Inspiration from Howard Pyle

"Project your mind into your subject until you actually live in it."

- Howard Pyle

"Your subjects have had a history – try to reveal it in your picture."

"Art is not a transcript nor a copy. Art is the expression of those beauties and emotions that stir the human soul."

"Throw your heart into the picture and then jump in after it. "

"Paint your picture by means of the lights. Lights define texture and color – shadows define form. "

 Howard Pyle
American Illustrator of the 1900's
Father of the Brandywine Tradition

A nocturne

Ten-Thirty

8x10, oil

It's no Fredrick Remington, but it is my first nocturne en plein air. Those reds are definitely brighter than I could sense while out painting this scene.

An in-action photo. The camera flash makes everything look brighter. I set up under a security light and it was quite a challenge to see my color mixtures. This is when it pays to set up your palette the same way every time, so you can paint from instinct, in combination with sight.

The trees are not green...

"Art education changes the way our brain perceives everything."

Carolyn Anderson

 Tree on the Bend, 6x8, oil

The trees are no longer just green and the sky is no longer blue.

You realize there are no rules to how something is made.

You realize more than ever the vast gulf of creative ability between yourself and the Creator of the Universe, who simply spoke these intricate forms and exquisite colors into existence.

Take an art class this summer, read an art book, watch an art demo, observe what you really see, create something from the beauty you see around you...

What's going on with the Summer Sketchbook Challenge?

  Well, it's going! 

Head over to the Summer Sketchbook Challenge blog to see everyone's progress.

Carter Stuart is also plugging away & producing some really fun & beautiful pages. Take a look at her blog as well: carterstuart.com

Below are a few pages from my sketchbook:

Boxwoods at Watkins, 8x10

Boxwoods at Watkins

8x10, oil

Watkins Nurseries owns acres (upon acres) of gorgeous land in Amelia where they grow their landscaping "stock". Paintings will never paint themselves, as much as us artists dream that they will, but I definitely felt like they came close while I was out in the Watkins fields.

Rows of shrubs, trees, winding roads, sever small ponds. Oh, and some very interesting bugs.

 

(jeans tucked into the socks = negative points for fashion, but plenty of points for keeping the ticks and bugs OUT!)

The painting, as the title suggests, was painted from among the boxwoods shrubs & finished at home in my studio.

"Cleo" - Black and White to Color

I know I've been MIA for the past week or so, but that doesn't mean I haven't been painting. If you're on my Facebook page, you've seen I've been doing a bit of painting on location as well as sketching for the Summer Sketchbook Challenge. In addition I've been working on a number of commissioned paintings. I hope to share a few of them here over the next few weeks.

Below is one that took quite a bit more effort than most. I don't typically paint portraits from black and white photos, although we did quite a bit of that while in art school at VCU. I wouldn't even consider myself a portrait painter. This commission was a tough one to tackle, but I am happy with the result.

Cleo

16x20, oil

I recorded each step in the painting's progression:

I started with a 5x7 "study" to make sure I could handle it.

Here I set up the underpainting with burnt umber, then added the dark areas of the hair, eyes and eyebrows.

My palette and the flesh tone mixtures.

 

Here is the reference photo next to the study. Flesh tones were being placed and the blouse painted. The request was for a blue blouse. :)

 

 

A loose block in of the flesh tones, and some refining of the tones & transitions.

Finishing up with the eyes & then painting in the background.

Now I'm ready (as I'll ever be) to paint the full-size piece - 16x20:

After laying in the underpainting, I decided to start with the eyes this time.

 

Here I'm beginning to lay in the skin tones & clothing.

Finalizing the facial structure & defining the hair.

 

Here, the reference photo with the study & final after the background was added.

 

The finished piece. 

16x20, oil.

She loved it. :)

Boughs of a Cedar, 8x10

Boughs of a Cedar
Maymont Park, Richmond, Virginia

8x10, oil