Artists I’ve Recently Discovered

| cathmary1030

I rarely listen to podcasts, but I recently discovered a podcast called the “Learn to Paint Podcast” that I’m actually listening to. So, I’ve been focused on artists who paint primarily in acrylics, and then checking out their social media pages (as always, a rabbit hole). I’ve discovered some artists I like.

Mark Mehaffey — Podcast Episode 5 — paints landscapes in acrylics. I originally discovered him on the Artist’s Network website; he uses red as his underpainting since it’s a mid-tone.

Jed Dorsey — Podcast Episode 27 — I already knew about him, and am a current member of his Acrylic University, and also doing his 52-week miniature painting project. (Update 12/18/24 – I like his work enough that I’ve purchased an original.)

Hashim Akib —Podcast Episode 50 — acrylics painter. I’ve bought two of his books — one on painting portraits, and one on painting landscapes.

Ali Kay — Podcast Episode 61 — She apparently has a membership class called “Paint Fresh” that I’m guessing is similar to Dorsey’s Acrylic University or even Paint Coach’s Patreon page. (Update 12/18/24 – I purchased a one-year membership to her class, but now I’m finding her work too “busy”.)

Teddi Parker — Podcast Episode 77 — Turns out she paints with (acrylic) house paints (!). Focus is on still life and reflections. (Update 12/18/24 – I like her work enough that I’ve purchased an original.)

Dianna Shyne — Podcast Episode 82 — one of the teachers at Acrylic University. I’ve taken her mini-painting cloud challenge just recently. (Update 12/18/24 – I’ve taken a number of her classes via Acrylic University, and bought some prints of her already-sold paintings.)

Vicki McGrath — Podcast Episode 84 — I found her on Instagram. She paints in gouache on watercolor paper.

Jim Musil — not on the podcast; I discovered him on Instagram because both Dorsey and Kay follow him. I like his landscapes so much that I bought some prints. Acrylics painter. (Update 12/18/24 – I signed up for his landscape class, and found out his paintings are based on a combo of photos and AI images.)

Karim Gebahi — self-taught painter in acrylics. I have bought a painting from him. His style in acrylics reminds me a lot of Chris Fornataro (Paint Coach)

Chris Long — oil painter. Expressive landscapes. (Update 12/18/24 – I have purchased one of his originals.)

Chris Fornataro (Paint Coach) — oil painter and teacher. Landscapes, portraits, still life’s. Many of the paintings he provides paint-along’s for Patreon subscribers are also posted on Instagram.

Red Shoes

| cathmary1030

Once upon a time, I had a pair of red shoes like this. My 8×8 painting is based on a photo by Emily Pottiger on Unsplash. I kept my palette limited.

Background color — Ultramarine Blue, Cad-free Yellow Medium, Titanium White

Shoes — Anthraquinone Red, Naphthol Red, Phthalo Green Blue Shade, Titanium White

There’s a few things I need to tidy up… the stiletto heel needs to be straighter; the drawing was better. The shadow of the leftmost shoe should be straighter, as should the divider line (for lack of a better phrase).

Green Apples…Round 2

| cathmary1030

So, after making my apples too green (and dark) with mostly Winsor & Newton Sap Green (and some yellow, believe it or not, I tried a “convenience” color (Yellow Green from Amsterdam). That got me closer, but at that point, I was over-painting the original dark green apples. The third try, I got closer to the color I wanted, but I ceased paying attention to the darker shapes in the reference image (including the shadows).

The only thing I’m relatively satisfied with right now is the dark area around the apple stems. AND that I finally got reasonably close to the local color of the apples.

I need to paint this again from scratch, but frankly, I’m temporarily sick of apples! 🙂

Here are the value comparisons between the reference photo and the original painted green apples, and the reference compared to the final painting.

Originally, my lights were too dark, while some darks (the cast shadows) weren’t dark enough. Now my lights are okay but the darks aren’t dark enough. And the apple at the left is misshapen.

Green Apples.. Round One

| cathmary1030

This is another paint-along from PaintCoach’s Patreon page. I painted what I thought I saw, not what I actually saw. “Green” apples are green, right? Wrong. They’re mostly yellow. The image from Adobe Photoshop Essentials shows the darkest green as being mostly an olive color. (Actually, with photos the way they are, the darkest areas showed up as black, so I “color-picked” the edges of the shadow.)

Anyway, this image testing came AFTER my first attempt here — and the quinacridone magenta wash, and Payne’s gray outline to start did not help anything. Ugh.