Author Archives: Artwithmycoffee

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About Artwithmycoffee

I live in Juneau, Alaska where the inspiration in nature abounds! I love taking photos of this beautiful place and then painting them. In 2013 I left my job in order to devote more time to my artwork. One of the ways I have been learning, is through online tutorials. I have been so encouraged with the amount of information that people share about their artwork. A few of my favorite sites are: Tuscon Art Academy on line, mhttp://thecompleteartist.ning.com/ by Richard Robinson, and http://www.dailypaintworks.com/ with Carol Marine. These have been extremely helpful as I have been working at my painting. This year my goal is to paint almost daily and to try to get outdoors more and paint en plein air (or out doors from life). I also hope to come up with something interesting to blog about it all ( =

Such a Ham

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BootsDog’s can be so amusing and entertaining! This one looks a bit sad, but certainly more than willing to do whatever the master wants. Actually there are many dogs that thrive on this kind of stuff, you know, playing dress up etc.

I had a German Shorthair Pointer several years ago. She was a wonderful dog. So smart and willing to learn and please. They are great dogs!

I would like to mention here too, that the underpainting process is very helpful in these animal portraits. Sometimes one may want to be freer, but in general, it is very helpful to get proportions right early on.

Bindi

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BindiThis is a 7×5 oil painting for my little sister of her dog Bindi. I am seriously considering doing pet portraits for a while. When I started out drawing as a kid, all I wanted to draw were horses. My love for animals has not changed, nor has my enjoyment in painting them. It is fun to capture their unique expressions. It is also a real pleasure to see their owner’s reaction to the picture when finished. So although I love landscapes and trees, I think I am going to take a side road ( = and do some animals for a while. Perhaps I will do both, but we shall see what kind of response I get.

One More Underpainting

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Into the woods (3)IMG_7703

This will be my final example for now of how useful a more detailed Underpainting can be. This is another wooded scene where my trees could easily have all gotten lost or run together as I went along. By having my Underpainting sort of map out my values, it was much easier to keep track of where my trees were separated. This also was helpful for me to see whrere it was important to perhaps place a darker tree next to a lighter one in order to distinguish it or make it more focal. It really is nice to be able to play around with your composition and value at this point before you have invested too much time. For me, it is invaluable when the painting has much detail.

Another Underpainting Example

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z left overs (89)z left overs (90)

I thought I would show another example of an Underpainting, because when I first started painting I couldn’t get enough information about the different ways that people choose to paint. I enjoy seeing how other people paint…it gives me ideas and may lead to better things. It’s good for us to know that there is not just one way to do things. Rather there are a vast number of ways to do the same thing! I think this is very helpful to know. Actually, I think this little painting is the very first time that I tried doing an Underpainting. You can see just how much detail I included in the early stages.

I’m sure this may be old news to many people, but I can remember how fascinated that I was with it early on. So I wanted to do a few posts to show any beginners how they might try it.

Detailed Underpainting

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Maine woods (3)Maine Woods

 

This is an example of a two tone Underpainting where it was extremely necessary. I felt like there would be no way for me to keep track of my distant trees without a basic guide layer down first. This gave me a clear idea of my values before I started and also acted like a map for me to keep from having my trees get lost in the forest (so to speak).  You can see that an Underpainting can be quite vague or extremely detailed. It is very interesting to play around with.

Back to Basics

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z left overs (60)I am actually quite taken with this little painting. There is something very pleasing about its simplicity. To try a painting using just one color is a great process for beginners. I even think that this practice is helpful for more advanced painters. This is useful In many ways… like helping one to recognize the values in the painting. After doing this you could more easily adjust your values to emphasize different areas of interest or intensity. This can also help one to see the unnecessary details of their subject. This is also good practice for how one might do an underpainting of their subject. Many artists will do a complete, thinned down, two tone painting like this before they add their color. That way they can concentrate on adding color without thinking about the value as well. This is often helpful when the subject matter has a lot of detail. But this is not a necessity, just a matter of preference. I have done some of these underpaintings and found them very helpful. But there are many times that I just want to be more spontaneous.

(as a side note, this post should have come before the last one) I would be interested to hear about anyone else’s experience with this process as well.

Underpainting Example

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Along the Alcan (1)Alcan Hwy

This is one example of how I used the underpainting process. The detail in this particular picture probably didn’t warrant the need but I was still experimenting with it at this point. But you can clearly see how helpful it is to see the value in a two toned painting. And I must say again, that at this stage, it is really easy to adjust something that may look a bit off. This layer of paint should be very loose and thinned down with turp or mineral spirits.     You don’t need to add white to your burnt sienna, you just thin it down a bit more. It is also very easy to wipe something off and redo it. If nothing else, I find this quite fun to play around with because you can move the paint so easily.

Gesso board with Pallet Knife

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IMG_8383This is my second painting on gesso board. I also used a pallet knife. I deliberately kept this loose. These low tide scenes where you can see beach forever always appeal to me. So I just thought I would do something a bit different. You can probably see that I don’t have one favorite subject yet. I am enjoying the learning process and trying all types of subjects as well as different light.

Gesso Board Trial Piece

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First Pic on GessoThis is a 6×6 painting, and it is the first painting that I have done on Gesso board. I have been wanting to try this since my first post. I read in Carol Marine’s book that she uses it and likes it. There are several artists whose paintings have a smooth flowing brush stroke style and I have been unable to get that in my paintings. It seems like they must either use gesso board or a smoother canvas than I do. To save on cost, I have given into using an inexpensive canvas board most of the time for these small practice pieces. But it does not help to practice what doesn’t work for you. I need to begin either using Gesso board or prepping my canvas in a different way to create a smoother finish. I have recently found another brand of canvas board that is not too expensive and does have a wonderful smooth coating. (the brand is Art Advantage) I cannot get it here in Juneau, and shipping is always expensive to Alaska so I have not used it on a regular basis. But I am beginning to think I should. I will have to get a bunch when I travel back to Maine next month.

Anyway, I did enjoy the Gesso board. It is a little tricky to learn a lighter touch with the brush so you don’t pull paint off with a second stroke, but I especially like that the brush strokes remain visible. This is merely a preference, and many people do not like this look. I do look forward to playing around with it more.