daily art

I haven’t updated my site in awhile due to a few major life events, but I’m back.

Sadly, I didn’t finish my duck painting in gouache. I learned that a thin canvas sheet isn’t the best material for an art medium that utilizes water to be reactivated or spread. The more I worked on it the more the canvas buckled and curled. I tossed it when I was partway done. Last week I learned that gouache works better on watercolor friendly surfaces.

I switched to acrylic paints and a 12″ x 12″ canvas. This is a photo of my second day’s progress.

There are two other art pieces I completed recently. One is a pen drawing of a quarter horse and the other is an acrylic painting of a goldfinch. I plan to get those posted this week in my gallery.

I’m playing around with ideas for a larger picture of some ducks in a row. This week’s round I’m trying out gouache (pronounced gwash). Goache is kind of like watercolor in the sense that it can be reactivated with water and kind of like acrylic in that dries quickly.

The below picture doesn’t look like much, but it will soon.

My original plan for today was to paint. Then I came across an artist trading card I started back in October that I hadn’t finished yet. I have this guideline for myself that I must finish what I start. Since this had been tucked into a pile, I figured, it was time to finish it.

The trading card below is done with colored pencils. I didn’t know this before I learned more about colored pencils, but the colors can be layered and blended. What isn’t noticeable in the picture below is that the hat and the gift have a waxy, shiny appearance. The white flecks in the background were done by accident. It works well as snow.

Artist trading cards measure 2.5″x3.5″. The small area is nice for keeping a project small. A card can be finished in a few hours.

The project for tomorrow remains a mystery.

Have a great afternoon.

My pastel portrait drawing is complete!

This was a fun adventure. I learned quite a few things about pastels. At times it was hard to remember that I’m not trying to duplicate exactly what I see because I’m working with a medium that can be smudged. There is a limit to how many layers of pastels I can have on the paper. Although, it is really neat how I can shift tones with a very light touch.

Tomorrow, or later today, I’ll be starting my next project. I think it will be a painting project because I miss using a brush. The toughest decision is should I do acrylic, oil, watercolor, or gouache?

I guess you’ll have to wait and see.

Enjoy the day.

Today was about darkening tones and adding more contrast. It’s amazing how absorbed I get in my work. I had a timer set to ding at me after half an hour. This round, I didn’t hear it when it went off. So I ended up working a total of an hour and half this evening. I think if the dogs hadn’t wanted to go outside I would’ve kept going.

The progress of my art slowed down slightly because of an injury to my shoulder, my desire to write 50,000 words, and Thanksgiving. I lost about a week and a half with my shoulder injury because it was painful to sit at the computer and my drawing desk to work. Thankfully, all is healing well.

Here’s an updated peek at the project I’m just about done with. I had taken a few progress pictures previously but figured I’d post today’s and not worry about the others. My plan is to have it done by the end of the week. I fell into a bit of perfectionist mode. I’m hoping my deadline will help.