Pouting Dreadlocks

Sleeping

This was 15 minutes.  I used the long axis of a piece of Conte Crayon
again moving my arm from the shoulder to keep a free expressive

drawing.

The Essence.

These drawings are from a life drawing drop in session this past week.
I enjoy longer poses but I truly enjoy the warm up gesture drawings.
Detail is not important.  It's a freeing exercise using a full arm swing
to capture the energy of the pose.  A quick look at where the weight
is and the curve of the models pose is what it's about for me.
Take a look and tell me what you think.

 Apologizes for the quality of the photos.

Proof!

Go to the previous post. That painting went back to the

studio and lost a great deal of it's freshness. The piece above

is the painting from the plein air site. For me it's proof

that I need to do more thinking, plan what I'm going to

do, allow enough time to either improve it or leave it alone.

In this case, leaving it alone would have been the prudent

thing to do.

International Sketch Crawl

Pastel City View (plein air)

Pond at Hawk Meadows (plein air)

A group of us got together Saturday to participate in

the 28th International Sketch Crawl. People all over

the world take part in small groups. It's fun to be around

other sketchers and view each others work. These are

the two pieces from my Saturday morning.

White Water

Well, anything goes. I had an inkling of this

before I started painting. I wish I could remember the

name of the artist it seems I've copied here. I think I like the

bright colors and bold brush strokes. Maybe I should

re-visit evolution and see if it feels like going further.

Au Sable

Waiting on

evolution so painted

this ... I lost track of the

diva ... or maybe there

never was a diva. Fickle

divas.

In Process ... Evolution

This seems to be

evolving with some

direction coming

into view.

From the Top

No preliminary drawing

for this one. Just brush work

from one color to another.

Some blend together leaving

some hard and some soft

edges. Again this is a process

with quick brush work.

River Entrance

I'm trying to work

quickly to avoid getting

hung up on tedious

details. Certain parts

could have been softer

but overall OK.

Before the Flood

Finally back in the studio after

7 months. Need to refresh and

search for a new direction.

It may take a while to get

back. Here is a rough beginning.

Maybe the little painting Trolls will come

out from under the bridge and post something

soon ... I hope.

Post Something?

Riders of the Purple Sage

Going through the flat files

again and found this piece that

was done near Tucson AZ.

I always wish I could remember

how certain things happened.

My problem is not painting enough

and then each time I start is like going

back to the beginning each time.

I like this piece even though it's mostly

two values. Needed some connected

highlights and a dark to pull it together.

Anyway, what do you think.

Sedona Revisited

Nothing new yet!

I did find this one in the flat file.

Umm, I need to do something with this!

Ding Dong the Sling is Gone!

Thanks for the title B!

Everything that was left ... is now right,

and I mean really right. Back to blogging

with both hands. Hopefully some paintings

soon. Thanks to all that sent well wishes

and words of support ... I needed every last

word and every last letter to get through

this mess.

Thanks again everyone!

SUNFLOWER!

I'm sure you are as tired of looking at

the sling as I am wearing it. So for a change 0f

pace here is another old piece. Flowers in

a bucket at the end of a photo shoot.

SLING!

HERE'S WHY NO ONE HAS SEEN OR HEARD FROM ME.

the gray thing on my shoulder is the webbing that

cold ice water is pumped through. no beer just a nice ice

chest. keeps the swelling down. the sling keeps my arm

very close to my side. if i don't then i,ll have to start over.

typing this is like sending a message in morris code. peck peck.

ROTATOR CUFF

Keep smiling everyone. I'll be back in @ 3 weeks

Fading into the mist.

If you come to a fork in the road...

This follows my previous post which was the beginning of

some grapevines and foliage. In the beginning it had already

turned to a more interpretive approach to the unknown at that

point. Now here it is at it's current stage. Finished? I don't know,

but definitely done for now.

Time out for medical leave. I'll be back in late February to determine

if I took the right fork in the road, so you've got plenty of time to

leave your honest opinions. In a few weeks I'll catch up with you and

see the footprints you've left behind. So for now ...Shaka

(means "hang loose" in Hawaii)

Watercolor in Progress

This is slightly larger than the last post.

It's progressing with more thought but still

with left and right hands. My goal is to emphasize

watercolors effects along with techniques.

The finished piece will come along in a couple of days.

Beginning

I'm not going to jumble this up

with my thoughts and reasons for things.

It may have something, maybe a future.

You tell me!

5 x 7 watercolor on cold press.

broad strokes were left handed and

a few details were done with the right.

Sorry this is such a funky reproduction.

The little bubble's are actually dark spots.

Unfortunately they were still shiny when I

copied it. Hence the crappy little bubbles

and poor quality.

Cropped!

A small portion of a large not so hot painting.

I'm posting this only to stay in touch.

A few days ago as I sprawled with a "what just

happened look" between two cars I new I wouldn't

be painting for a while except maybe left handed.

Tore up my bicep muscle and the right arm is

currently painful and useless. Could've been worse

as they say.

Anyway, didn't want you all to think I've just walked

away from the blog world. Nope, right here ...

and if I can get my wife to type for me, I'll be responding.

Until later friends.

Bummed out!

Hawk Meadows Revisited

9 x 12 plein air watercolor on cold press arches.

Plain and simple traditional approach. I'll always

revisit this style along the way. Searching for

new vitality, enthusiasm and passion.

Hawk Meadows

Things weren't happening in the studio today, so I escaped.

Drove down the road aways to Hawk Meadows, a local walking

and hiking park. There I can park and paint in the car.

I noticed something right away ... I was using a small palette

with small pans of color. The colors weren't as strong as

fresh paint in the studio palette. Kind of soft and

transparent. Hopefully I can take that back to the studio

and put it to work. I think I'm going to do plein air more

often. No time to think and let intuition take it's course.

The photo's are blurry because I didn't want to drag out the

tripod. Later maybe. Let me know what you think.

From Real to Fiction

Frustrated by the mud strewn larger painting, I chose to

crop out 5 tiny abstracts. You say, "well that's cheating"

and I say "first you have to have enough sense to decide to

crop. Then you have to choose where to crop. Of course this

takes up to 45 years of experience. If you believe all that then

I've got 5 little abstracts that I'll sell cheap. It was a fun conclusion

to a very sad painting.

East Tawas Explosion #2

I've got to keep shooting until I hit something!

This one is closer to the target than yesterdays version,

although I just noticed that the grasses along the front

are static ... equal spaces, lines the same width, that will

be fixed by tomorrow. Also, I could've warmed up one of

the blue background trees. Still not comfortable with the

style of painting. It seems so far from what I'm used to.

I'll experiment with it for a while and see where it goes.

It needs refinement and some outward confidence by the

arteeest.

Today, the wash brush didn't have total control. It took a coffee

break and I didn't, so took over until it tapped on my shoulder

and said "I'm Back".

Again no mercy! Have at it so I can learn something, huh?

I'm an old dog, so I can't learn new tricks, ooooh sorry Sam.

Hey did you all notice that we have a multiple award winner

on the blogs with us. Check out Loriann Signori and A painting a day.

She's an inspiration for a lot of us.

Till later everyone, and have a great and properous, peaceful

2010. Happy New Year Blog Friends!

Hey, who's in charge here?

Yes I know this does not resemble the value study done

for this subject. Let's put it this way, it took me about 3 hours

to take back control. (not sure who was in charge)

By the time that happened the only thing that might save it

would be to hose it off.

So I was sitting there pondering the rest of the day ... I looked

down and saw I was holding my 1" flat wash brush. Hmmm.

Well that's when things went crazy again. I sat quietly and watched

as my hand holding the brush went chunking and stroking away.

I thought, well if you think you can do better than me then go for it.

It was fun to watch (I never gave it much hope with the brush in charge).

After trashing my palette and mudding up the water containers, it jumped

out of my hand and landed back in the brush jar.

Mary walked in about then and said, hey this one is coming together!

I looked at her with a puzzled look on my face and said, "really?"

Well if like it ... Let the record show I went ahead a signed it.

Still puzzled ... whatcha all think ... show no mercy!

signed: the guy with a brush that runs his life.

Sunflower Farm

Value study! Hopefully something in color before

2010.

The Huron Side

I'm following the example set by my good friend B.

She has been practicing these value studies and sharing

with everyone at her blog loriannsignori.blogspot.com

Take a look at her wonderful work.

I'm taking this to heart. I will faithfully ??? pursue

one each for every painting I attempt. I've been struggling of

late with colors, mud and lack of punch. Seems like doing

a value study will be a good exercise for me. I've done others

but I feel good about this one. Charcoal pencil on good

quality news print. Feel free to share what your process is,

rather value studies are important to painting or you follow

another process.

Remember this is a watercolor blog so we'll see how this drawing

interprets with watercolor. Thanks everyone, have

a great Christmas!