30 Paintings in 30 days - Conclusion

This is my last piece of the challenge.  This was also a multi-day project to incorporate time for full drying in between layers.  Copic inks used this time around: Raspberry, Black, Blue Green, and Fluorescent Yellow Orange.

30 Paintings in 30 Days - Day 26&27

This is another experiment with ink and photo paper. The piece took me two days to complete because I needed the initial work to completely dry.  On the first day I laid down black, orange purple and pink.  On the second day, cadmium yellow. 

30 Paintings in 30 Days - day 25

This weekend was about experimenting with ink.  This painting was done with copic ink and glossy  photo paper.  The photo paper grabs on to the ink quicker and consequently there is not as much time to move the ink around before it sets.  This also affects the way the inks blend together.  Copic ink colors used in this piece:  100, RV55, BV08, YR04.

30 Paintings in 30 Days - Day 20

Today I went in and changed the colors and tone of the foreground.  I also think that I am done with this for now.

30 Paintings in 30 days - Day 19

Yesterday I was photographing lots of flowers in my garden - looking for good future art subjects!  Today I found myself back with the Arctic landscape.  I reworked the color and texture of the sky and the foreground.  I am getting closer.

30 Paintings in 30 Days - 17

Day 15 and 16 found me working on things but yielding nothing to post. However, one of our favorite citrus fruits came back to town this week -  a very special, large, juicy, and sweet tangerine named SUMO!  They have a very short season but which is why we go crazy when they arrive.  Of course, their image is copyrighted so I drew a version of it and then inked it in.  Copic colors used in the making of this SUMO:  100, YR14, YR15, YR19.

30 Paintings in 30 Days - Day 14

This is a pink stargazer lily.  I like this piece because of the complexity of the color - the darker green leaves under the lighter leaves and the tips of the lily and the leaves illuminated by the sun.  Copic ink colors used in the making of this lily:  YG61, YG63, R81, YG67, R85, R59, Y00, B00, 0, G28

30 Paintings in 30 Days - Day 13

Sakura! These are the wonderful cherry blossoms that captivate the citizens of Japan once a year. The petals are a delicate pink with white tips.  The blossoms pop off of the page thanks to the essence of blue sky that surrounds them.  Copic ink colors for this piece are: E33, E37, YG03, R21, 0, B91.

30 Paintings in 30 Days - Day 12

These flowers are also done with copic ink.  Can you guess how many different colors were used in the making of these flowers?

30 Paintings in 30 Days - Day 11

Gerbera's are one of my favorite flowers to paint.  This, however, is a Gerbera that is done in ink. Today I attended one of my favorite annual events, the Copic ink workshop series, and the focus of the workshop was flowers.  This piece was done on Copic sketch paper using the following ink colors: B00, B02, B04, B24, Y21 and Y38. 

30 Paintings in 30 Days - Day 9 & 10

I picked up some copper, silver and rich gold paint by Gamblin and I wanted to see how these metallics interacted with each other and with non metallic oil paint by the same manufacturer, in this case, cadmium orange.  These were done on stretched canvas.

30 Paintings in 30 Days - Day 7 and 8

As you can see, I had to experiment with the gold again.  This diptych experiments with ivory black and pale gold, palette knives and rubber.  I wiped off several versions of each of these until I got something that I liked.

30 Paintings in 30 Days - Day 6

I have had this gold paint for months and have been dying to try it out.  Today it became mountains, shimmering through the white snow.  This painting was done with a palette knife on a board which I gessoed myself.  After the gesso dried, I did not sand it smooth so as to add some extra texture to the piece.

30 Paintings in 30 Days - Day 5

Day 5 of the challenge had me back to the drawing board with this painting.  So, I have blocked out the large shapes again and now I will let it sit a few days and dry before I try a new idea.  Stay tuned!

30 Paintings in 30 Days - Day 4

Over the holidays, we took a field trip to the Hsi Lai Temple, a traditional Chinese Buddhist Monastery in Hacienda Heights, California.  The temple building is gold and red, and once you enter the grounds you are treated to several wonderful gardens in and around the courtyard. The colors I chose to represent Hsi Lai in this abstract piece are alizarin crimson, yellow ochre and sap green. 

30 Paintings in 30 Days - Day 2 and 3

The last couple of days I have been playing with the values on some of the shapes in the middle and scraping off a lot of paint in the process.  I am getting closer to what I want but I am not quite there yet.

30 Paintings in 30 Days - Day 1

We have moved studios and we are now up and running again just in time for artist Leslie Saeta's 30 Paintings in 30 Days January challenge!  I have been wanting to do this large Arcticscape for a while so at least for the beginning of the challenge, my daily postings will be showing the daily progress on this larger piece.  Today I laid in the major shapes with some preliminary color.

It is good to be back at the easel!