Daily Art

Frumpy Cat

I am what you call a Daily Painter, (my main website is on Dailypaintworks.com ).  An often people assume I do a finished painting every day...nope.  What daily painting means to me is, working towards a painting everyday.  Often I do cartoons, a great way of getting a feel for the character of a subject.  Sometimes I do black and white sketches, with ink or charcoal, to understand light and shadows, mass, and line.

longhorn study

   It is all part of the process, that I love about art.

Mary

Drawing is Important

"What Cats Do"  Acrylic on watercolor paper 24 x 18 inches

     Draw, draw, draw important advice to any painter.  This loose painting of cats, (what my cats actually do most of the day) started with a number of drawings.  Quick charcoal sketches help for getting to know your subject and for planning a composition.

my easel with reference drawings

   After doing about a half dozen charcoal drawings of various cat poses, I picked my favorites and used them for reference while painting.  My models do not sit still for very long, so quick drawings, (lots of them) really help me to capture posture, and the attitude of each stance.

abstract layout

   I also use black and white chalk, to create an abstract of what I plan to paint, this is extremely helpful for planning the basic composition.   With this step I am not trying for any realism just light and dark contrast, and line movement.

   So when ever you have time grab a pencil, or charcoal stick and sketch.  You never know what those sketches will lead to.

Mary

30 in 30

Actually painted more than 30 paintings, but collaged the favorites for this post.

The hard part was not painting them, but stopping to post them.

Mary

Raining Cats and Cows

Bessie's Close-up,  14 x 11 inches, on canvas panel

"Blue Moo"  14 x 11 inches on wood panel

"Sun and Stripes"

For the last couple of days I have been finishing up some more cow paintings.  Between cats and cows I have been having a good time working with color and critters.  The 30 paintings in 30 days challenge had really kept me on a roll and it is hard to believe there is less than a week to go now.  Hope you have enjoyed this month as much as I have.   Added the latest 2 cows to my site on Artspan,  schirosart.com

   And my crazy cat is headed to a new home in New Mexico.

Mary

Music and painting

"Three Cool Cats"  Acrylic 23 x 29 inches

                                                     Prints available at Fine Art America

   Finished this one today and love it!  Acrylic on a full sheet of watercolor paper.  Finished this while listening to the song "Three Cool Cats" by the Coasters, and yep the song is now part of the painting.  So much fun letting music be part of the painting process!

If you want to hear the music here is a youtube link to the Coaster's song

https://youtu.be/7P5Er_qU5FE

The Beatles also did a version, just a fun song to listen to.

Mary

Working with Inks

14 x 11 inches, Ink, "Into the Wind"

                                                                                 

     Off and on I like pulling out inks to work with.  This painting "Into the Wind" was done with shellac based ink.  
     There are 4 types of inks I work with, india ink, walnut ink, acrylic ink and shellac ink.  Each ink has different characteristics.  India ink is classic, moderate work time, dries permanent and depending on the company making it, moderate to course pigment texture.  Walnut ink is a brown color, fine texture and works much like watercolors, in that it does not dry permanent, so it can be lifted after applying.  Acrylic ink I like best when working in mixed media.  Acrylic ink comes in many colors, fine grain, mixes well with regular acrylics, watercolor paints or pencils, and dries permanent.  Shellac ink is grainy, permanent, and dries quickly.
     Shellac based is something new for me, although it has been around a long time.  I am really loving the texture and bit of a shine it has when it dries.  Shellac ink dilutes well just like all the other inks for creating toned washes.  But what I like best about this ink is the very fast drying time. I just love the challenge of getting the brush work down fast, keeps me from over thinking the process.  I haven't tried it with mixed media yet so I have some thing to look forward to.
    Having something new to try really keeps me going, and with art there is always something new to try.
Mary