daily painting

Stack of Doughnuts

| cathmary1030

I got this reference from a January 2026 Open Studio Hours Session for Fresh Paint VIP members. I didn’t attend the session, and went my own way with the colors. This was painted on an 8×10 canvas panel.

I painted glazing medium on top of the dark paint after it was dry — turns out that’s a mistake. (Hence the weird blur on the finished painting on the left.] It’s better to mix in the glazing medium with the paint so that it ends up shiny and glossy like frosting. Live and learn! I may redo when I have more time.

Black Cat… Halfway Done!

| cathmary1030

Yes, it’s another WIP from a Fresh Paint lesson (although I’m diverging from the color choices of the instructor to some degree.) For one thing, I went pack and painted over the Quinacridone Magenta with my Naphthol Red, as my magenta looked magenta pink, while the instructor’s video shows what to my eyes is plain ol’ red.

And I skipped the instructor’s Phthalo Blue/Quinacridone Magenta combo for my favorite Anthraquinone Blue (PB60) (which reads as a black-blue straight out of the tube).

Little Witch… A Halloween Painting

| cathmary1030

This painting, which I mentioned in this post, is from a reference in Ali Kay’s Fresh Paint VIP membership.

One of the perks of the VIP membership is getting seasonal reference images / classes. I did not “attend” the video class, just using the reference image.

I highlighted the black outfit with dioxazine purple (PV23). I dry-brushed the sides of the skirt to get a tulle effect (as the dress in the reference image appears to have some tulle layers).

What I would change were I to do paint this again — the trees and sunlight (substantially blurred in the ref image) as it’s too busy. The hat needs purple highlights; it looks like I painted black on black. AND I need to work on making hair more realistic!

Bold Brushstrokes… Playing with Paint

| cathmary1030

A few weeks ago I watched one of the videos on the Acrylic University site. Jed Dorsey was painting a vase of sunflowers from a reference photo (likely his own). So, tonight, I felt like painting more sunflowers and decided to just wing it mostly from memory, doing my own thing rather than copying Jed’s work, or copying the reference photo.

This is the result. 10×10 canvas panel toned in burnt umber and white. Colors used were naphthol crimson, cadmium yellow, ultramarine blue, and a bit of Mars Black.

This was fun! I wasn’t trying for realism or polish, just playing with paint.

Sunflowers in a Vase

| cathmary1030

This painting was done on a 6×8 canvas (Blick Premier — I surprisingly liked it) and it’s based off of one of my own photos. The background is Dioxazine Purple (PV23) tinted with Titanium White, as a complementary color to the various tones of yellow (Yellow Ochre, and Cad Medium Yellow mixed with Yellow Ochre).

While I’m not entirely happy with this effort, on the whole, I think it’s one of my better sunflower paintings.

  • Work in Progress
  • Finished Painting

Pink Roses in a Vase

| cathmary1030

I took this photo back in the summer of 2023 and, as I was browsing through my pics of floral scenes, thought about painting it. Roses are difficult for me — but maybe I need to let go of that negative thought and tell myself roses are fun to paint! (Actually, this bouquet WAS fun to paint knowing I was doing it “solo”, and not copying someone else’s painting or using someone else’s reference photo.)

I used a 6×8 canvas panel for this one.

Sunflower

| cathmary1030

For once, I’m painting from a reference photo of my own! My first attempt was garbage, as you can see below, because my values were completely off relative to the photo on the right. You can barely see that I actually have two shades of yellow for the petals in the painted version.

So, I tried again a few days later, just painting over the old version. And this is the comparison between the old painting and the new. Still not happy with it, but it looks better from a distance, lol!

Just for grins, here’s the comparison between my photo and the new painting.

Fields of Gold… Calling it Done

| cathmary1030

I actually finished this days ago, and then forgot to post to WordPress, so here is the finished work. (This was from the painting Jed Dorsey calls “Golden Fields & Rustic Barns” from his Jed Dorsey’s YouTube channel called “For the Love of Painting”.

12×12 canvas panel, freehand drawing, and doing my best to copy.

Now I’m going to do a few paintings based on my own photographs — “going solo” as it were. No leaning on online teachers!