New Art Up

I've finally got all of the work you've seen thus far up in the originals page, and it's all for sale.

There will soon be some new works in progress, so get ready for those.

Hope everyone is having a great new year!

Little Bird Painting

Ok, so I have a song bird painting in the works.  I started it way earlier this day, and will post the finished product tomorrow.  The bird is surely going to be yellow; very bright yellow, in hopes that it will jump off the canvas, visually speaking.  Below are the first few steps I took, before becoming too tired and irritated, simultaneously, and making the wise decision to stop; that is before something undesirable happened.  You will understand my frustrations later, when I show the world the mess I made with one of the branches in this painting. .....erg

Pretty creepy snake

So, this blog has turned into all things art.  This piece is actually in acrylic, not ink, but I might just put it in the ink section anyway. I know, that would be against the law of the universe, but -shrugs-

Anyway, here it is. Hope all of my little creeps like it:)

"Lady of Scales"

9"x12"

Original acrylic on acrylic paper

Acrylic on Hardboard

I went into Lowe's the other day and picked up one 4'x8' piece of hardboard, although that's not exactly what it was called (finberboard, pressed board??).  I had them cut it at the store into 4 pieces, and brought it home, only cost about $9.  I gessoed the one board, two coats, and it didn't take much because of how smooth the surface already is.  I then used my sanding block to smooth out the edges.  

Painting on this size board can be somewhat tricky until you get the hang of it.  I used a spray bottle to keep the surface wet where I was blending, and I also do a very solid underpainting first, with all of the colors, because I find the need to make the color blending perfect, and that, for me, requires two layers of paint.

So this painting came out really well, and I'll show you some of the process.

This is after I had finished up the basic part of the tentacles.  The little plate is what I use to mix my paint on.  The main jellyfish (the round white part) was painted white first, to ensure that the colors maintained their brightness.  Below is the final painting:)

"Compass Jellyfish"

Acrylic on Canvas

2'x4'

Acrylic Adventure

While I catch up on showing you my newest paintings, I've been trying to improve on my color mixing skills.  A painting can be completely abstract or even downright ugly, but if the colors work together, and they are captured correctly, it will catch your eye.  I used to be so focused on the technical aspect of painting, like brush strokes, and glazing, but I could never capture a scene or photo the way I wanted.  Turns out that I needed to learn how to truly understand color.  I had been missing the big picture, no pun intended, on how colors work together in a composition, from reflections, and lighting, to knowing that shadows are definitely not just black.

This acrylic painting is of a brightly colored little street, that seems to have seen quite a bit, completed about a month ago.

"Yellow City"

Acrylic on Canvas

11"x14"

Starting a few days ago?

I've decided to start this blog to show my progress as a painter, and also as an artist in general.  I hope to put up some new art every day, get better at this blogging business, and show some of my travels along the way.  I'd love to get some feedback and meet some like minded, or not so like, artists.


This is the first painting I completed upon deciding to paint full time.  It's painted directly from a photo, as are many of my initial paintings, for learning purposes.  I'm mostly a charcoal/ pencil, and ink artist, and somehow find painting, other than some easy stuff, to be quite alien.  This took me about an hour.

"Beached"

Acrylic on canvas

9"x12"