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

Elephant and Tea

Day 8....

Elephant and Tea, 14 x 18 inches, oil on canvas

 Found another little object that said; paint me! So combined my new favorite tea pot and the little red elephant for day 8 of
30 paintings in 30 days

Mary
Schiros_Art

Tea and Tulips

Tea and Tulips, oil on canvas, 16 x 12 inches

Day 7 of  "30 paintings in 30 days"
Found this little tea pot at a friend's store in Durand MI
Called ReTHINKin It and just could not resist getting it it.
I tend to be a tea pot collector.   The same day I got an order of new oil paint, Rublev Colours,  from Natural Pigments.
Love the paints, creamy and soft , perfect for working this little painting up.  
Nice way to start a new start the second week of the challenge.

Mary
Schiros_Art 
 

a little green paint please

 

 

 

Frog in a Bowl 2, oil on canvas, 10 x 8 inches

For the 5th day of January  2013,   30 paintings in 30 days, a Frog in a water bowl. why not.  On January  4th  I just painted the frog and the bowl, but it need something more, so I repeated the idea adding the water pitcher and like it much better.  Also, I think painting the frog a second time was good practice.

Mary
Schiros_Art
 

Finger Painting

        Bid on at DWP

     This small still life really did start out as “finger painting”.

I often start a painting by putting down a colored gesso as my base to paint on, usually orange.  But in this case I used a light wash of red oil paint, thinned out with some odorless mineral spirits.  To do this, be careful to not get the paint so diluted that it actually runs, just thin enough to lift off easily.  The panel I used is an Ampersand gessobord which is ready to paint on.

      I covered the whole panel with a light coat of red, then used a soft cloth over my finger and pulled off the shape of the glass and bottle, especially the high light areas.  After that I mixed up a slightly thicker blue to put in the dark outlines and shadows, still mainly using my fingers and a soft cloth.

     With this paint being thin and wet it is easy to make corrections to shapes at this time, and really what I am looking for at this point is the over all masses of the composition.

    I let that dry over night and the next day finished the painting, this time using a brush and thicker layers of paint. 

Mary

 

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

Painting and Dance

10" x 8", oil on canvas panel, still life, price $40

I had an interesting insight today, while reviewing one of my latest paintings.

This is an oil painting, so it is easy to make small changes during the long drying time.

I softened a few hard edges, and added a little bend to a few lines.  While doing that, my mind was wandering of to memories of dancing.  I studied Ballet for about 15 years (many years ago) and small moves were very important.  The tilt of the head, the bend of the back, or just the way fingers touched each other, all added to how graceful a move looked.  I guess it doesn’t matter which art form it is, little aspects accumulate to strength the overall quality.  

 Just my thought for the day. 

Mary Schiros