The Effort

 Well, I was out of town.  Therefore not in my studio and able to paint and publish.  Also yesterday was my spouse’s birthday... so I was celebrating. There are my reasons for not publishing in the past six days, but I have two paintings to offer.  Both of them deal with light and dark.  One is a city scape with buildings and therefore tables perspective.  One of my challenges.

 OK.  I’m on ‘vacation’.... actually exploring possible new places to live.  At any rate, I’m not at home.  I finished two watercolors in my portable folio.  Size is quite small 3x4 1/2 inches.  Both images are from my hotel room window in Albuquerque New Mexico.

 Today was easier than other days to get motivated.  Interesting how habits can be formed.  I do find myself thinking about color mixing more.  We are limited by commercially produced colors.  I think I will try limiting the group of colors I use.  Today I used Cadmium yellow, Cadmium Red alyzurim Red and Ulltramarine Blue and White Tomorrow I am leaving for a trip to New Mexico.  I will try and paint some watercolors.  

 I am feeling more confident and looked forward to today’s painting.  Also, I find that I am thinking more about painting during my day since I started this daily painting commitment.  Today, I did not do an under painting first.  This time I was more pleased with the color out come.  This painting is done in acrylic, and is about 5x7 inches. Next week, I will be out of town and therefore hard to do daily painting. I will do my best to continue with drawing at least. I also worked on the previous landscape that I was unhappy with the perspective.  I worked on the far left building.  

 Ok.  I decided to work on a previous painting. Specifically working on the perspective of the buildings.   I really struggle with understanding the perspective in this photo where the line of sight is looking down on the buildings.  Especially the building on the far left bothers me, but I cannot figure out how to fix it. Today I also worked on a still life. I first covered the canvas in sienna color under it all, which I think made the colors look muddy, which I do not like. I’ve used this under painting before, and it helped make colors pop.  I did the same under painting in the same color in the landscape painting above.

  Today I tried to continue to work on values and tried to do some under painting.  I struggled with color selection.  I worked in acrylics.  Also, I was talking via FaceTime with my niece who is 6 years old.  I did not have the heart to tell her I needed to fully concentrate.  She is shut in due to Covid, and she has a lung problem, so her mother keeps her inside.  So she calls me daily.   I have included my reference with this posting.