Feeling Brainy

12 x 12 inches oil on canvas panel  "Mister E"

                                                                                 Available at DPWs

     This is a little follow up to my last blog.  I had mentioned links for painting ideas, and one was the Daily Paint Works Challenge    Many of the challenges are open for quite a long time, which is great because you can pick and choose what you want to do.
     One of the interesting things is see how different each painting posted to the challenge can be.  Fifty artist looking at the same reference subject will come up with fifty different paintings, this always amazes me.

Mary

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

Play with Boldness

I bought some inexpensive canvas and just let the brush and the colors take control.
My only conscious decision was the colors to work with.
This is a wonderful release from detail and planning. I am not sure how I feel about what resulted, but I know is opened the door to a new adventure. There is some where I can go with these. Now it is time to pack and start the journey.