Still life – Blue book on patio floor

Still life - Blue book on patio floor

This was done early on at home from a project book, with the knife technique and brush for highlighting. Took just a few sittings.

I like the colours and the composition here, with the magnifying glass on top of the book. Kind of tells a story… and you can interpret it your own way to get messages like – Always examine the fine print(!), don’t judge a book by it’s cover. Or you could just imagine the reader on a lounge chair getting some sun after putting down the book on the floor beside him/her …. could be anything you please !

Size- 10*12.

After framing –

First animal study – koala

Painting an animal is tricky – the fur effect is not easy and the body shape has to come out right. The tree and background are from a book, but  the koala is adapted from some pictures I had of our visit to Australia. The poses were different from this one, and I just had to adapt and do the best I could. It took longer than I thought as the koala just wouldn’t look right initially.

This could have come out much better if I’d had a picture with the same pose to refer to.  Taught me just how important the preparations are in getting a painting right..!  

9*12" study of koala on tree

Bay windows and red sofa

This is one of my first few paintings done after starting off in 2008. The concept was from a book, where it is done in a few broad strokes, but I changed the colours, put in a view beyond the windows and resorted to a soft look as I just cannot slip-slop into a  loose-brush style.

Flowers in acrylic impasto

This was done a long time ago in acrylics, using impasto gel for the flower petals. I’d just wanted to try it out since they dry fast unlike oils. But I ended up not liking the slight odour it had and the fact that it dries up on the palette too fast.

Still life – Fruits in a bowl

Learning to paint fruits is something that just has to be done. Luckily, this one came out fine. I just had  a stamp-size photo in a fat instruction book to go by. It was painful to keep peering into that tiny shot all the time, but it’s come out fine in the end.

Bowl of fruits on tablecloth

Yes, the composition could’ve been better – the bowl is dead center and kind of against guidelines.  Since  it was from a project book, I thought they should know what they’re doing!  In any case, I added two more embroidered flowers for the table-cloth in the right hand top and bottom corner  to  take the eye away.  Hope it helped.

Size – 12 * 16, canvas board.

Alla prima – coffee & croissants

The Alla-prima method ( all at once, mostly in one sitting) always appealed to me for reasons obvious to a newbie – to get a painting completed in one go. The normal layered approach  is sometimes oh-so-long! I’ve been painting only twice a week at most.  And sometimes there are long breaks for the kids’ exams, projects, falling sick and so on.  So,  it’s almost painful to have to wait for days or weeks before I get to see the final results.

Croissants, fruit and coffee.

I tried this small painting from a project book that I borrowed from the library. But I put in some changes in the composition by making it a round table with a part of the chair-back showing.  In my imagination, it’s at an al-fresco cafe. 

It’s done wholly with a bristle brush,  even for the finishing touches. Well, since I don’t have much speed, I had to do this over 5 sessions…. some alla-prima that! I just can’t be rushed, thats for sure.

Size – 10*12,  stretched canvas.

Framed another one

Brought home my landscape on (22*30) stretched canvas from the framers. They’ve done  a  very neat job of  it,  but I now feel the  frame selection could have been better.

 It’s really so difficult to decide which one to choose from the range available. Sometimes the choice is bang on, enhancing the picture, and other times you’re left wondering if you did the right thing. I guess we learn from trial and error. Will know better next time around…!

Landscape- mountain stream.

In any case, since the wood textured frame looked too dark for the picture, I ended up lightening it by applying acrylic metallic gold paint sparingly on the ridges. Seems better now.

This one was done in class, from a Walter Foster book  by Anton Gutknecht.   I did what I could in the limited time given in class and  put in the  corrections after getting it home ( I found the book at a bookstore for the purpose) .

Size – 22*30, stretched canvas.

An entrance in an old city

This was my second painting done in class.  Pictures of interesting doorways attract my attention unfailingly.  Later, when holidaying in Costa Brava, Spain, we walked through an old city very similar to this, leaving me amazed! To think I’d painted it already….. it was too much! I was so excited.

Door ajar in old city

Still life – flowers in a vase

This is the third painting I did in class. Not easy to paint flowers!

Rendition of Flowers in a glass vase

 

 After this picture was taken, I’ve ended up changing the colour of the central flower into a darker one, as this started looking just too light for my liking.

I rarely leave a finished painting alone – end up making tiny alterations on the errors that glare at me. There are times that the changes don’t work too well either!

 

Flowers in vase ‘after’

                                     This one looks warmer, I think, and I’m okay with it.

More on oil colours

To continue the previous post, here’s a list of the colours that are useful.  A limited palette can  force you to learn mixing well, but might also frustrate you or delay the learning process.  So, it’s quite alright to start with a set of 12 artist-grade colours readily available, and add or minus as you go.  Here are the ones I like to work with -

Cobalt Blue, Ultramarine Blue, Prussian blue, Cerulean blue

Crimson Lake

Cadmium yellow deep,  Chrome yellow,  Naples yellow

Vermilion, Cadmium red deep

Burnt Sienna,  Vandyke brown

Burnt Umber,  Raw umber

Yellow Ochre,  Lemon yellow

Titanium White,  Flake white,  Zinc white

Sap green,  Viridian green,  Olive green (can be mixed too) ,

Black is needed sparingly. I do have some more hues for convenience, but they don’t get used much.

COLOURS …….

  Ah, colours…isn’t this why we turn to painting ? Who doesn’t love them. Whether it’s the colours of the rainbow or black and white or the many shades of grey, plus all the other shades that you sometimes cannot put a name to, we artists love ‘em all !! Put down the right colours in the right tone and shape on your canvas, and voila… a lovely picture shines back at you ! A signature in yet another colour, claiming joyfully that YOU made that pretty painting, is all the steam you need to press on to your next one !

Yet to put up

I have ten more paintings that I’d like to put up here….just as soon as I get around to it. There are so many things to get done each day, and time just flies. Will do it within a week, for sure.