Day three hundred and sixty-five: Whoops! New Year’s Eve dinner with friends went later than expected, so I only had 45 minutes to make this sketch and post it before midnight. It’s based on a photograph I took in Costa Rica of a white heron (I don’t remember the exact species) that was walking along […]
Tagged bird, oil, pastelDay three hundred and sixty-four: I have to admit that this evening I just wasn’t feeling it. I flipped through photos, but wasn’t inspired or motivated by any of the subjects. It didn’t help that I got a late start either. Several dreary pencil doodles later, I flipped to color, and made this simple abstraction […]
Day three hundred and sixty-three: Although it doesn’t look much like him at all, this sketch is based on a photo of my Grandfather when he was in the Coast Guard around the time of WW2. My brother sent me some old family earlier this week, which reminded me of some others I had scanned […]
Tagged face, figure study, oil, pastelDay three hundred and sixty-two: Years ago, while riding in the passenger seat during a rainstorm, I snapped a photo out of the front window. I think we were on our way home from a rowing regatta in Omaha or Topeka. Tonight’s sketch is based on a detail from that old photograph, and I let […]
Tagged oil, pastelDay three hundred and sixty-one: Life is not nearly as simple as this little sketch of a man in a doorway. Nor is it all black and white. It’s funny how adding just a little yellow to the floor makes such a difference! What I’m still not sure about myself, is whether he is coming […]
Tagged figure study, oil, pastelDay three hundred and sixty: I invented this cityscape so I could paint a waxing moon and a lone star like those I observed out of my apartment window around 6:00 PM this evening. When I noticed the moon hanging low in the sky, I realized that the one I painted on Christmas Eve was […]
Tagged cityscape, moon, nocturne, oil, pastelDay three hundred and fifty-nine: This is a very quick sketch of a snapshot I took during a walk after Christmas dinner. I know it’s a pretty sloppy study, and the original is much more complex, with additional trees and shadows. However, I wanted most to try and capture the bright bronze colors created […]
Tagged landscape, oil, pastelDay three hundred and fifty-seven: There were several little prints by William Blake (English, 1757-1827) in the study room today. One nocturnal landscape caught my eye in particular, both for the gnarly tree and the crescent moon wrapped around a black circle. When I began to imitate the print, I started sketching with black, but quickly […]
Tagged blake, landscape, nocturne, oil, pastelDay three hundred and fifty-six: In the mood for a quick landscape, and thinking it would be nice to do something Italian, I found a snapshot I took from a bus from Sorrento to Amalfi in June, 2010. This simple study is an attempt to organize shapes and colors to create the effect of a […]
Tagged landscape, oil, pastel