Landscape With Tree And Road - Take 2

This one is better than my first attempt.
 

I really like the mailboxes.  I'd like to figure out how to give the sky and the greenery a different appearance via the paint strokes.

It's Chandler!!!

It was the right choice to stop the other day, before I finished this one.  There was so little left to do, but I was tired.  This morning, I finished the eyes and whiskers.

When I look at this, I see Chandler. It is such a wonderful feeling to capture some of his essence.  I adore him.

What I Learned From Chandler's Painting

I learned something new with the latest painting of Chandler.  Acrylic paint dries very quickly. Hurrah!  I was carrying too many things up the stairs and I thought the lid on my water bottle was secure.  Five minutes or so after I finished painting for the day, I spilled water on my work-in-progress painting.  I dried it off with a towel and all was well.

Chandler - Take 3

Yesterday, I drew this over lunch at work.

With watering the garden last night, There wasn't as much time to paint as I would like.  Although, I did harvest some tomatoes.  I still need to finish the eyes and whiskers.  

I like this one.  The values are much better and so is his face shape. 

Another Second Try

Back in the beginning of May, my cat paintings started to work better.  Here is an early one of Harley that I really, really liked.  It was one of the first times that I drew something where I really felt like I saw it.  

She is a beautiful cat.  Here is the picture that I used.

I revisited this one today.

It's a bit disappointing that I like the first one better.  Also, I'm noticing a trend where the left side of the cat's face is better than the right.  The right side of Harley and the last two of Chandler have been too rounded.  I wonder what's up with that?  The likely answer is that the first one took forever to draw and I just buzzed along with the second one.  Drawing at a medium pace might be a better choice for me.  I'm not thrilled with the background color.  I wonder what color would be a better choice.

I do like the eyes in both the original and the new one.

I will revisit this picture.  It's a a really, really good one.  I like the light and shadows in her eyes.

Second Try

Take 2 (from today);

I painted this one and posted about it on 07/22/16.  Today, I used a version of the picture that was oriented in landscape mode rather than portrait.  The proportions and values are better in this one.  I like the picture better than the original painting.

Landscapes are hard.  

Cat Sketch

I try to practice two types of drawing.  One is exact, either using a gridded picture or a view finder.  The other is something between a free-hand drawing or even a blind contour drawing. My guess / hope is that working on both will help me develop better drawing skills.  Today was a free-hand day.

Here is the source.  Aren't they beautiful?

Here is the sketch.  It was fairly quick (not fussy).  The free-handed stuff is hard.  I didn't take measurements.  There is no way I could have done anything like this at the beginning of this year.  I know I keep repeating this, but it's true.  It also makes me very happy to keep learning and trying to improve.