Staying busy

Feeling a bit Surreal today, can you tell?

14 x 11 inches, Acrylic on panel, "Illusion"

Still working on completing my one hundred figure paintings, and just started the January 30 paintings in 30 days challenge.  This is day 4.

Also thought I would collage a photo together of the last bunch of figure paintings.

So I can safely say, I am staying busy this month :)

Mary

Pick up that brush

A collage of my latest group of figure paintings

I have been having fun lately, just working on figures. 

I found a group on face book call One Hundred Figures,  a group sharing various styles of figure painting.  A wonderful artist Tina Naya'li Berendsohn share demos and everybody gives them a try.

When you find a site like this just have to "pick up that brush" and join in.

#onehundredfigures

Mary

#schirosart

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

Oh I need this like a hole in the head...

Day 17 and 18 of 30 paintings in 30 days.

12 x 16 pastel

                                         

   I started a class about pastels this week.  Yes just what I need another media to work in.  I have tried pretty much all the other medias, watercolor, oil, acrylic, even encaustics.  I figured might as well add pastels to my bucket list.  

   It is strange pretty much like drawing but with color, (and lots of dust).  Not sure what to think of it yet, maybe because there is so much to learn.  May like may not, time will tell.

   Also thought I would share for one of my daily paintings a card that is going out with a painting that I just sold.  (Figures this counts as one of the 30 in 30).

Thinking with ink

Day 2 of  #jan30in30
     Today I am just thinking and planning with ink.  A little 14 x 11 inch ink paintings that will be an idea for another painting.  There is a spontaneous flow to ink off a sumi brush that, at least for me, always inspirers a need to do more.

Mary
Schiros-art

Some more red...

Finished up this painting this morning.....  Day 12 of 30 in 30

24 x 18 inches, acrylic on canvas, "The Bath"Available; original of print at FineArtAmerica

I know I am posting this late, but my day was busy with some of my favorite things: painting in the morning,  gardening in the afternoon, then canning in the evening.  Yes I like canning, something cool about growing your own food, putting it up for the Winter.  Kind of old fashioned but thats me.
    This painting I started at the open house for the Flint Institute of Arts, and it was painted with the same colors of the painting from yesterday. I worked on both paintings at the same time.  I find that working on 2 paintings will keep me from over working one.  I  taped several  1 and 2 minute gesture drawing on the wall in front of my easels and used them for reference.  One suggestion I can make is, if you ever have the chance to take life drawing please do.  There is no other form of drawing that will fine tune your skills as much as having to draw the human figure from life.
Mary

How I Paint a Still-life

Pear and Silver,  11 x 14 inches, oil on canvas

                                Available at DPWs

Blue Plate Special, 12 x 16 inches, Acrylic on canvas

                                          At Bishop Gallery, FIA, Flint Mi June 2014

Thought I would share a peek at how I work on painting a still-life.  

One of the most important things I do to start, are small drawings of a still-life set up.

The drawings helps me plan the composition to work from.  Even thought I have a physical set up, deciding how I want to approach the painting really begins with the rough sketch.  

The drawings are tonal, white, grey and black, three basic values.  I do several of these drawing focusing on areas of the set up I find most interesting. Once I pick a favorite it used as a guide for my painting.

In this case I did four drawings, and ended up with two different painting. For one painting I followed the colors present in the set up and focused on the pears. 

For the another painting I went with more earth tones, and work directly from the drawings.  I also utilized my color charts to help with the colors.  

Drawing in a key part to painting because it give you a foundation to work from.  Drawing is not just for paper and graphite.  If you want to paint better, take time to draw.  Draw with pen, ink, graphite, and paint, especially paint.  Quick sketches with a paint brush helps build skill in handling a brush, and can create some very interesting pictures, also.

Mary

Schiros-Art

Save your sketches

I know I have said this before, but it is worth saying again....Save you sketches!   Even those 1 and 2 minute drawing, sometimes those have the most expression.   When cleaning my studio this Winter,  I was tempted to pitch a bunch of old drawing.  But as I sat an looked at those old 1 and 2 minutes drawings, ideas started popping into my head.
   Instead of dumping the sketches I grabbed one and started redrawing it, focusing on what I liked about it.   The following ink and color paintings are some of the places I went with one rough sketch.

14 x 11 inches, Solitude" Acrylic on canvas

                                                     AVAILABLE AT DPWS

Rearranging objects with oil paint

I am taking another oil painting class from Timothy Widener this year, an excellent artist and instructor.  But today I just was not in a classical painting mood.

Oil, 12 x 16 inches

 

I got to class and as usual he had some beautiful still-life set ups ready to go.

I looked them all over picked one that interested me, set up an easel and couldn’t get going. 

 So I pulled out a sketch book I had in my bag, ( full of abstract designs) and one simple layout caught my attention.

When I fill up a sketch book I always paint the cover :)

Looking at the still-life and the sketch I got my brushes moving, and started having some fun. 

 But the best part was when Timothy came over to see what I was doing, actually had him at a loss of words for a few seconds. But then I got a smile and chuckle from him.

What I had decided to do was combine the colors from the still-life, the layout of my sketch, and try and represent different surfaces, like the glass, something fuzzy like a peach, and metal.  It was a fun experiment for the day.

   By the way Timothy has an excellent book available; "Painting Light and the Impressionist Method"

Mary

Schiros_Art 

(I also have a book on Blurb, of Still-life paintings)

From Pencil to Paint

20 x 16 inches oil on canvas

To follow up on my last post, thought I would share the first painting from my last sketching session.  I picked the drawing I liked the best, then drew a grid over it to help decide the lay out.

 From that I sectioned off the area I wanted to redraw on my canvas.  Then I did a quick acrylic painting to use as an under painting.  For the under painting I used Matisse back ground acrylics they are matte and have more tooth that regular acrylics.  When the under paint was totally dry (gave it 24 hours), I finished it in oil.  Used Weber water mixable oils starting with brush work then finished with a palette knife for a little more texture. 

 Mary

Schiros_Art

Need an Idea

I did not feel like getting the paints out last night, but need to do something!

Sitting on the sofa with my cat, I just picked up a pad and pencil and started drawing.

Each drawing is the same cat, just in a slightly different pose. 

Every time the cat moved I added to the sketch, until I filled the page.

This started as just something to do, but I like one drawing enough to plan a painting around.  So when you have a few minutes, grab a pencil and just start filling a page on a pad.  You never know where your next painting idea will come from. 

Mary

Schiros_Art

  

Just a Face

Acrylic on canvas 20 x 16 inches

 For a long time drawing and painting were two separate functions for me.  I remember taking early painting class where teachers wanted you to carefully draw out on the watercolor paper or canvas, the painting before applying paint.  The work from these class always felt tight and dead to me. 
   This last year I took a class where it was suggested to do a rough black and white sketch on a small paper, just to try out composition ideas before painting.
This plan worked out very well.  There was no drawing done on the canvas, only rough ideas on a separate paper. 
   I have started applying this to simply ideas, and find it helps more than ever.
This painting started with just an idea drawing.

Mary
Schiros_Art

8 x 10, Acrylic and ink, Yellow hound 1

Started taking a new class this semester, and think I am going to enjoy it.  Last year I took a classic oil painting class and learned a lot.  This time around I wanted to focus on some fun.  Taking a class on creativity, with mixed media, in other words, some productive play time coming my way.  Class started with a good basic exercise pick a photo, draw it 20 times quickly, pick out the best drawing and paint it, all in about an hour.  Of course I picked a photo of a dog and went with one of my favorite color combination a violet tone and yellow.  I am so happy with this one plan to work up a few of the other quick drawing.

Mary

Schiros_Art

A Flower for You

6 x 6 inch oil on canvas

                                     Available on DPW

I thought I would share the process of making this painting.  This is another in my small character still life paintings.  I have a collection of odds and ends, including some beanie babies that I use for set ups.  This one is a simple set up just the stuffy and a flower.  I set up the objects to paint on a surface that has some shine, so I get reflection and shadow to incorporate into the painting.  I use a goose neck lamp to get a direct light on the set up, moving the light around until I like the shadows.

Set up to paint

Then I do a quick drawing on paper as a reference for the painting.  I do not draw on my painting surface.  

quick sketch

Next, I do a rough, almost abstract under painting, using a dark oil color thinned down a lot with odorless thinner. In the under painting I am looking for a few main things; lights, shadows and lost edges.  The lost edges are places the outline of the object merges with either the light or dark around it.

The thinned paint is easy to correct because it can be wiped off if needed and adjusted.

not the best photo but here is the under painting

After that dries over night I proceed to finish the painting with color and details.  This isn't the way to do all oil painting but this method works well when doing still life painting for me.

 Mary

Schiros Art

Being true to yourself

Just a jar painted week 2 of an oil painting class

This is week two of an oil painting class I am taking at the Flint Institute of Art and just wanted to share the process.  The class is formal classic painting and so far I am loving it.  Class started this week with a short lecture on thumb nail sketching, before we were turned loose to paint a still-life.  There was a lovely well lit still-life waiting to for us, that I sat and stared at for about 20 minutes while everyone else was already putting paint down.  Just past the set up was an off white jar set not part of the set up on another table.  My eyes just kept going to that jar as if it was calling me.  So I made a few quick sketches of it at the bottom of my canvas paper and just decided it was what I wanted to paint. After a while the instructor came over, took a deep breath and said “ok I can work with this” and gave me some suggestions. 

    The story here is be true to yourself and still be wiling to learn. I know this is going to go well 11 more weeks to go and looking forward to each one.

Mary

A classic set up to paint

The jar that caught my eyes

Full picture of the painting and the sketches at the bottom.

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