Quick Study: November Morning Sky

This painting was done in acrylic on a 4×6 piece of 300 lb. cold-pressed watercolor paper. It’s based off of a photo I took of the waning crescent Moon one morning back in November 2021.

I felt the original image of the sky was too gray and blue, so I changed it up at bit. The sky was painted with Liquitex BASICS blue gray; the pink is Cadmium Red Medium Hue from Golden, and the Moon is Titanium White mixed with Hansa Yellow Light (PY 73).

Skies over home

This 4×6 painting in acrylic on 300 lb. cold-pressed watercolor paper is based off a photo I took in Dec 2021 near sunset.

Colors used for the tree and roof silhouette: Chromium Oxide Green, Alizarin Crimson, and a touch of Cerulean Blue

Colors used for the sky: Cerulean Blue, Phthalo Blue, Cad-free Orange, Cad-free Yellow, Titanium White, Blue Gray

Quick Study: Sea & Sky

This painting was a quickie, from imagination, after having browsed through images — photos and paintings — of the sea and sky.

My primary focus was the clouds.

This is 4×6 done on 300 lb. cold-pressed watercolor paper, so I could wet my acrylics a bit.

Black Labrador

This is my first animal “portrait”, based on an image by Nikki Luijpers from Pixabay.

I love black Labs! Never had one, but a roomie from 40 years ago had a black Lab named Emma, and I just loved that dog! BEST DOG EVER.

This quick study was done on 6×8 gessoboard, which I gessoed again to get rid of the smooth surface, and then painted over with Neutral Gray 5.

Sunflower #2: Complete

Here’s the finished sunflower.

I used Yellow Ochre for the shaded parts of the petals, and Liquitex Soft Body Yellow Azo Med (PY 74) for the brighter parts of the petals. The yellow is fairly transparent, so I deliberately wanted to leave brush marks to give some additional definition to the petals.

I may come back around and paint over the greenish areas where I overpainted the yellow on to the background. Then again, maybe not, as from afar it looks a bit like shadow. We’ll see.

Based on an image by Couleur from Pixabay

Sunflower #2: Work-in-Progress

This 6×8 sunflower painting was based on an image by Couleur from Pixabay.

The green I used was one of my favorites — Chromium Oxide Green (PG 17) Liquitex Heavy Body. For the darkest green, I mixed it with Alizarin Crimson. The medium green is straight from the tube. And the lightest silvery green is Liquitex BASICS Green Gray.

This time for the sky I used Phthalo Blue from Golden Fluid, mixing it with the Golden Fluid Titanium White.

Sunflower #1

This sunflower painting was based on an image by Engin Akyurt from Pixabay. For the sky, I used Utrecht Fluid Cerulean Blue and Golden Fluid Titanium White — which works better for tinting as it doesn’t get so chalky looking as the Heavy Body. My camera doesn’t quite capture the color, but it’s close.

Painted on a 6×8 canvas.

Negative Spaces Study: Adventures in Acrylic

One more study I’ve done in the Adventures in Acrylic class. I did not do the fluorescent orange spray paint, and this time, instead of using my Perinone Orange (a close substitute), I went with Liquitex’s Cad-Free Orange paint, more soothing to my eyes.

Then I did a free-hand drawing in pencil of some of the orange leaves from the reference photo provided in the class, and did some light shading of the shadow areas as I saw them.

My blue was a mix of Utrecht’s cerulean blue (fluid) and Liquitex’s soft-body Light Blue Permanent (I think it is). I used a long-handled small bright brush to paint in the negative spaces.

This is really an in-progress painting, but I’m tempted to leave it as it is and go on to something else. We’ll see!