did a beautiful portrait of Elsie in the snow.  She is doing a series of portrait paintings called the Portrait Project.   I love the bright vivid colors that she uses.  And I think   the project is such a great idea.  Check out her beautiful work by clicking on her name!  

Working in series always helps to motivate me.  I think I need to find a new series...

somewhat revived...

acrylic 6" x 6"

This is one of my abandoned paintings from yesterday.  I tried to revive it.... It's working better than it was, but still has some issues.  And of course, as soon as I upload it, I see so many problems that I didn't see on the easle... But this is how it looks today (as I can hear that someone is awake from her nap), tomorrow might be different.

keep it simple...

acrylic 4" x 4"

After starting, and abandoning, two other paintings today, I landed on this one and decided that I need to just keep it simple.  There are so many variables when it comes to painting (never mind painting people) that I want to eliminate unnecessary things like background and details.  My hope is to just learn how to mix color and paint the planes of a head. Let's see if I can stick to that!

Snuggled Up

acrylic 5" x 7"

Last night I tried another figure, giving myself a little more room, but still trying to keep it loose.  The biggest challenge here was trying to show form under the blanket. Oh, and mixing the neutral colors, and the white in shadow, and the planes of the face and.....

Fall Day

acrylic 4" x 4"

Last week was a tough painting week.  Everything I did, beside this little one, got painted over.  And this one narrowly escaped!  I just couldn't get it together.  

Anyway, after a break I feel like I can try again.  I am going to stick with some figures for a while, working from photos.  The photo I worked from on this was one of my favorites - I love the colors and of course the player, my little Maggie-Moo.  I will have to try it again, possibly a lot bigger because its hard to do justice to the facial planes with a 1/2" brush on a 4" x 4"...