Well, sort of a chilly and windy day today - I would say with the wind chill factor the temp is around 28 degrees. Hope to go for another walk today after my DW Melissa gets home from work around 3:30.
For some reason today I'm feeling a tad anal - so I've been slowly working on a still life and putting much more detail into it than is normal and holding back on the looseness in favor of a IMpressionistic style rather than my normal EXpressionistic style.
I think my anal feeling is because of the "hoopla" of the Holiday and during the Holiday season I sort of become quiet and some what reserved - don't know why but it always seems to happen.
This is 12 x 16 on Heavy Linen paper. This is a WIP - (work in process) which I may finish today - if not perhaps tomorrow.
A tad hard to see, but I start out with a rough sketch and start throwing color onto the surface to get my "road map" to see where this will end up taking me.
As a side note, when it comes to directions - I'm not too smart!!! I always get lost and when driving I'll ask my DW "right of left?" She of course knowing I'm directionally challenged - will say "which way do you think?" I of course will choose right or left or straight and 99.9% of the time I am wrong!!!!
Enough digression for the time being -
As I mentioned above, throwing paint onto the surface will get this piece started. Without any thought my hand reaches for blue paint and so the painting process begins:
Using a big brush and thick juicy paint I shape the larger vase and "cut in" around the 2nd vase and the 3 apples. Since the sketch is "rough" at this time I can fine tune the shapes of the objects d' art to a perhaps more correct shape and one that is visually more pleasing than my pencil strokes.
The smaller vase is I guess actually more of a jar as it has a top and is one that my DW's brother gave to her a long - long time ago and has appeared in many of my paintings. I like the shape of it - it has very smooth lines and the top piece has a nice "thingie" on top to lift off the lid.
Isn't it COOL how the 2nd object d" art all of a sudden appears with a few brush strokes of what I call "contour painting" which is really fun to do.
Speaking of "contour" - I shall digress again as it's my blog and I can do what ever I want!!!! When I decided I wanted to "LOP OFF" my 11 year old pony tail, my DW and I went out a bought a professional barber hair clipper. If you are going to do something - do it right!!!
In the process of practicing - I told my wife that she needed to do "contour cutting" - nice even motions of movement merely following the contour of my head. She practiced a bit and got the hang of "contour cutting."
I must say that she did a great job and has cut it once more since and did even a better job. We got the attachments so it allows for a nice even cut - we use the 1/4 inch cutter so all the hairs ( that I have left ) end up being uniform in length.
OK - enough for this digression.
Next I will start creating the apples which one might think are merely a round red circle - one who thought that would be WRONG!!!!! In order to get the shape of an apple, the directions of the brush strokes are very important in that they need to project the roundness of the sides of the apple on into the front of the apple. Also most apples are some what flattened out as the shape rounds on up into the stem area. The top of the apple is actually more flat than round.
Hmmmmmm another digression :>)
Now for some tweaking of the apples to give them a visual "apple correctness" as well as some tweaking of the blue vase and the "jar - with the thingie on top."
A closeup of the apples - trying to show the brush stroke direction as indicated in one of my digressions above.
OK - this is as far as I will go today and once finished, I shall post it.
Got some RV related "stuff" to do now - I've emailed and called a few RV parks regarding available dates in 2012 for stays of various lengths and of course have not received any responses to either the emails or the phone messages.
One would think with the state of the economy today ( in the crapper ) that a business would be biting at the bit to talk BUSINESS!!!!! I mean renting spaces to RV-ers is how they make their M-O-N-E-Y!!!!!!
Oh well my DW says I'm "inpatient" I guess I am - but I figure if I can take the time to call someone - THEY can take the time to return the call.
OK my blog buddies - hope you enjoyed this presentation and this WIP (work in process) shall be finished in the next day or two - until next time -
stay warm - stay cool and above all stay healthy and happy.
JR :>)
