Small Works

More ArtRage Vitae… Copying a Master

| cathmary1030

Today I tried painting a Christmas ornament in ArtRage Vitae, and I used as a reference a painting by Teddi Parker, which you can see here.

As with the sketch of Simba, I struggled a bit. In the Simba drawing, I used the felt pen tool; in this case I used the square flat brush, and widened the stroke.

It should be obvious that Teddi’s painting (master copy) is on the right.

The funny thing is, it actually felt like I was painting, despite using my finger tip! But I want to get back to the brush tomorrow.

Beach Birds

| cathmary1030

As with my sunflower painting posted the other days, this is on a 6×6 “Claybord” panel with the undertone painting done in metallic paint — this time silver. I still don’t care for the slippery metallic paint and/or the Claybord.

The beach birds are based on one of the 7 challenges demonstrated at the 2024 Summer “Challenge” at Acrylic University. For drawing out the scene the birds and key lines of the waves), I used a Posca paint pen (uni® POSCA® PC-5M, Earthtone Water-Based Paint Markers (8 Pack)) in a navy blue color that I bought at Michael’s.

Painting the scene, I used just 4 colors: Ultramarine Blue, Anthraquinone Blue, Payne’s Gray and White.

Field of Sunflowers

| cathmary1030

This painting is on a 6×6 “Claybord” panel with the undertone painting done in gold metallic paint that’s roughly the color of yellow ochre. (Like a rank novice, I wasted decent money on metallic paints and have never figured out a use for them — same with the iridescent paint I bought last year. Anyway, I recently read about an artist named Michele Usibelli who uses gold metallic paint as her undertone in a number of her paintings — bingo! I’m going to try that myself.

Turns out either the metallic paint or the Claybord (or both!) had a slippery sensation that was hard to work with. (But that could be me…)

In any case, these sunflowers come from one of the 7 paintings demonstrated at the 2024 Summer “Challenge” at Acrylic University. Which I didn’t participate in at the time, but am trying my hand at now that I have some more time.

52 Mini Paintings Challenge: Week #26

| cathmary1030

This is the week 26 painting for Jed Dorsey’s Mini Painting Challenge at Acrylic University. It’s called “Blue Sky Poppies” and is based on a reference photo by Sergey Schmidt. 6×6 canvas panel, untoned.

I’m not overly happy with this one. I struggled with the flower shapes and the soft focus of the reference photo. The result is that it’s more abstract than I had originally intended. However, I AM (mostly) happy with the colors.

Getting Back in The Groove

| cathmary1030

It’s been 7 weeks since I’ve picked up a paintbrush… just busy doing other things, (like reading for a book club, Ancestry DNA analysis of my mom’s matches, and some day trips w/ hubby). I had this red-toned 8×8 canvas lying around so decided to do a grayscale version of a coffee cup (image from Unsplash).