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Saturday, January 31, 2015

New Painting



street scene, acrylic on paper, approximately 7.5 x 10

This is my latest painting. Obviously, I'm pleased with it or I wouldn't be showing it. I'm pleased with it because I learned quite a bit about painting while working on it. It took me about a week to paint and underwent quite a few changes. The buildings on the right and left , especially the one on the right, underwent several different tone changes. It took me a while to get colors I was happy with.

The sky was deep dark-blue originally, with huge white clouds. The contrast between the blue sky and the white clouds was too much and distracted from the focal point of the painting, which is the red steeple, so I changed it to a lighter blue and got rid of most of the clouds. The two clouds that are left help draw the eye to the steeple, although I could have done that better, but I did not want to risk having to repaint the steeple.

This is a scene from downtown Jacksonville, Florida, and I worked from a reference photo I took. It's actually cropped from a much larger photograph. One of the things I learned was to eliminate a lot of details. There were quite a few more trees and lamp posts, and there was another car. The lamp posts are black in real life, but black posts would not have worked in this photo, so I dulled them down to gray. The cars and their shadows were the last things I painted. I've never painted cars before. I did many drawings of cars in my sketch books, trying to get them to look like cars and have the correct perspective. That was probably the most challenging part for me.

The bright spot in the upper left hand corner of the sky is from my camera's flash and is not part of the painting, but I wish it were. It's beautiful. I don't think I could have painted that.

One of the things I was thrilled with, but I doubt you can see it in this photo, even if you enlarge it, is the bark of the tree on the right. It's a blend of burnt umber, raw sienna, and maybe another color. It is beautiful to me. I think it's the best tree trunk I've ever painted.

It's not a perfect painting by any means. The shift from the dark blue sky to the lighter blue sky is too distinct, although it's less noticeable in the painting. Photos pick up every detail. Imperfect as it is, I've decided to let it stand as is, because I find it acceptable.

Well, there's more to tell, but I've said enough. It's on to the next painting--soon, anyway.

Friday, January 30, 2015

UNF Color Theory: Color Exploration Project

I'm halfway through the project. It's taken me hours of work so far, probably an hour per section. This is what it looks like so far.


An unexpected problem I'm having is with the Bristol Board curling up. I'm not sure how I'm going to paste them to the illustration board without making a mess. Good luck on yours.

Wednesday, January 28, 2015

UNF Color Theory: Saturation

My saturation studies.



My second red chip in needs more red.

Our "color explorations" assignment is going to be a challenge for sure. Got a lot to do.

Thursday, January 22, 2015

UNF Color Theory: Values

Here is what I turned in today.






Comparing it to the achromatic value scale, my values are off in several areas.


Tuesday, January 20, 2015

UNF Color Theory: Color Wheel

This is my version of the color wheel for our class presentation today.



The weakest elements are in the greens. I need to push the tertiary greens more towards their immediate neighbors. Of course, I had problems with the violets, as did most everyone.

Friday, January 16, 2015

UNF Color Theory: Color Wheel

This is as far as I got in class. The purples were very difficult to mix. Not sure I'll ever get them right. I have to admit I like working with the Acryla Gouache. Not sure I'll ever use them for a real painting, because of how expensive they are. Maybe I'd use them for a fairly small painting. But the colors are nice.



Just the beginning; a lot to do.

Thursday, January 8, 2015

UNF Color Theory: Introduction

These posts under UNF Color Theory are related to the art class I'm taking at the University of North Florida with Professor Raymond Gaddy. It was suggested that we all use Wordpress, but I already have this blog and do not want to get involved in another one, although it looks pretty easy to set up one with Wordpress. I may change my mind later if this one doesn't work well.

I've already posted a number of times on this blog about my art work and UNF and some of my professors. So, this is just a continuation of that theme. You can find various names under 'labels' if you wish.

The class blog site is Gaddy in 2D.

This is a recent painting of mine. The photo quality is poor. I need a better camera.

French Quarter, New Orleans
acrylic on paper
approximately 14.5 x 10.5