Works!

3 Hour study - Haskins Ohio

Finally some diffused light! This one was fun to paint. I believe that my edges need work and that the values are a bit strange in places but over all I think this maybe one of the most successful plein-airs that I've worked on thus far. I would love to hear comments and critiques. I do think that once I get the hang of direct painting on site I can focus on composition and creating a work as opposed to a study. I feel like the work isn't as "poetic" or me yet... which I have plans to take it in a direction that is more well suited to my personality, but I simply have to learn how to paint first. 

3 Hour Study - Maumee River - Sidecut Metropark

Edges and values are my biggest weakness, which I suppose are major things. I just have to get used to light changing and being able to adapt appropriately to the different environment. When I first arrived the scene was in a rainstorm, and began to clear up near the end of the painting. I guess the more I paint  the better I will be able to improvise and work with what's in front of me. I also did this one with out my glasses to simplify the trees in the distance, which helped initially, but I think I should have put them back on in order to make final corrections.

Turkeys! 

2 Hour Study - Carter Park

This one is all around just bad. 

Edges... need work once again. I stopped a little more prematurely than planned primarily because the mosquitos were simply eating me alive. 

My first painting with this new set up. It will take a little bit of getting used to simply because the palette is so much smaller than what I was using with my French easel. This painting is just meh... Some parts half way decent others lack commitment. 

A quick snapshot of a cropped but otherwise unedited image from a photo shoot earlier in the week. Photograph by Bianca Garza. Hopefully I will collect the remaining parts for the album by the end of the week and the mixing will truly commence. 

Stuff!

3 Hour Study,

My biggest complaint about this painting is that some of the colors a muddy and that the edges NEED so much work. I feel like when I'm out working on a painting the piece seems a lot better than the reality. The background tree edges are way too brushy with tiny brushes. This will have to be something that I simplify in the future. I also feel that my values are little strange because my focus is in the middle ground, I made that element fairly high in contrast in value, while my foreground elements have no room to come forward since I already used some of my darkest values in the mid - back ground. I wonder if this issue could have been resolved with color temperature as opposed to values. 

3 Hour Study,

I believe this painting is heading on the right track... Tweaks could definitely be done. The hardest aspect about this painting was that the light changed a lot in relation to the focal point on the rock. As you can see in the scene the rock is no longer illuminated as it was when I first arrived at the location. I also think that some of my colors were on the verge of becoming muddy.

I also need to simplify my shapes at the initial start of the painting. I may need to paint on a smaller panel, or just get bigger brushes.

1 Hour Study

Cop Tower,

I simply wanted to try to paint the tower at the end of the day starting from 8pm. Once the light had faded so drastically, I simply stopped and left it as it was. I do believe it's a nice start to a painting. 

I also began to work on another project with a friend, a video game for mobile devices! I did a lot of preliminary design for an awesome idea. I may show a sneak peek in the future. 

And last but certainly not least, here is a nearly completed mix of a song from the long awaited album (mainly long awaited on my behalf) from Phantasmagoria. This project has unfortunately / fortunately consumed most of my summer, but the majority of the leg work has been completed. More in updates, and primarily paintings to come. I've engineered the album and done all of the moxing thus far, it's super time consuming.

Siberian Frostbite WIP

UP

3 Hour Study...

This painting was the first one I did while on vacation and I think it is definitely a step in the right direction. I did some reading and some drawing at the beginning of the trip that put some things into perspective. 

I could definitely improve upon this painting and will in the future. One of the few paintings completed on the trip with diffused light from time to time. 

The book I looked over again is Richard Schmid's Alla Prima. It's a phenomenal book and put somethings into perspective again which is always helpful. 

Roughly a 3 hour study

Not the greatest painting, but I enjoyed working on it. I think I've realized that when I do a landscape I never commit to a focal point therefore I want everything in the painting to "shine", thus I make poor value and color relationships which deprive the whole picture. This is my biggest issue that I learned from the trip, I tend to focus to quickly on the details / color of individual elements. 

A 2 hour study

I think this is the most successful painting I did over the entire trip. I think my excitement for the subject  matter paired with a healthy douse of painting all day prepared me for this one. Although it's not a masterpiece I do think it is an improvement. My edges in the water could use a bit of work however. I forgot the reflection for a long while and had to add it in there... therefore muddying the colors a bit. 

A 2 hour study

This beach is confusing and undefined in the space. The plane for the sand does not recede on the left as it should which is more than likely an issue with edges and potentially temperature. 

A 2.5 hour study

Probably my least favorite study. What caught me about this subject was the light, and unfortunately I did not capture it. I attempted to paint the form of the chair instead of the light. This is another issue of mine that I learned. I still am working on this and will for a long time. I think separating a scene into distinct values in drawing will help with this problem. 

As a note changing light is hard... 

A 2.5 hour study or so...

Point on the lake in morning light... I tried to do this painting on an unprimed pine panel. The texture was interesting to work with but slowed me down a bit. I think this painting has a nice atmosphere to it, it simply isn't finished due to the light changing so much, however I did try and work from memory a little bit in order to fill in the gaps. Memory is something that I will have to work with from time to time when the moment is so fleeting.   

Two 4 hour sessions

I should have left this painting alone after the first session. I needed to simplify quicker in this painting because the light on the cottage changed so drastically. Also I think painting in mid day with no cloud cover is just not as appealing, however I do realize that as an artist I should make the moment have appeal. 

3 hour 

Outhouse at a beach. I like this painting because I feel like the majority of it came along efficiently. My main issue with this painting is that there was no place for me to paint in the shade, therefore my colors / values were distorted by the direct sunlight. I think that with experience these sort of situations can be compensated for. 

Some Thumbnails

Plein Air Studies

Allegheny River, Oil City PA

3 Hour

Too cyan. I need to work on edge control, as well as simplifying the painting. 

Good Ole Bowling Green Ohio. A large tree in the along the slippery elm bike trail. I was using a slightly simpler palette which seems to work well for this sort of scenario. I still have difficulty with values. I believe my indecisiveness is the reason my colors tend to get muddier. 

A tree in Winter Garden Park in Bowling Green OH. The eye can be deceptive... the space behind the tree was hard to place in the background since it was more saturated and lighter in value than the foreground. I need to work on edges to inform these situations. 

A several hour study at Side Cut metro park in Maumee OH. I was unable to finish the painting due to an approaching storm. I feel that this painting is a little more confident but the values are still not there. I  need to not be afraid of using temperature to allude to a hue in the darker value ranges. 

A quick study on the porch of my apartment in BG. I wanted to start really loose and see what would happen. Did not finish due to fading light. 

A progress shot of a painting in Winter Garden Park of some trees in a meadow. I used a much simpler palette this time consisting of Titanium White, Yellow Ocher, Winsor Yellow, Ultramarine Blue, Pyrolle Red, Burnt Umber, and a little Burnt Sienna. 

I still want to simplify the palette even more, so that I am mainly working with temperature and value. 

The end of the study became muddier and rather awful. 

Fortunately I will have a week of vacation to focus on painting in the UP. 

My painting studies have taken a little more of a hiatus than I would have anticipated because I picked up a job and a half for the summer. I am currently a studio assistant for Erwin Redl. Check out some of his work at www.paramedia.net

In addition I will post some work from the progress of the album in the near future. 

Thanks! Comments and critiques are always appreciated.