I based this 8×10 painting on a photo by Autumn Mott Rodeheaver on Unsplash.

I based this 8×10 painting on a photo by Autumn Mott Rodeheaver on Unsplash.

I did this painting on an 8×8 canvas which I had months ago applied modeling paste to, without knowing what I was going to do with it. So I decided to paint the crow (based on an image by mycol from Pixabay). After a while, it gets tiring to paint other people’s work from class, ugh.
I enjoyed painting this.



This is the week 16 painting for Jed Dorsey’s Mini Painting Challenge at Acrylic University. It’s called “Canyon Shadows” and is based on a reference photo by Jacob Jolibois, supposedly somewhere in the Grand Canyon area. 6×6 canvas panel.
Surprisingly straightforward, although when I looked at the reference and my painting in gray scale, I had to adjust my values for the cliff at the left, and the sky just above it. As well as the distant canyon walls.

I’ve been taking a couple of Lauren Rudolph’s classes at Kara Bullock Art. This portrait is not part of the class; I found it on her website, and found it at least as interesting as anything in the class.
This was done on an 8×10 stretched canvas. The value on the ear is completely wrong; I need to go back and fix that.

I have some epiphyte cactus flower photos I want to paint so I decided to try out copying a similar painting by Teddi Parker. This was done on an 8×8 gessoed wood panel.




This painting is from yet another mini challenge at Acrylic University, and this one is based off a work by an artist named Aimee Erickson.
I did this on a 6×6 birch panel, and I did the complete sky — orange to red-orange to purple gray to black. Then I added the tree, the light posts, the buildings and the cars.

I discovered Vicki McGrath on a “Learn to Paint” podcast, and then followed her on Instagram. After my first attempt at the red onion from my Acrylic University lesson, I attempted to copy Vicki’s work, although I changed the background from green stripes to a solid mint green via phthalo green yellow shade. She paints in gouache on watercolor paper; I used acrylic on an 8×8 canvas. Her version is available as a print here.

A few weeks ago I signed up for an 8 week class at Acrylic University called “Simple Shapes” taught by Dianna Shyne. I wasn’t overly interested in painting the still lifes for the first 3 weeks, despite watching the videos and downloading the reference photos, but I did want to try painting the red onion.
This was on 6×6 acrylic paper (SoHo brand). The first time, I put too many of the colors Dianna used, and the result didn’t look much like an onion! (Hers did, mine didn’t.) So the next day I painted over what I had before, and tried again. I think the second attempt is much improved. I also used smaller brushes, especially for the onion roots.



This painting of a bird came from a bonus class at Acrylic University. While I’ve drawn or sketched birds, I’ve never tried painting a bird so I decided to give it a shot, after watching the 25 minute video. This was done on a 6×6 panel with only the primaries, and white as my colors.


