Two More from the Portrait Sessions

10" x 14" Charcoal on Gray Paper.

Here's two more charcoal drawings from the Thursday night live portrait sessions in Pleasant Grove, Utah. The first one was done a couple weeks or so ago. It was drawn using my usual method for gray paper; charcoal pencil for the darks and "charcoal white" for the lights. 

9" x 12" Charcoal on Paper

The next drawing is the most recent. It's evidence that when you show up late for a drawing session, you end up doing a profile. That's because the other painters showed up on time and took all the good spots in front of the model, leaving only the side views for the tardy. 

This drawing was made by toning white paper with stick charcoal, then rendering the darks with a charcoal pencil and lifting out the lights with a kneaded eraser. "Charcoal white" was used only in highlights where the eraser couldn't get all of the charcoal out of the paper's grain.

For more about drawing sessions, go to "Labels" on the side bar and click on "sketching" or "drawing."

Pictures from Spring City 2015

9" x 12" Oil on Panel

The Spring City Plein Air competition was last week. Here are some of my pictures from that event. Shown above is the first painting I did for the show. The view is looking west toward the little town of Wales, in central Utah.

The second photo shows the painting in the pochade box, with the subject of the painting in the background. You can see how the shape of the trees was changed in the painting. I liked where the trees were, but that tree sticking up on the right wasn't going to work in this composition, so it had to go!

9" x 12" Oil on Panel

The first painting I made on the second day didn't turn out, so I scraped and wiped it and reused the panel the next day. In the mean time I was able to complete another painting on the second day. That painting is shown above.

Here's the painting still in the box. The scene is out of view to the left of the photo. The box is turned to avoid bright glare for the sake of the photo.

9" x 12" Oil on Panel

It was very windy on the third day, making plein air painting even more challenging. The panel that was wiped the day before was used for my last painting of the trip, shown above.

Part of my trip was spent camped in a pasture at 7500 feet in the San Pitch Mountains west of Sanpete Valley. The accommodations were spacious, the scenery was great, and the price was right - free! Finding a suitably level spot in the meadow that was free of cow pies took a little hunting, but it worked out fine. A good tent, two stacked self inflating air mattresses, a pillow and a wool blanket, plus a fleece sleeping bag liner, made for a comfortable night's sleep. I was awakened three or four times during the night when small groups of lowing cattle passed the camp. What cows have to moo about at four in the morning, I don't know, but moo they did.

The Spring City plein air competition might be my last one for this year, but I always look forward to more outdoor painting, whether it's with an event or out on my own!

New Painting, and an Upcoming Event!

24" x 36" Oil on Panel

As promised, here's the painting mentioned in my last post, finally photographed and uploaded! The unique shapes of trees are things I really like, whether to paint or just enjoy when I'm out for a walk. The trees pictured in this painting are willows.

I'm planning on painting for the next few days in Spring City, Utah, for the annual Spring City plein air painting event! Sanpete Valley is a wonderful place to paint. This event always attracts lots of high-caliber painters from around the region and is always a fun event. I've been attending this one for a few years now. For more information you can click on their logo (shown above), or you can go to: http://www.springcityarts.com/

Painting Big Again, and a New Video.

Most of the paintings I've made this year have been on the small side, mostly 9" x 12"s or 8" x 10"s. A few 12" x 16"s have been as big as I've done all year. Because of that, I was wondering if I should "ease" into making much bigger (24" x 36") paintings this year. But then I thought, "Nah - just do it!" So late last week I did. The photo above shows the 24" x 36" painting on location on the easel. I haven't photographed the painting by itself yet, but as soon as I do it'll be put on this blog.

Last year around this time I was painting large plein air pieces in the same area and was filmed by one of the local residents. The video shows me adding some final touches to the painting pictured at the top of another blog post. He put the video up on a website called "Springcreek Conservation." Here's a link to the video on their site:

http://www.springcreekconservation.com/the-painter/

Or you can see it on their Vimeo channel here:

https://vimeo.com/134161476

If for some reason the links don't work, you can copy and paste those web addresses into your browser. While you're on their channel, check out some of their other videos. They've got some neat stuff there!

From a Wiped Painting to a Buffalo Sketch

8" x 10" Oil on Panel

Saturday I went to a place west of Springville to paint. Halfway through the painting I realized this was one of those few times when the painting was out of control and couldn't be corrected. When this sort of thing happens, the best - indeed the ONLY - thing to do is clean all the paint off of the panel and start over. Discouraged, instead of beginning again I decided to move on.

Wiped Panel

After wiping the painting I drove through Lake Shore - an area of ranches, farms, hay fields and scattered residences. I was on my way to West Mountain but became distracted when I drove past a herd of buffalo.

One of the photos I took of the buffalo herd.

Buffalo? Who put the buffalo here?

I pulled the car over, got the camera out and started snapping photos of buffalo. While doing that, I remembered the little piles of paint still on my palette and the freshly wiped panel from earlier. Why not try to do a study of buffalo in oil paint?

Another one of the buffalo photos.

It's a good thing my pochade setup is so portable. As the buffalo herd roamed around the field they were in, I had to move up and down my side of the fence to keep up with them as I painted. The result is shown at the top of this post. Oil studies of live animals is something I haven't tried before. The sketch was kind of quick, but I'm happy with it. Progress can't be made unless you make a start.

More Purple Hair

14" x 10" Pastel on Gray Paper

Recently a model for the Thursday evening portrait session had lavender colored hair. Too bad I had brought only charcoal to work with that day. Yesterday evening's model also had purplish hair, but this time I had my pastels with me. Charcoal was used for the initial drawing. Faber-Castell Polychromos Pastels were used to lay in the initial color, then Conte pastel pencils were used to finish the sketch. The picture shown above is of my sketch for that evening.

For more about drawing sessions, go to "Labels" on the side bar and click on "sketching" or "drawing."

New Drawing, Old Charcoal

12" x 9" Charcoal on Paper

On occasion when visiting relatives I discover small items that once belonged to my Dad, who passed away several years ago. Sometimes my interest in Dad's old possessions is more than just sentimental. I can use them. For instance, a couple years ago in my Mom's basement I found some of Dad's old fishing rods, which he had made. With them were some home-made fishing lures. I asked for them, put new fishing line on the old reels, and with the old tackle have caught myself a few fresh fish meals since then.

Another item I found (or it was given to me, I can't remember which) was this old box of charcoal sticks. Dad dabbled in drawing, and so had some sketchbooks and other assorted drawing supplies; pen and ink, pencils, watercolors, etc. Apparently, this old box of charcoal had never been used and was still in excellent condition.

Inside the box, besides the charcoal sticks, is an advertisement for another of Grumbacher's products, spray fixative. These things probably date back to the 1960's. Some of the attitudes and sensibilities back then were different than they are today, and it's fun to look back into those times.

Among other things the advertisement says the spray fixative is good for are "layouts and comprehensives," also "originals and carbon copies." It doesn't mention the old mimeographs. Those must have been too low end or something.

I enjoy the little graphics used in the advertisement. I even like the "politically incorrect" touch a couple of the images have (even if I do have Scottish ancestry myself).

This old box of charcoal travels with me to drawing sessions. Charcoal pencils are used for most of the drawing I do at the sessions. The charcoal sticks are generally used to quickly and uniformly tone white paper before I lay into it with pencils and kneaded eraser. This combination of charcoal sticks and pencils are what I used at last Thursday's live drawing session to make the drawing shown at the top of this post.

For more about drawing sessions, go to "Labels" on the side bar and click on "sketching" or "drawing."