Draw First, Paint Later (Sadie)

Want to paint.  Need to be disciplined.  Want to paint.  Need to be disciplined. Today being disciplined won out.  Here is the picture.

Here is the rough drawing with values.

Actually, I should call it a modified rough drawing.  I really try to get the outline without being too anal retentive.  The nose could use some work, but I gave myself a break.  I've been painting cats, not dogs.  The tongue ended up pink, since I feared losing it in the rest of the shapes down there.  

I tried painting from this dog picture 6 weeks ago or so and it just did not work.  I couldn't see the way that I'm seeing today.  It's like taking a tiny step up a long staircase.  Hopefully, I'll feel as though I've taken another step in 6 weeks from now or whatever time it takes. 

Ella - Finished Painting

With future paintings, I hope to continue working with color values in the way that I did with this one.  I like the relative differences in value.  Next up is taking into account painting over black gesso. It results in a darker result, so I need to adjust all values a bit lighter.

Also, I need to work on making gray cats more visually interesting.  They don't need it in real life, but in a painting it shouldn't be quite so monochrome.

Here's the picture that I used.  I still love making a grid.  I'm learning that lots and lots and lots of artists do this!

Ella - Work In Progress

I worked on this painting yesterday.  It might have been the value drawing in pencil, reading a bit about painting, or just thinking about it.  Whatever the reason, I felt much better about addressing the color values in this painting.  It felt good.  I got into a grove and went with it.  As a result, the values seem closer to reality and not so extreme.

I still need to work on colors, paint strokes and all of that.  It's weird, but it's almost hard for me to "see" this painting, since that I felt so good about the process.

I rushed on the inside of the ears.  This morning, I decided to paint the part over with black gesso, so I can give it another try.  Yeah!  I was grumpy about the ears, but now I have a do-over.

Still At It!

I have missed a handful of days where I haven't drawn or painted a thing and that's okay.  Other parts of my life needed the time and attention.  It's not anything bad. Early summer just gets busy with gardening on top of everything else.

Today, I had a break between client commitments in the middle of the day.  I went to a coffee shop, got some ice tea and a treat and worked on drawing a bit. In the book, Drawing for the Absolute and Utter Beginner by Claire Watson Garcia, there are a couple of exercises where you try to recreate a line drawing by drawing it upside down.  In the exercises so far, she wants people to go very slowly, but also to make confident marks.

It felt good to do this and to focus on it. I live in the verbal side of my head, so much it is both relaxing and a relief to get so fully engaged in something that the words just go away.  They aren't important.  Doing is important and where it's at. When I emerge, my brain feels refreshed.  I haven't thought about it in this way much, but this must be part of the motivation to paint and draw.

After I did several of the line drawings, I decided to do a value sketch of one of my pictures of Ella. The direction or how the pencil marks were made did not matter.  The focus was on capturing values.

In looking at this, it's amazing to me that the specific marks/lines really don't matter.  It is all about the values!

Esther - Take 3

It helps me to paint the same thing more than once.  I wish that I could see and execute better the first time, but my guess is that it will come with more experience. Frequently, the third time is the charm.

Here is the picture.  It's a friend's cat and I grabbed the picture from Facebook. Hope they don't mind! I do intend to give them this painting or a future rendition.

Next up is the drawing.

Here is the painting in process.

Here is the final painting.  The eyes could have been a bit more orange.  

Things worked so much better for this 3rd attempt, including the colors, the brush strokes and all of it.  I altered things a bit from the picture.  It was good to make the collar and background color different than the picture.  Also, I'm glad that I did not include the bell.  

Esther - Take 2

It's a good exercise to paint the same picture multiple times.  I like this version much better than the first one.  Although the eyes are really off.

Taking creative liberties and making the collar a different color was a good idea.

Broken Streak

I have drawn or painted every day since 01/01/16.  Yesterday, I did neither.  I feel okay about that.  Actually, I feel good about that.  There have been some days where I've had to push myself. Yesterday, there just were other things to do.  Not bad things.  Not overwhelming things.  Just other things that needed my attention.  I could have tried to squeeze in one more thing yesterday, but didn't.