Number 25

To end the week I did a value study of the mug on my desk. I wasn't going for the true colors, I was just trying to convincingly paint the form of the mug. This week I've been using a painting medium for pretty much the first time ever. I don't know whats in it it just says "oil painting medium", oh by the way I use Windsor & Newton Artisan oil paints and the medium is the same brand. The paints are the water mixable oil. I use them rather than regular oils because the room I work in is on the small side and regular oils have a strong smell and it would make the Apt. smell. Plus cleaning up regular oils are a giant pain in the ass. What did I learn this week? Painting with some sort of painting medium is awesome, I should have been using this all along. I need to work on doing some more portraits. Last but not least, I need to do more exercises where I count the number of brush strokes I takes to make a painting, in order to focus on making everyone of them count. I have officially done more paintings in these five weeks than I have done in probably the last three or four years, so that's something. Hope everyone has a good weekend.



6x6 oil on Panel

Number 24

I tried to do a portrait of my wife. I assure you she's less mannish than the painting makes her look. I need a lot more practice doing portraits. Maybe next week.


6x6 Oil on Panel

Number 23

In today's painting I tried to use the least amount of brush strokes to convincingly model the coffee mug. Total number of brush strokes for toady was 242. It's a lot looser than the other paintings I've done recently. I will definitely do this exercise again.


6x6 Oil on Panel

Number 22

Here is today's painting. It's supposed to be morning, I'm not sure if it reads like that. More tomorrow.


6x6 Oil on Canvas

Number 21

Today was one of those days where life got in the way. I have todays painting half finished and rather than rush it I'll finish it tomorrow. In it's place I'm putting up and older painting.


6x6 Oil on Panel

Number 20

And so ends landscape week. What did we learn this week? Painting water is hard. Painting what you see rather than aping some impressionist work is hard. Using Windsor & Newton Artisan Lemon Yellow is like trying to paint with chewed gum. Cerulean Blue Hue gets shitty real fast when adding white (I should know better. That's what I get for getting the cheaper version of the color). Last but not least the thought of having to talk to people or paint in front of an audience kept me from going to paint in public. Chicken shit I know, but I'd rather not be bothered when I'm working. I've pretty much run out of pictures I've taken, so next time I'll be forced to go and find landscape subjects outside. Maybe it's like swimming, always swim with a buddy. Looking for painting buddy, preferably one who wont get all stabby when we're painting out in the middle of nowhere. I'm Rambling. Have a good weekend and don't forget to give your Ma a hug on Sunday.


6x6 Oil on Canvas

Number 19

Today's painting is based off a photo that I got off the Wet Canvas forum. It was another struggle getting what I saw onto the canvas. Painting water is hard. Tomorrow will be better.


6x6 Oil on Canvas

Number 18

Today was a really hard day. I wiped the canvas three times, then lost the sun and was forced to work from a picture I took. I also learned that some of my colors are shit. I need to stop being cheap and buy the real colors not the ones with hue in the name. Oh and Lemon Yellow can suck it. Your weak sauce Sir, weak sauce. On another note I read a book today called "Hawthorne on Painting" and I'm not sure if that was a reason for today's difficulties. I heard about this book from reading around the forums and other people's painting blogs and maybe not being familiar with this guys work the book kinda sorta made sense but then I had no idea what he was talking about. Still I think its a good book. I also picked up "Carlson's Guide to Landscape Painting" and Hensche on Painting" all on internet recommendations. We'll see if they fuck my shit up too.


6x6 Oil on Canvas

Number 17

This one is from a picture I took a while back. Man picture quality is terrible.


6x6 Oil on Panel

Number 16

And so starts landscape week. Sorry for the shitty picture I think I might need to fire my camera. EDIT: I uploaded a better image for this painting.


6x6 Oil on Panel