Saturday, November 29, 2014

Sunrise Sketch

I was up right before dawn this morning looked out the kitchen window and saw the beginnings of a quick sunrise. I knew it was supposed to be overcast all day so I had no plans on going out in the 26 degree temps.
But even on overcast days you get a very brief period of time right before sunrise when there is color in the sky. I did a quick sketch on an Aceo card using my cigar box easel.  Within minutes everything was grey in the sky.  Now I can make the coffee.


A little later I did an 8x10 as a practice piece to see if I want to develop it into a bigger painting.




Wednesday, November 26, 2014

Thankful Turkey

6"x6"  oil


This one is thankful he made it thru another Thanksgiving.

Hope everyone has a wonderful Thanksgiving.

Monday, November 17, 2014

Gathering the last bit of autumn color

I went to Core Creek Park  at dawn last Saturday to try to catch the last bit of autumn color before its gone. I didn't take my paints only the camera because I wanted to record as much as I could during the first hour after sunrise. The moon was setting during this time slot so for me that was a added incentive .
I am looking for ideas, possibilities, inspiration, and I love the light at that time of morning.

The first rays of sunlight lighting up the trees. A lot of times I paint from the spot I'm parked at, I have a view looking down to the lake which is in back of me here. We will be back to this field in an hour.



I liked the shadowed area at the bottom of the brush and the shadow going across the grass.

An explosion of color.

My first thought was to put a deer in the field highlighted with sunlight.


The picture doesn't show the rich colors in the tree, I like the highlighted edges.

The same tree looking from the side.

I was getting ready to leave when I spotted these deer. This is the same field I started at (first picture) an hour ago. This is prime mating season, I guess they wanted a little privacy so they headed into the woods.

A nice 8 point buck.  Wait for me dear.


Sunday, November 9, 2014

Using outdoor sketches for reference

8x10 acrylic


8x10 oil

These two paintings were done from outdoor sketches I did one morning when I was out with my brother Chris.  ( From the post on Sept 1st ).

The two outdoor sketches from that Saturday morning.


As you can see I changed things up a little. I gave a little depth to the top painting, and changed the lighting on the bottom so the picture reads a little easier.