Mixed Media - A Whiter Shade of Black

I had this one in The Martini Girls' ArtBar Show; theme: a whiter shade of black
I had fun painting it. It's a multi-layered, mixed media painting.

Had to shoot at angle to override glossy finish.
Used photoshop elements to fix camera distortion but not able to fix all of it in the time I had

http://digital-photography-school.com/correcting-perspective-in-photoshop-and-photoshop-elements/
http://www.digitalcameraworld.com/2012/03/08/barrel-distortion-correct-leaning-buildings-in-photoshop-elements/
http://www.joeldamesphotography.com/photoshop_elements/perspective_crop/perspective.html
http://www.photoshopessentials.com/photo-editing/keystoning/

oconto river near copper culture trail

Painted Oconto River while waiting for jer to ride past on his bike. Lot of traffic on McDonald street near Copper Culture Trail.

I faced the wind and it was very windy but not windy enough to blow over the guerilla box or close it's lid. Used damp palette to combat wind's drying effect on paints. I think the cerulean blue made a nicer green with the cad yellow medium.

 Some rough pen sketches

A more detailed pen sketch.

8x6 acrylic, Forest Junction, 8/2/15

Decided to paint this. I liked the layering of dead end sign, house, evergreen tree, and the windy road.

I'm using http://picresize.com/ to crop and resize pictures on a very lousy, old, under-powered computer

I drew in watered down burnt sienna. Then mixed 2 greens using cad yel med with ultramarine blue (darker green) and cerulean blue (more olive green). With white I used 5 colors. I picked this particular yellow cause it matched the sign.

I do a lot of layering of thin layers and draw with the end of the brush. I think it's because I learned pastels first. I may go back later with an art marker to label the sign.






The nature center is having Prairie Art next weekend just down highway 10 in Brillion.
http://www.brillionnaturecenter.net/your-visit-programs/special-events/art-in-the-prairie

pen sketches; Forest Junction Wisconsin, 8/2/15

Did some pen cartoons in my 3.5x5.5 notebook to see what I felt like painting. Very windy. I was where the friendship bike trail met up with the Fox River Trail to Green Leaf-Green Bay.

 For some reason, these pictures refuse to go on the blog right side up. I've tried multiple times and now I've run out of time and can't work on this post anymore.

7/29/15 zentangles on cardboard

Went over to Martini Girls Gallery for journal night.
https://www.facebook.com/pages/The-Martini-Girls-Gallery-Studio-LLC/143690212401991

Used my stabilo fat woody pencils. They blend well and are water soluble.

 Used art markers.

 Glued some shavings from the stabilo woodies with faux glaze.

7/28/15 acrylic of brick house, hangers for panels

Long day, so just went painting by my friends house Tuesday evening. She has a very beautiful garden.

Wales Village Hall, in process oil pastel, 6x8, 7/17/15

John, Vivian, and I went to Wales, Wisconsin to plein air paint. Very scenic and the women in the village hall were very nice. They took our picture but I don't see it up on their website or facebook page.

The weather started out cloudy but then the clouds started to break up and the sun started showing up at times. So decided to put in the shadows. We had a nice breeze so it was pretty comfortable. However by the time we left the sun was out and it started getting hot. It reached over 90F and was very humid.

I stood up and when I sat down, all of sudden I saw the left edge of the window on the other side of the pillar so I put it in. I liked the reflections of a house in the window echoing the pointy top of the post. However you can't see the reflections in the photo.

We spent a lot of time talking before starting to work so didn't get as far as I would have like to.

 John is using a flow additive from Home Depot for Latex paint. He wants the acrylic paint to not drag so much. I found a similar additive at Menards but didn't buy it. I forgot the names.

Learned how to fix keystoning in photoshop elements. Quite a process, but it works good enough. See http://digital-photography-school.com/how-to-fix-keystone-issues-in-photoshop-elements/

Zentangle at Martini Girls 7/15/15

Went to journaling night with my friends at Martini Girls studio.

Substrate: Gessoed Cardboard, 6x8 and 8x8
Media: Pigma brush markers

Put Behr Faux glaze over this first one. Made some interesting wrinkly texture.  Also put the Faux glaze over one of the oil pastel zentangles from a previous week. Doesn't seem to be causing any problems so far.

6x8 oil stick in progress (Butch the Barber in the Caboose)

 I used the blender stick to cover the canvas panel before starting. It gave a yellow cast and took several days to dry. Then sketched the overall shapes in colored pencil before starting to paint.

Blocked in the basic shapes with underneath colors. Yellow ochre for the box car and green for the darks plus a moss green for grayish areas. The light blue I have is not a clean blue.

Let it dry overnight. Did not dry in 1 hour. Might be due to the 80F+ weather and high humidity.

Started adding basic colors and refining shapes. I'm keeping the oil sticks in a plastic box so they don't skin over so fast. Had to peel off quite a thick skin using a plastic knife. Fingernails work OK but then you have paint under your finger nails. Using rolled up bits of paper towel to blend.

 Here's the picture of Butch that I took. I see some things I need to change.

Hart Park 6x8 Oil Pastel on canvas panel finished

Barbershop Caboose, 8x6 oil pastel with colored pencil 7-9-15

A group of us decided to head over to Carroll University and meet in the union's parking lot at East Ave and Wright. Due to summer school the lot was full so we drove down the hill on East Avenue to the parking lot near the used bookstore. Not very interesting scenery there so we headed over to Estacion Restaurant area.

We met Butch, an 88 year old Barber who still cuts hair Tuesday - Saturday mornings. He works in a caboose. So I decided to paint his caboose as a memory of meeting him. While we were sitting in front of the 400 club where Les Paul played guitar a semi truck made a delivery at the club. Talked to the driver a little after he went across the street to talk with Butch and get his hair cut. Butch cut his hair pretty fast.

John made a panel holder for his left handed guerilla box that he uses when painting acrylics.









Here's my painting steps and the colors used.

I thought these arches were very interesting.

Hart Park 6x8 oil pastel - work in progress 7/7/15

Met up with Marcia and painted 70th st bridge. Visited with Mark and Cindy. They plan to paint Wednesday morning and were just scoping up places to paint. Later on walked over and visited with Al, Roger, Juanita, and Tim.





 Here's the colors I used. Struggled quite a bit with this painting



Painted on 6x8 canvas panel prepared with 3 coats of thinned gesso.

Here's after I went home, melted the oil pastel under a lamp and blended. Probably will work on this some more.

Decided to scrape it off.

Carl Judson Talk at Richeson, Kimberly WI 7/6/15

Went to Richeson with 2 friends to listen to Carl's "Paint outside the Box" talk yesterday. Very enjoyable. He gave us a list of painters who plein air painted and talked about them. I'd like to learn more about these painters.

He gave us his 4th book and I bought his 3rd book. I already had books 1 and 2.



He said that he uses plein air painting as a way to explore and understand the world around him. A personal approach to painting for private enrichment. I like that.

He showed us some paintings he did in acrylics on panels while riding as a passenger. He's incorporating maps.

Also bought 3 shiva oil sticks, yellow, red, & blue. I was going to use them tonight when I plein air paint at Hart Park but the feel is more like oil pastels so at a minimum I will need to add a white, black, possibly gray and maybe a colorless blender

http://www.richesonart.com/galleryandschool/aboutgallery.html

http://www.guerrillapainter.com/wherescarlnow.html

http://www.dickblick.com/products/richeson-shiva-paintstik-oils/

http://www.jerrysartarama.com/discount-art-supplies/oil-color-paints-and-mediums/shiva-oil-paints-casein-colors-and-mediums/shiva-artists-paintstik-sets.htm

http://www.richesonart.com/products/paints/shivapntstks/pntstkmain.html

http://www.hofcraft.com/shiva-oil-stick-paintstik-sets.html

http://www.madisonartshop.com/pastbr.html

 Here's a pen doodle/ contour sketch of Carl from my notebook.

8x6 oil pastel, Miniwaukan Park

I was feeling a little stressed out this week so thought about not going but then my friends were coming and we were going to nice, quiet, Miniwaukan Park. So I went and I was glad I did. Actually felt sad to leave.

Nice weather; sunny, cool 60-66F, with a slight breeze.

Felt like doing oil pastels. Experimented with 6x8 canvas panel that I painted multiple layers with thinned acrylic gesso. That substrate worked very well.

Here's the finished painting. Now I plan to let it cure for at least one month.

I coated the panel with a clear and rubbed in it. Then when lightly over it with spring green and a light pinkish color to block in the basic shapes. Then rubbed these colors into the panel to get the big shapes.

 Put in some darker colors here. Moved the bottom of the right tree down a little. Made the big tree a little narrower.

Rubbed in the colors with fingers and/or paper towel. Tried a different shape for the path by wiping off some color. Got rid of the stump between the 2 trees. Removed the branches on the far left tree.

Went back to original path shape. Started putting in leaves for hickory trees. Also scratched trunks, etc. for texture. John gave me a good suggestion to darken the brush at the edge of the grass.

I set my drawing board on my lap and placed the panel on it. I only used about 10 colors of the softer, more pigment containing pastels, not counting the original clear blender that I put down originally.