This was week 2 for Jed Dorsey’s Mini Painting Challenge at Acrylic University. The focus was on the reflection of the trees and land in the lake.
I used an old Ampersand Gessobord panel which I re-gessoed numerous times to reduce the slickness. Unfortunately, that left brushstroke grooves, which are particularly obvious in the reflection of the trees.
This was week 1 for Jed Dorsey’s Mini Painting Challenge at Acrylic University. It’s a follow-along, using Dorsey’s reference photos and seeing how he paints from the reference. All paintings are done in 6×6 size.
Lesson 1 was called “Sunlight through the Trees”, and Dorsey uses an impressionistic style for the painting, which I attempted to imitate.
This is an exercise from one of the foundational courses (Acrylics 101) at Acrylic University wherein you do a value map of your painting using black, white and gray, and then applying color on top of the different value areas, using care to make sure your values — post-color — remain. It’s a more detailed version of the quickie free course I mentioned here.
Here’s my original painting done in grayscale, done as part of the Acrylics 101 online class, using their reference photo.
I did a value check on my primary colors and mixed secondaries.
The next task was to choose colors that aligned to the value map/painting I already did. This was my first effort. The abstract trees were a bit too dark, compared to my original (above), pretty much the same as the (abstract) forest.
This was my next attempt, which I think is better. Also I turned on the grid function on my Pixel camera; it makes a real difference!
Over Black Friday, I bought access to a handful of online classes at Kara Bullock Art. One was the “Terrific Trees” class by Kim VanDerHoek.
I ‘m working on painting pine trees, so I can make some Christmas cards on a Christmas tree theme. The tree on the left was painted on a 6×6 canvas panel, and is based on Kim’s class (a follow-along).
The tree on the right was painted on a 8×8 black stretched canvas. The shadow of the tree is unpainted; I’m just using the black of the canvas.
Paint Week 2023 is going on this week, and the subject to paint is a kayaker on a river lined by mangroves. Although I’m working on a portrait tutorial by the same teacher, I took some time out to paint the landscape on a 9×12 canvas.
The subject didn’t particularly excite me; that’s probably apparent in my results. I find the value map helpful as a concept, but painting-wise, the burnt sienna underpainting shows through too much, which I don’t like. Maybe if I were using oils it would work better?
Finally had time to paint again after watching so much baseball — This is the finished work from the Patreon lesson.
(The photo of the completed painting was taken in a different room with only natural light coming in from southern windows; the other one was taken in my “studio” (dining room table) under the bright light of a work lamp.)
I’m continuing to work on this landscape. I painted over the first take of the yellow ochre to make it more golden, and I think the lighter green up front is too saturated/yellow, and I need to darken it.
What is left to do is the leaves on the tree, the flowers in the meadow, and the grassy definition of the path to the house.
Now that Halloween is over, I’m working on a landscape from PaintCoach’s Patreon site. This is in advance of his Paint Week (free!) that starts on November 6 (link to sign up is in his YouTube notes).
This one is on a 9×12 canvas, toned in Pale Umber, and sketched out in charcoal — rather than painted, because I’ve been watching the World Series, lol.
I completed the mountain valley abstract. The green grass in the front is not as de-saturated in real life as in the photo. I’m also including the source photo, as well as a black and white version for value comparison.
BetterLateThanNeverArt 