Challenge #16--February, 2012

sandichot wrote

on 19 Feb 2012 7:24 AM

Holly- You're welcome. With all the talk about Linseed, normally you don't need to use it because all the oil paints, both regular and Alkyd come in the tubes are already mixed with oil as a binder. Only occasion that I use it is when we are using the powder of stone grounded paints, we have to mix it with oil ourselves. Unless you have a very old dried tubes of paints then we may want to mix it with Linseed. So...Happy painting!

holland2 wrote

on 19 Feb 2012 7:30 AM

Sandi -  I like your "redressed version" - I can't tell exactly what the difference is, but it looks so fresh.  (Guess I need to do my "side by side" thingie.)

I'm going to switch this oil paints discussion over to the "chatter" thread.  Meet me over there.

A Gal Named Sam wrote

on 19 Feb 2012 9:04 AM

Sandi, you have beautiful colors in the leaves of the Japanese scene.  I also like the sailboat and reflection and the shadows of the trees on the ground.

I'm working on a painting for this month's Challenge and hope to have it done before the end of the month. 

sandichot wrote

on 19 Feb 2012 10:37 AM

Sammy- Thanks for liking my colors and I am looking forward to your painting of this month's Challenge.

sandichot wrote

on 22 Feb 2012 5:11 PM

Hi every one:

We seem to be quiet, every body is having a busy time I guess. Hopefully you are busy painting for this Challenge too. I've just finished a painting on The Oregon Mountain and am posting now even though it still needs touching up for example the man sitting in the back of the boat rowing but we can't see his hands clearly. This is a small painting someone may not notice it. I have fixed it but can't take photo because it is getting dark already and I don't want to use flash. I will do that tomorrow and re-post with the finished one.

Atelier Interactive Acrylic on Clay board.

Size is 5"X7"

A Gal Named Sam wrote

on 22 Feb 2012 11:41 PM

Yes, Sandy, it has been quiet.  I've missed hearing from everyone.  It's good to see your acrylic work.  Beautiful mountains.  I can almost feel the motion of the boat and the movement of the rowers.  It looks like a nice, cool place to visit.  In fact, it's a nice, cool painting.  

sandichot wrote

on 23 Feb 2012 2:03 PM

Thanks Sammy- for your encouragement and time to comment in spite of your busy workshop and other art stuffs. We just have to keep plugging away. don't we? Otherwise life would be so dull with nothing to do.

Jen- Soooooo glad to hear from you and learned that you are taking up new project for a new grand son. What a great pleasure to have a new  member of the family. The baby will receive lots of love from this grandma. It's a good thing when you are knitting to know that someone you love will enjoy it. It's nice to have a purpose that make you going.

Well, I finished this Mountain and Lake painting I think. But if you guys see something that needs fixing, it can still be done b/c as you all know Acrylic is easy to change to fix trouble areas.

A Gal Named Sam wrote

on 23 Feb 2012 4:11 PM

Sandi, I like your completed  lake painting.  I see that you added reflections of the near pine trees.  That adds interest and would indicate that the water is more calm than in the reference photo.  I like the reflections of the people in the boat.  The sky looks really nice and so do the mountains.    Good work.

sandichot wrote

on 23 Feb 2012 7:37 PM

Sammy- Appreciate your nice comment. I added those things b/c that's the way it should have been. My teacher always said "The photos lie". That's why artists like to go do Plein Air to view and get inspired instead of looking at photos. I also did see these mountains with my own eyes but didn't do Plein air or any kind of painting until now. The photo of the painting came out too blue. The camera always adds blue on to everything. It turned my dark green blouse in one of my photos into dark blue. So it lies.

Grizzlypainter wrote

on 24 Feb 2012 12:11 AM

Howdy all

I expected to get to this sooner, but things never cooperate.

First, Sandi, I see you finished the Japanese landscape. I like the colors, bright happy ones. I like the way you worked the tree shadows across the road as well. good job.

And, your mountain lake painting. I agree the colors are too blue, but I kinda stuck with it. I was so tempted to go to the still water and reflections. I like the corrections you made. Darn lying camera anyway!  Looks great.

Here is my mountain lake one so far. This is round 2. I'm not happy with that green patch the goes across the lake. I might just cut it out, and give the canoe a shorter route to the other side. I need darker shodows on the canoe I think. I feel i need a few more touches to this, but I thought I'd let you all have another go at it. Thanks

A Gal Named Sam wrote

on 24 Feb 2012 6:01 AM

Dave, your mountain lake painting is looking good.  I agree about the green that goes across the painting.    It may look better to eliminate some of that. 

sandichot wrote

on 24 Feb 2012 2:41 PM

Dave- Love your light blue sky and water. It looks like still water even without the reflections and Oh so pleasant to the eyes. The mountains are fluffy with snow. I also like the way you variegated the nearest evergreen trees with several colors. The boat can be going any direction you think it's going. I agree with you and Sammy that shorten the dark green line in the middle is a good idea so it won't lead viewer's eyes off the painting. Overall it's a very good art piece.

wetpaperfan wrote

on 24 Feb 2012 7:30 PM

Dave - I like your lake rendition especially the wind blown snow on the mountain.  burrrr....

Sandi-  I really like your path, very pretty colors and well placed changes.   I also like your Oregon Mountain scene.  I agree with the "camera blue" problem.  My home was in Northern California and I camped out a lot.  I can recall the lakes and the views.  Lakes have calm spots on them when you won't see any ripples,  they also have warm pockets of algea , hence the yellow/green spots.  Those spots will show reflection eg: clouds, trees if close or even the mountains if the sun is in the right place. 

Here is my rendition in color pencil on arches 300 HP, as I was going to do a watercolor of it but after sketching it I decided to do a cp.  7x10.  I cropped the picture down a bit and made the boat smaller,  got rid of some foilage and added some sun cast shadows.

Grizzlypainter wrote

on 24 Feb 2012 11:07 PM

Hello all

Marsha: Like the changes you made, especially opening up the base of the trees on the right.....gives it nice depth. The mountains are well defined. Good job.

I'm pretty much done on the mountain lake for now. I reduced the size of the green growth, and also reduced it's value to make sure it competes for attention less. I'm OK with the result, not thrilled, but OK. I apologize for the photo quality, I'm going to try and get a better set up for pictures.

Oil, 11x14 on stretched canvas

Thanks all for the suggestions. It's always fun see everyone's interpretation. Good job all.