Does it read well?

Does it read well? That is the question that you should be able to ask yourself when you look at a small thumbnail of your painting. Tonight I put this together after learning alot from a demo by Marco Bucci . I made a conscience effort to simplify things and also paint within a small canvas. I originally started within a 300 pixel canvas. 

Overall I was pretty pleased. Not anywhere where I want to be of course.

The Bay

 

20  minute sketch. Asked the wife for a theme:

Me: What theme should I do

Her: ...

Her: Bora Bora

Me: ...

Me: oh crap. 

She wanted bugalows over the water but I think I took it too far. Brushstrokes are a little closer to what I want but the colors are a little funky and to me this painting looks a little amaeturish. 

Bierstadt Study

I decided to do a study of Albert Bierstadt's "The Rocky Mountains, Lander's Peak".  I learned lot from it but was mostly frustrated (a fun and good frustration though) at my brushstrokes and how I can never seem to get that minimal brushstrokes look. I think the Wacom Graphire is holding me back and if I could afford to buy a Intuos 3 I would. 

Over all I think I learned more about lighting, different brush settings and atmospheric perspecive/color. 

"It's essential that they should take a pride in their job."

UPDATE: Songza song removed...sorry!

note: Song was the Main Theme for Bridge on the River Kwai






Work has been rough. Painting has been rough. Just need to keep things in perspective.

clouds

I really need a DS, a R4 Card and colors! . Tonight I saw clouds like this coming home and wanted to paint them immediately. 

So when I got home I started working on these clouds. I utilized a few different methods from a few tutorials and got some pleasing results. I don't think I'll really use this method for anything else but a painterly look and for concept work.  

I still haven't learned alot of the painting methods I've been trying to. I want to use minimal strokes in flat color and building small detail in a larger painting with random looking strokes. (ie: goodbrush.com  John Wallin Liberto )