Toshi's Art Blog

Fixed the composition and filled the canvas

2012-01-23T22:42:00.000-08:00

As shown in the photo, I decided the rough composition especially the foreground and filled most of canvas with some colors. Background hills are still too dark and the front bush needs more sharper edges. But I can see this could be a successful painting if I'm patient enough and solve each problem one by one.

Getting into too much details

2012-01-21T23:15:00.000-08:00

The left horse is getting into shape. But I'm worrying about too much detail of the skin color patterns and forgetting about the overall value changes. Especially its face. I'll leave it as is for now and work on the right horse next. When I come back, I'll squint more to finish it. It's almost done after all.

Still can't determin the composition

2012-01-20T23:45:00.000-08:00

Based on the suggestions in the last workshop, I started putting more colors and values into this painting. How much river and what kind of foreground shapes I would put in are not decided yet. I wanted establish more context before making those decisions.

More detail on Right Horse

2012-01-15T22:32:00.000-08:00

After filling up the entire background, now I'm working on the right horse again. This time, I can start finalizing the final colors since I can see the the context of this painting. But I want to adjust the face of the horse to be more attractive.

Jim Lamb's color mixing workshop

2012-01-14T21:29:00.000-08:00

Today I went to Jim Lamb's home studio in Sammamish, WA to attend one-day semi-private workshop. It's about mixing colors. Not to make any actual paintings. However, I brought in a replica of my "Yakima River Valley" painting (see the photo, 12"x9"). I painted this quickly through two nights in this week to represent what I'm struggling with the studio painting.
It's actually representing it pretty well much more than I expected. In the critique session at the end of workshop, I got quite good suggestions and opinions to this painting from Jim and other three students, like...

values and color transitions on background hills.
sharp&soft edges of hills in background and middle ground
shapes of foreground brush from compositional points.
pros and cons of the hint of the river

I'm going to make some adjustment based on above to complete this piece. It was really beneficial in addition to the color studies.

Realization of horses - 1st round

2012-01-08T21:21:00.000-08:00

The first round for the horses is done. I'll wait the paints to dry up a little before touching them again. I need to decide the value for the background in relation to the horse colors. I'll probably make them darker than real values to put focus on the horses. I could use cadmium colors on the horses to make them shining. But that's not the way I regularly do. Fist I need to hide more underpainting orange.

Getting gray

2012-01-06T21:33:00.000-08:00

After pushing shadow value further, I started filling up canvas. It's getting gray entirely than I intended. But at this stage, it would be fine since I would paint it over and over.
I might try taking Jim Lamb's one day color making workshop next Saturday to get more confidence making colors. If a spot is still available though.

Attaching an accessary

2012-01-05T22:22:00.000-08:00

I wanted to add an accessory to the palette box; a wet brush&knife holder, which did tonight. I'll leave this box until those pieces of hardware I ordered arrive.

Oiling palette surface

2012-01-03T23:14:00.000-08:00

Today I finally found a strap handle on-line, which would fit this box perfectly. It took me a quite while including a visit to a local luggage repair shop in Georgetown. The main problem was size of the handle. Most of them are 10" or longer.
Anyway, while waiting for those pieces of hardware I ordered, I've been oiling the surface of the palette. The first coat I put yesterday was quickly soaked up by the board. So I put the second coat tonight. I used old linseed oil I bought probably about 5-6 years ago, which I no longer use since I've changed my way of handling paints to put on the canvas.

Ghostly horse is coming to life

2012-01-02T23:03:00.000-08:00

As I wrote on 12/30/11, once I put highlighted colors, the right horse has been getting life in it. I need to do the same on the left horse next.

New Year, New Landscape

2012-01-01T21:29:00.000-08:00

The first update in 2012 is a new landscape. But the scenery is the same valley along SR-10 near Cle Elum (See my blog on Nov. 8, 2011). I painted there two months ago.
Canvas size is 22"x18", same as "Sauvie Sky". I might continue painting landscapes in vertical format a while. I like this format because I can put close foreground as well as far background and sky. I painted like a child at this first stage.

Palette Box is mostly done

2011-12-31T20:44:00.000-08:00

In the evening of new year eve, I finished most of mechanical part of the palette box. It's obviously not perfect, some gaps are here and there between moving parts. But I think it would just function as I need it to do. For the rest, I would stain the surfaces and put a pair of case catches, which I ordered online last night, to securely close the lids and put a strap handle for me to be able to carry it easily.

A happy new year!

Ghostly horses are taking shape

2011-12-30T22:43:00.000-08:00

Although I'm quite busy making the new field easel, I'm not forgetting painting. As usual, I'm making shapes of two horses with very thin layers of paint on canvas. They might give you ghostly feeling. But once I put some more paints in high-lighted areas, this painting would provide more completed feelings. That's the benefit of filling out entire canvas at early stages as Jim Lamb would tell his students. The difference would be my painting at this early stage is very thinly painted. I don't know why I do painting in this way but it's from the beginning of my career.

Folding Lids

2011-12-26T15:35:00.000-08:00

I started working on the top lids. The photo is a half of it. They're going to be attached to the side walls of the bottom box with piano hinges.

Piano Hinge attaches Front Wall

2011-12-25T11:03:00.000-08:00

It's not perfect but the front bottom wall is now reasonable aligned with the piano hinge. I needed to chisel the box side to make 1/8" of indentation. Now the bottom box is done. I'll move on to the folding top lids that would swing-open to both sides.

Interesting color of the surface

2011-12-24T12:19:00.000-08:00

While waiting for glue to dry, I realized the tripod was not fully expanded or opened for last a month or so when I worked hard to adjust the curvature of the supports. When it dried up, I went back and started curving the shape again with a file this Christmas Eve morning. Now I think it's reasonable steady again as you can see in the photo. Not much gap between the legs and the woods.
Then I suddenly realized the color of the palette surface/plywood skin is very close to my hand skin tone. I know it's just a coincident. But amazing to me.

3 sides of bottom box are in place

2011-12-23T20:13:00.000-08:00

All side walls of the bottom box, except for the front wall, which would be unfoldable, are glued on the bottom plate (palette surface). I would nail them later to secure them.
Now I need to decide how to attach the front wall with piano hinge next.

Additional Support is done

2011-12-17T21:41:00.000-08:00

It didn't take long for me to finish the right side of the additional layer of support, since I've learned how to make it with the left side. Now the bottom plate/palette surface is much stabler compared to the situation without the layer.
Now I need to build the box above it.

Additional Support

2011-12-16T22:18:00.000-08:00

One side of additional layer of support is done. Then I'm gluing on to the bottom layer. I need to do exactly the same on the right side next. It's taking time but this is the most important part of this new easel. I just can't rush it. Or it would end up with big disappointment. Need to be very patient.

Carefully making curvature this time

2011-12-14T21:54:00.000-08:00

This time for an additional layer of the supporting mechanism, I made a make-shift vice and secured the piece of wood firmly before start curving it. I'm careful not to get too greedy but gradually making the curve deeper, and often trying with the tripod before curving further. I hope it would pay off at the end.

Foreground is almost done!

2011-12-12T23:01:00.000-08:00

Wow! This is a good example how quickly I can make progress if I'm really into it. Look at the difference from yesterday's photo! I spent only two hours today to make the difference. The ground colors need some adjustment or a little more layers. But basically it's done.

Next I need to improve the group of trees in the center.

New Hourse Painting

2011-12-11T22:55:00.000-08:00

Also I just started a new horse piece. Size is 14"x22". The same horses at the ranch near Cle Elum. I thought I could make them standing closer than the photo I took. But when I tried it in Photoshop, it didn't look good or natural. I guess the distance between them is telling something. So the title of this would be "Side by Side".

Sky and Clouds are coming to life

2011-12-11T17:08:00.000-08:00

Worked on sky and clouds today. The color transition of sky is about to be done. Cloud shapes and values are getting closer to the end. I might want to put some warmness and coolness to those colors. It would be experimental.
Now I need to get back to the ground.

Parklange Gallery

2011-12-06T21:33:00.000-08:00

I recently joined a new gallery in Kirkland, WA. It's a artists-owned co-op gallery. So I can be a member for longer regardless sales I can or can't make. I'm hoping I can sell a few per year constantly.
At the gallery, I'm obligated to share shifts for gallery keeping job twice a month and 4h each. Last Sunday was my first and learned a lot for retail business, including credit card handling.

Show at Starbucks

2011-12-01T22:44:00.000-08:00

Today I took out my pieces from Georgetown Sturbacks. I'd been showing these for last two weeks or so as a pinch hitter due to no-show of this month's artist.

Finishing up Summer Shade

2011-11-27T20:02:00.000-08:00

Even though I still don't like the colors of leaves, I would be working on the lighted part and shadow part on the ground then putting finial touches on the leaves again to finish this piece.

I'm a little dissatisfied with the outcome. But I know well that my skill is not that good to come up with an attractive painting with this subject matter and composition. I need to move on to the next challenge. I might come back to similar subjects in the future though.

Sky and Clouds: wet-in-wet

2011-11-26T23:11:00.000-08:00

The second update of the day is about wet-in-wet. I started shaping clouds in the sky by curving in with sky colors. Sky always changes colors from top toward the horizon. I might leave thin clouds for later to glaze after sky colors dried up a little bit.

Palette Base

2011-11-26T10:40:00.000-08:00

This is the base of the palette box. As half-expected, it's not steadily attached to the tripod, which I need to improve by adding more support against the rounded legs.

At this point, then, I realized the position of canvas is too high. I can always lower the tripod, but it would make the palette surface too low. This was a little bit design mistake. I'm now making the side bar on the canvas holder, where the binocular holder bites on, higher to lower the holder. Making the palette surface higher is too much backward work at this stage.

Wondering how to stabilize

2011-11-24T15:00:00.000-08:00

This is the basic mechanism how to hold the palette box attached to the tripod. As in the above photo, it's already firm against pushing down force at the front. However, it's still weak against down force on the side (photo below). At this moment I'm thinking two things:
1) raise the precision of the curvature.
2) add another layer above the current plate to have more than two points of contacts against the tripod.

Started assembling the palette box

2011-11-20T20:05:00.000-08:00

Although I haven't come up with the final idea how to attach the box to the tripod, I started making the box. The panel in the photo is the bottom side of the bottom plate. The opposite side will be the palette surface.

Piano Hinge arrived

2011-11-17T20:32:00.000-08:00

A piano hinge I ordered on-line arrived today. It's about 31" but I'll cut it into multiple to use them for the new palette box.

Leaves are making shapes

2011-11-13T22:05:00.000-08:00

It's hard to see the difference from the photo in the blog on 11/4. But those leaves are in much better shape now including cast-shadow part. I still need to sharpen edges on the right side. But now I can apply thicker layers with closer colors to the final layers.

Since I applied and accepted by Parklane Gallery in Kirkland, I need to produce more paintings monthly basis. So I spent good time this weekend and worked on this in wet-in-wet manner, which I think the key to finish quicker. The outcome would be quite different compaired to my normal way, glazing or scambling over dried layers, though. I even touched Sauvie Sky as well.

Defining Foreground Greens

2011-11-09T22:31:00.000-08:00

I haven't touched this piece a while. Tonight I tried defining the foreground greens value- and color-wise. They're a little too dark if you consider lots of summer lights in late morning. I'll reduce values when I add more layers on to them.

Plein Air along SR-10

2011-11-08T23:21:00.000-08:00

Saturday night I stayed at Timber Lodge Inn in Cle Elum and drove out Sunday morning for painting along SR-10. I drove back and forth on the hwy then ended up setting up my easel where I can look down the steep slope to the bottom at the river level. I particularly impressed by the vertical line the edge of the trees created. Although I'm not satisfied with the color of the light yellow ground, I liked the way I finished those trees. The purplish brush was added at the last minutes. It could make it a little less purple.

Still working on edges of leaves

2011-11-04T23:21:00.000-07:00

Although I don't like doing this, I had to make those edges of leaves sharper. One reason is I couldn't decide or make desirable color combinations for leaves. If I found the perfect formula for the colors, this painting would be attractive enough without sharp edges, which I can't find.

The background shade doesn't need sharp edges obviously. Then I should be able to enjoy putting subtle difference in values.

Canvas Holder is done

2011-10-31T20:48:00.000-07:00

The canvas holder part is done. It's relatively light weight at the same time it's solid. I'll put two screws through the top piece and the bottom bar to bite on a stretched canvas.

Next, I'm going to design the folding palette box. The mechanism to attach to the tripod would be a copy (probably patented) from a field easel I saw at an art shop in Portland, OR. I might need to give another visit to Portland to see it again since I don't seem to be able to find the same kind in major art shops in Seattle.

Canvas Holder is getting in shape

2011-10-30T19:41:00.000-07:00

Assembling those vertical and horizontal pieces together into a canvas holder frame. After the glue dried up I'll put some screws in place to make it stronger. Only one more piece to attach is another horizontal bar for the binocular clamp to bite on. It needs to be much thicker than the other part.

Contour Drawing...

2011-10-22T22:42:00.000-07:00

I knew I had to do this some point. I guess that's why I didn't touch this piece quite a while. It's not so fun but I needed to define contour of leaves. Otherwise the focal points would never be defined. That's why I don't like painting flowers.
After I finish this part, I can putting more colors on this painting, which is much enjoyable.

Sliding Mechanism has been built

2011-10-22T21:16:00.000-07:00

As in the photos, this part is done even though I'm already seeing some weakness of this mechanism. Probably the sliding bar would be worn out first due to the pressure from the screw. But that's all right for now.
I'll move on to the next step: build a frame around this bar.

Cutting Metal Strip for the back suport of the sliding piece

2011-10-21T23:39:00.000-07:00

The insert nut has been successfully hammered into the hole of a new pieces of wood without splitting this time. This time I cut the piece of poplar wood to keep the wood grain along with the longer side of the rectangular. Also the size of the hole is 3/8". Then glued much smaller piece of wood to wrap around the sliding bar. But I thought thin wood pieces would be too week to support backside against tension when I tighten the thumb screw again the sliding bar. So I decided to cut a metal strip to be screwed on the back of the sliding piece of wood. My Dremel tool comes very handy for this type of task.

Sky and Clouds over Sauvie Island

2011-10-17T23:01:00.000-07:00

It's been quite long time since last time I painted sky and clouds as the main subjects. I think the last one was "Clouds over Vashon Ferry" in 2004, which is decorating my kitchen wall. It was huge, about 4'x9'. This one is mid size, 22"x18". I was inspired by the shapes of clouds when I was checking the reference photos I took there this summer. Then immediately picked this to paint. The direction of clouds match the direction of green stripes on the farm ground. Stonehenge like isolated mass of trees in the center divides sky and ground.

I knew this would happen....

2011-10-16T20:51:00.000-07:00

When I went to Cole Gallary in Edmonds, WA, in Saturday afternoon, I realized how nice the weather was this weekend and we could expect another good day tomorrow. Means I should go out to paint!
So, I suddenly made up my mind and booked a cheep motel in Cle Elum, WA, and rode on my motorcycle Saturday night.
Sunday morning was a little chilly in upper thirties. But about the time I turned onto Teanaway Drive from US-970, the morning fog started burned off and blue sky started showing.

I set up my easel near by Teanaway River, where is very common artist spot. At least Ned Mueller painted there this summer and sent me the outcome. My advantage was very colorful trees in fall. I spend about 2 hours until 11AM to come up with the result in the photo. Although it doesn't show well about the difference between sun-lit part and shadowed part due to lack of experience, the colorful trees helped this painting obviously.

After I came home I tried to make some progress on the new field easel. But when I followed the instruction of the insert nuts then hammered a nut into 11/32" hole of the piece of wood it cracked as you can see below. I knew it might happen but I did it anyway. I guess I need to try a size bigger hole, which is 3/8", next time.

Drawing the sliding mechanism

2011-10-09T16:42:00.000-07:00

This part is the key mechanism for the canvas holder part of the new field easel. So I drew a diagram how to build it. If I cut popular lumber exactly I drew, it would probably work. But thin slicing or dadoing lumber with a table saw always comes with risk for chipping.

Found a Key Component for New Field Easel

2011-09-29T20:50:00.000-07:00

I'd been looking for these quite a while. The main problem was I didn't know the name of the pieces of hardware I was looking for. It's really hard to find something that you don't know the name on the internet.

I went back to one of information seeking principal I've learned at the graduate school; (Ahem!) find a person who knows what you're looking for. I simply went to a near-by home depot and asked an associate with a sample from my studio easel. In less than a couple of minutes, the associate showed me where they are.

They're called as thumb screws and insert nuts. With these pieces of hardware, the sliding piece of wood can press down a stretched canvas and hold it tightly.
My next step is to design&draw the canvas holder including the sliding mechanism.

I guess I know what I need to do to finish this...

2011-09-26T21:03:00.000-07:00

The colors of this digital photo is way off. So you don't see the actual colors I put in the background pasture. But I tried some bold colors there to see the effect. Other than that I really need to finish the left horse, which is not the focal point anyway. Then want to try more impasto technique for the foreground flowers.

I'm going to try finishing this piece this weekend.

Came back after 6 years

2011-09-25T13:49:00.000-07:00

It was the end of 2005 when I went to Bellingham for onsite painting. I remember it was very dark even in the middle of the day when I was painting at the same spot but in different angle. By now the lot was bought by someone and new buildings were built as well as a short service road. Trees and weeds have grown enough to block the original vista I painted 6 years ago.

Yesterday, the weather was nice in the morning when I got there and painted. So everything was whitey and I lost some sense of colors. But I didn't forget to put Olympic mountains in the further background. I need to learn how to interpret those colors to make attractive paintings.

Working on the face

2011-09-21T22:28:00.000-07:00

Started working the face of the horse. The overall shape seems to be fine but those ears are a little too small. I need to adjust them next. Otherwise I think I'm getting there.

Binoculars Clamp arrived

2011-09-16T21:34:00.000-07:00

A good news is the binoculars clamp I ordered on-line arrived today via UPS. It's nice and strong. A bad news is the thread hole at the bottom of the clamp is 1/4", which doesn't fit 3/8" thread screw on the base. So I need to use the mini-ball head that is dual-threaded to fit either size, which is heavy itself. The weight of the ball head and the clamp combined is 1.14lb (851g) total. It's quite heavy to walk around with while looking for the best spot to paint. I might look for a lighter ball head with 1/4" thread screw. But I'll wait at least until I build a stretched canvas holder. The clamp hasn't come cheap since only kind I found, then got, was from the same Manfrotto made in Italy. I found an used one though. I don't want to spend much more until I'm sure this system I'm thinking now would really work.

Values of darks

2011-09-06T22:15:00.000-07:00

It was not intentional to make shadow shapes less dark. I usually make them really dark dark especially at early stages. It was because I put the lightest light already on canvas. After that whenever I touch dark paint mixture my brush always has white pigments even after I cleaned it carefully.

Although it was intentional, it created an unexpected effect to this painting at this stage. As you can see easily the horse(s) look like getting a lot of sunshine and even shadow parts are getting reflections from many different angles. In other words they're hazy in viewers eyes. I like this much. I'll try keep the value contrast in this way toward the end of this painting to see what happens. It would be quite different compared to "Breeze" I painted two years ago. I might change my mind though.

Plein Air on Maury Island

2011-09-05T20:13:00.000-07:00

We are still in summer here in NW this year. Or it finally arrived. I couldn't miss this opportunity and got on a ferry to go across the water from Fauntleroy Ferry Port. I rode my motorcycle through Vashon Hwy and got to Pt. Robinson Park on Maury Island. I walked around the beach near the light house. But somehow any angles on the beach didn't inspire me. So I walked up to the parking lot and walked into a trail, where I decided to set my easel. The aspect between height and width is a little off but I think I'm getting better with color & value contrast between light and shadow. I need to keep doing this to get better with this. The objects in upper left quadrant are big stones. I couldn't define good edges with the background so they're vague.

Positioning leaves are not so easy

2011-09-04T21:03:00.000-07:00

I still keep moving around leaves on the canvas. Originally they were too high so I moved them downward. To define each major leaf I need to decide the color of background shade and carve it out. I think I want to put more colors at the bottom for the highlighted part of grass.

New Tripod

2011-09-03T21:25:00.000-07:00

My current tripod that holds my hand-made pochade box got a crack at the top plastic part. I've been thinking how I can fix it or get it replaced a while.

But when I visited Portland last weekend for gallery/PAM walk, a friend of mine in Portland gave me a heavy duty tripod. It's Bogen Manfrotto 3001 made in Italy. It has a heavy (14 oz) mini ball head attached (right photo). It took me a while to detach it, which I finally did today using a bench vice because it was very tight after carefully examining how I can do it without breaking anything.

That particular model has been discontinued. But the top of the base unit has a 3/8" standard thread (left photo) so I can attach any manufacturer’s head. I'm now looking for a clamp head to hold binoculars or something heavy. And I'll build a stretched canvas holder that can securely hold up to 12"x16" canvas and attach it to the clamp. Then build a folding box pallet that can be tightly attached to the two legs of the tripod. I got some idea how to do it from a pochade box at an art supply shop in downtown Portland. It's going to be a long term project. The outcome would become my Ver.2 pochade box system.

"Sauvie Sky"

2011-08-28T18:14:00.000-07:00

On the way back from Portland on a perfect summer day, I stopped by Sauvie Island on Columbia River along US-30. I spent only a little more than an hour to paint this. But I thought I made the shadow part much darker. Then sky was a little less color than I thought it was. Next time, I need to remember and avoid the same mistakes.

Reversed the process slightly

2011-08-22T23:15:00.000-07:00

As most artists do, I regularly make bigger shapes by defining/refining shadow(negative) shapes. But this time, since I've been too busy in day job and didn't have time to even stand in front of canvas for last three weeks, I needed to do something differently to regain confidence and remember what I was up to. So, I decided to define highlighted(positive) shapes at this early stage. The effect was immediate as you can see in this small photo.

A bit different landscape

2011-08-09T22:27:00.000-07:00

After last two, or three, workshops, I started feeling I have to change the way to pick the composition and paint en plein air. Now I feel none of my recent trials outside are not good enough to make studio paintings from. As the result, I needed to find something from photos I took instead. And I started looking closer subjects than before. Then picked this one I took near North Bend very recently.

The title would be "summer shade". There is no "back ground (farground) in this. Only nearground and mid ground. I covered the shadow area with dark cool green. The size is 14"x18".

Base values are filled

2011-08-07T22:20:00.000-07:00

To me this is a little surprise but the bigger shapes (horses) are good already. Darkest dark and lightest light are filled by now. The background green should be much lighter in the photo but for the contrast, I might make it darker. We'll see.

White Horse is the next

2011-08-02T22:59:00.000-07:00

In this composition, the horses stay a little higher on the canvas because a band of daisies is at the bottom. The key shapes are mostly whitish. Transferring subtle color changes to other colors would be the key of this painting. The size is 14"x20".

Yet another update

2011-07-25T22:37:00.000-07:00

Well, I didn't plan to update for this piece any more. But I had to. Because this is the first time curving background sky into trees worked as I intended. I've probably overdone that though. I realized I spent more than an hour forgetting how much time has passed tonight. Originally it was too dark. I made the trees much lighter because they're further back. I think the values are about right now.

I'll work on the foreground further and enhance cow's bodies a little bit then call it done.

Filling out foreground

2011-07-24T20:47:00.000-07:00

This would be the last update before finishing this piece. Spent some time to fill foreground. I wanted to show spiky frozen grass stems. I haven't decided what to do with the background sky. Currently the sky colors are smeared with reddish tree colors, which was done at a very early stage. But at the same time, I don't want to eliminate soft edges between trees and sky.

I also want to put some more highlight colors on the cows as the final touches. But otherwise I'm so far satisfied with this painting.

Sun has almost set

2011-07-14T23:13:00.000-07:00

This would be the last update of this painting before finishing. I started working on highlighted areas and cutting into rock shapes. I need to be careful not to make too light for too much areas. I think I need to make three color values 1) light snow area, 2) dark shadowed snow area, and 3) rocks. And gradually reduce the value range among them while I work from top of the mountains toward the bottom. Then it would be done.

Surprisingly quickly getting closer to finish

2011-07-12T23:11:00.000-07:00

Even though I didn't much time on this, it's surprisingly quickly getting to the final stage. I still couldn't decide how cool the shadow white part needs to be, and the mid to foreground pasture is a little too light value-wise. Otherwise I don't think I can improve this much more. Likely one more update then finish this piece.

Again, the composition was the key from the beginning.

Mid-range is getting closer to the final values

2011-07-09T23:04:00.000-07:00

I mixed a batch of purplish gray at the beginning. From there I gradually lightened and warmed up the gray by mixing more red and orange, then applied it to the mid-range. Now the values are about what I want them to be.

Adjusting Shapes on Cows

2011-07-08T23:24:00.000-07:00

I moved front legs of the left cow forward to show movement. At the same time, started shaping the face of the right cow. They're almost good. Also putting more texture in the background pasture. And gradually working toward the foreground.

Sky and Foreground values are about right

2011-07-04T15:53:00.000-07:00

As I wrote last time for this painting, I adjusted values of sky and foreground. They seem to be about right. Now I need to work on a band of midground hazy shadowy area. My strategy would be mixing lots of purplish gray and shifting values a little darker and lighter from the mixed gray. I need to do it all at once.

Teanaway Valley

2011-07-03T22:33:00.000-07:00

Yesterday afternoon, I made a decision to stay at Cle Elum and paint in Teanaway Valley this morning. Mainly because I couldn't find a good spot to paint in early morning around Everett. When I rode on to Teanaway Rd from SR-970, I immediately knew I could paint anywhere along the load. I've chosen this area because Ned Mueller send out email with beautiful photos about a month ago. The mountain is Earl Peak, which Ned also painted from the same angle but a little further away. In his painting the peak was completely covered by snow. Now I only could see some patches.

In the middle of two hour session, a bunch of cows were rushing toward me. Later I figured a big cube of salt was placed only a couple of dozen yards away from the spot I was painting. They came to lick it, which I quickly put in the canvas. The mountains became a little too red and I should have make the trees darker. But overall it's not too bad. I need keep trying.

Changing the direction

2011-06-27T22:07:00.000-07:00

Based on what I experienced and leaned in Jim Lamb's workshop over the weekend, I decided changing the way I paint. More specifically the process especially at earlier stages. On the way back from Bainbridge on Sat, I stopped by a hardware shop in Poulsbo to get two cheep (less than a dollar each) house painting brushes (1/2" and 1-1/2"). I used those tonight to fill up each mass shapes in the background other than cows with much closer values to the final ones. Determining the values on the field is tough because the color/value of grass is quite different from the grounds. So I still couldn't determine the value of the long shadow strips cast on the ground.
But the color/value of trees in background as well as sky's are almost final ones.

This process change would affect not only to the process itself but would also affect to the final outcome. I'm almost sure. I'm going to try the same way on the cows next.

Jim Lamb Plein Air Workshop - Day 3, Last Day

2011-06-26T21:06:00.000-07:00

Today was perfect for painting weather-wise. We met at Fay Bainbridge State-park and reduced our cars down to three (plus my motorcycle) and visited the host's house on sand bar next to the park. It was very narrow strip of land but absolutely beautiful.

The photo on the left was today's outcome. Not as impressive as last two days. I had problems with defining colors for both foreground and background trees. Besides, I wanted to paint Olympic Mountains, which were immediately hidden by the clouds.

So Jim suggested putting focus on the interesting shaped tree on the left and I made it much bigger and moved toward the center. That's why it took entire today to work on only one piece. His last comments were 1) I needed put much bigger curved cloud shape on the right to counter balance the heaviness of left trees. 2) the color of the sand beach is too cool. It's not in Hawaii.

Well, at least I got some ideas to work on in my own plein air sessions this summer. When I told him I needed to learn brush strokes, he said it would take planning, confidence and some practices. I have to work on that too. It was quite intensive but productive three days. I'm very tired tonight.

Jim Lamb Plein Air Workshop - Day 2

2011-06-25T23:16:00.000-07:00

Today, we continue to paint in the vineyard. I painted a farm road along the berry yard. Originally there was a big tree on the right side of the road , which was blocking view toward the top of the canvas. But Jim suggested I eliminate the tree and, instead, paint the field behind it.That made this painting much interesting.

For the dark background trees, he helped me to paint cool darker part on top of overall color of the big mass to make the rest to come forward, instead of painting highlighted part, which would destroy the total value. It's much darker than real trees but it works for this painting.

He put some key shadow shapes in both background and foreground. Without it, this painting was very dull.

Jim Lamb Plein Air Workshop - Day 1

2011-06-24T20:16:00.000-07:00

Starting from today, I'm in Jim Lamb's 3 day Pein Air workshop over this weekend. There was a small problem happened to my motorcycle this morning on my way to Oil&Water Art Shop on Bainbridge Island. But I got there 50 min late eventually.

In the morning Jim did a demonstration in a class room, then seven of us went to Bainbridge Island Vineyards & Winery to paint. About the time when we started, sun was out and nice. However, thick clouds rolled in quickly and even rain started about 3:30P. Most of us managed to finish a piece. The photo, left, is my outcome.

Some of Jim's key advices were:

left side was too heavy at the beginning. Then I adjusted the composition by changing large shapes on the left to balance with right side.
define the darkest dark (edge of the pond) first, then I can define the next dark (shadow part of background trees) in relative to it. The same rule can apply to colors. Define greenest green first then decide others in relative to it.
paint the mass of background trees first, then curve sky into them to shape the edge of trees.

After I stopped painting this about 4P, he left me the final comments to this outcome:

sky is too heavy (color/value-wise). It should be closer to the pond surface.
The vine field (yellowish center part) is too hot (means too warm in color).

I'm looking forward to Day 2 tomorrow.

Overall values of snow mountains are nearly defined

2011-06-22T22:06:00.000-07:00

Even though the colors of snow mountains are not consistent (because I mix colors each night and apply them to a small part), the overall value of the mountains are close to final. Instead of finishing them up, I want to step back and re-work on the sky and the foreground next. The foreground needs to be much darker and sky needs more colors.

Still adjusting main shapes

2011-06-18T23:20:00.000-07:00

Kept adjusting shapes of cows tonight. At the same time I added more middle value shapes on the bodies. I also made the ground lighter because I couldn't see the values on the body were right or wrong.
Today I went to Seattle artwalk but realized not much new stuff was on the shows. I'm planing to go to Edmonds Art Festival tomorrow. Weather would be better than today.

Composition stands out

2011-06-14T22:33:00.000-07:00

Tonight, I spent only 40 min with a #8 filbert and made this painting interesting. I think the strong composition is helping this painting to stand out without getting into detail at all. What I need to be careful with the following steps is just not to screw up. Good start tends to end bad.

Value adjustment

2011-06-12T22:01:00.000-07:00

Value range of this painting is narrower than I regularly paint. Because it was at dusk. Almost everything was dim. I started making values for large rock shapes and clouds lighter from the right side toward center. At the same time, I'm adjusting colors of snow. But snow colors wouldn't be finalized almost at the end, I guess.

Nice Shadows

2011-06-11T22:14:00.000-07:00

I like the shapes of shadows in this composition. I just blocked the dark parts with a mixture of ultra marine and burnt umber. But it's already showing life. In the background, I originally drew a high-voltage power-line pole. Now I'm thinking I would eliminate it as well as the power lines. They aren't making the background interesting anyway.

New Idaho Cattle Piece

2011-06-06T23:03:00.000-07:00

I started drawing for a new cattle piece. This is from a photo from the same Twin Falls, ID, vacation. I cropped the original photo to focus on the sun-lit faces and bodies vs. shadow areas.The size is 14"x20". It was cold (must have been in teens) but clear winter day. It was almost the last light. I want to paint the temperature and faint warmth of the last sun light.

Nice evening to eat on the deck

2011-06-03T22:08:00.000-07:00

It was really nice evening today. I grilled some food on the deck and had dinner there. While eating, I read an article in the latest issue of the Artist's Magazine. It's about color palette for plein air, written by Michael Chesley Johnson. He was explaining about five different combinations of color palettes. Except for Earth Palette, which includes yellow ochre and burnt sienna, all others have some king of cad yellow and cad red. Then some options for blue and lightening ingredient and muting ingredient. Now I know why my last "Icy Falls" ended up completely unrealistic purplish. For the next piece, I might consider these options.

Mitchell Albala Workshop on Bainbridge Island

2011-05-28T22:10:00.000-07:00

Today I joined a workshop taught by Mitchell Albala, held at Oil & Water Art Supply (http://www.oilandwaterarts.com/) on Bainbridge Island. As I wrote in blog in the past, I read through his "landscape painting" book and understood most of his theories of making landscape painting in his way, which I mostly agreed. I was there to learn a part of his process of making landscape paintings directly from him. Since I was at Dick Brick on Capitol Hill to see his demo (I also wrote this in my blog) he remembered me and said "you look familiar", which made things easier for me at the beginning.

Ok, the process and practices were simple.

clop a letter size of color photo using a set of "L-shape" cloppers to find an interesting composition.
put a tracing paper on top of the photo and block shapes in 3 or 4 value ranges. The first picture above shows it. We mostly used a marker pen (Prisma) for this process.
mix 4 values with titanium white and black acrylic paint (dries much faster) [mixed the 5th value later] and paint the composition you clopped. The left photo in the second picture shows it.
reduced the values down to two (black and white only) and paint the same composition. The right photo shows this.

This entire practice force us to see the landscape in only big shapes, which helps us to judge what's interesting in the painting before picking the scene. Mitch uses this process in Gage Academy's classes as well. I've now well absorbed what he wrote in his book. I think.

Last Update of "Icy Falls"

2011-05-22T21:22:00.000-07:00

I had to declare this to finish this piece over Memorial Day weekend. In other words, by the end of May. It's been taking too long. I don't think I can make much difference from here other than minor color/value/edge modifications, which would still be a lot I need to make. But the most important parts are done by now.

So from now, I'll shift my focus onto the sunset piece then will start a new animal piece. It happens to be cattle painting again.

Left side is almost done

2011-05-15T15:24:00.000-07:00

Kept working on the water fall on the left side of the canvas. I might want to make it a little more lighter to paint the volume of water. But otherwise this part is almost done. Move on toward the center then the right to balance the color based on this part, which I'm somewhat satisfied. I'm changing the cool dark part back to a little warmer. Because it's standing up too much.

Greenwood-Phinney ArtWalk - The Big One

2011-05-14T22:46:00.000-07:00

Yesterday evening and this afternoon, I was a part of the annual artwalk in this NW Seattle neighborhood. I'd been applying this artwalk last 5 years or so. I was accepted two years ago but needed to withdraw due to my company's bankruptcy. So this year was my first time showing my paintings at one of businesses in the neighborhood along Greenwood Ave.

The business name was Emma Jean's Consignment and Antique, a small shop at a little north from N 85th St. Except for the show window at the front of the store, where the stampede series was hung, all walls were full of stuff. So the owner, Thomas Grant, about 6' 6" or even taller guy, hung my six paintings down from the ceiling grid (see the second photo). Some people who visited the store this afternoon took a while to find my paintings. People don't have habits to "look up". They tend to look down instead. Yesterday was better because they were spot-lighted in darker store at night.

There was a lot of traffic into the store last night. I greeted them, answered their questions, and added some more background information behind each painting. Most of people liked my paintings. But I think only one person took my bio/statement card with a business card stacked up on a table. But it was expected. I was there again this afternoon 3-5. Much less people walked by. And most of them were just interested in antiques. Since the weather was nicer than expected this afternoon, I thought I should have brought my pochard box and done some demonstrations in front of the store. Although I haven't done city-scape for good 7-8 years. I'll consider next time.

Overall, it was relatively successful event by considering that this was my first experience attending an artwalk as an artist. I was quite tired standing for more than 5 hours totally. But I need to get back to painting tomorrow. I felt I needed to produce more while standing there this afternoon.

Another Highlighted Area

2011-05-07T22:13:00.000-07:00

Worked on the top left corner of the "falls". This is another highlighted area taking direct early morning sunlight. Later, I would probably come back and push values more to make edges a little sharper. But I like how this came along especially for the texture.

This weekend I need to compose my bio/statement paper for Greenwood-Phinney Artwalk next week. I might not be able to work more on this piece tomorrow.

Make it a little cooler

2011-05-02T22:10:00.000-07:00

I made the darkest dark a little cooler using blue-purple, because it looked a little too warm against the title "Icy Falls". Then I made the highlighted part stand out more as a trial, to see the contrast between most of the shadow part and the highlighted part. It's better than I was thinking.

Plein Air after a while

2011-04-24T20:56:00.000-07:00

I haven't painted outside quite a while. Now it's time for that. Fortunately Fri-Sat when I planned a Portland trip on my motorcycle the weather was perfect. I stopped by Nisqually Wildlife Refuge in the morning on Friday I painted sky over the delta. At the time I was painting I didn't realized I didn't push values enough. Also the thin clouds were much warmer. I later realized about the value problem when I was painting trees on a hill side at Washington Park in Portland in Sat morning. You can easily see the difference, can't you? For both I probably spent about 2.5 hours. For the tree painting I don't have any complaint with colors I chose. But I couldn't paint steepness of the hill side enough somehow. It's actually much steeper than shown in the painting. I probably made those trees too tall in comparison with relative vertical placement.

Anyhow, I'll keep going outside to paint more this spring and summer.

Sunset in Idaho

2011-04-19T18:57:00.000-07:00

I started a new landscape painting. This one is also from one of last ID vacation photos. Sun was setting into the horizon while I was driving toward south east on I-84. On my left, the snow mountains were reflecting the last light of the sun, getting darker and darker from the bottom toward the top. I couldn't resist my desire to take photos despite the fact it's illegal to stop my car on the interstate highway in a none emergency situation.
The size is 14"x28".

Most of key shapes are in place now

2011-04-17T15:36:00.000-07:00

Well, as always in my painting processes, I keep struggling to place the shapes. This one was particularly difficult because of complicated shapes and relationship between them. But I think now I'm somewhat satisfied with where they are. And I can start focusing mainly on the colors.

So the real challenge has just started for this painting.

Defining Mid - Lighter values

2011-04-03T21:49:00.000-07:00

Started refining mid values in comparison with lighter values which are the values for the water and ice. At this moment I don't use much colors but just use reddish purple of the rocks and trying to control the values. The water eventually needs to be more bluish while the ice is purplish because the colors of rocks can be seen through.

The last update of the piece

2011-03-30T22:24:00.000-07:00

I suddenly realized I probably wouldn't make much improvement from this point any further. Of course, I still need to work on some weak spots and details to call it done. But I can likely finish this in this weekend.

New Canvas Carrier is almost done

2011-03-30T20:20:00.000-07:00

I'm now gluing right left bottom supports and it's almost done. I'm sure I need to adjust some portions after they dried up by putting it into the top case of my Moto Guzzi.

Putting life into another calf

2011-03-28T21:07:00.000-07:00

Work on the left calf. i liked the outcome of the colors. Purple + orange worked surprisingly well. Before getting more details of the cows, I think I need to push values of the grass surrounding the cows next.

Still adjusting values of the shaddow part

2011-03-27T14:41:00.000-07:00

I sensed the shadow part is not dark enough to compare to the lighter part, at the same time the shapes were not right. I still keep pushing the values. I started with the center. The island of rocks in the center is the good place to start.Other part would become relative to the center part.

I also darkened the white water splash not to stand out too much. The entire view was in shadow anyway.

2011-03-23T22:35:00.000-07:00

I worked on one of calves in foreground. I haven't decided if I would make the colors warmer or cooler, or both. I probably won't decide until almost the last stage. It's getting interesting though. I just can't make progress on this painting as fast as I wanted.

Still don't know what this would end up with

2011-03-21T00:02:00.000-07:00

Haven't touched this quite a while. But finally did something to it. At least it got some colors. But I still don't know what to do with this piece. The entire view was in shadow in early morning. Only two small spots were in sunshine. At this moment, I need to put some opaque colors on the white canvas. I guess only after that I can think about how to proceed.

Back support of the new canvas carrier

2011-03-20T21:09:00.000-07:00

Framing the back side of support. Glooved back post and a pair of side post, then glued holizontal supports to only the back post at this moment. To keep the perpendicular angle of the supports against the back post, I clamped the side posts but not glued them yet.

Condolence to victims in Japan and....moving on

2011-03-17T21:23:00.000-07:00

First, as a Japanese who grew up and lived in the home land for 35 years, I don't have any other words but condolence for the victims in Japan on the 11th of March. They're still making desperate fights around the clock to rescue survivors and against growing threat of nuclear reactor melt-down. Everybody in Japan must be holding their breath anxiously. My family members in Japan were all ok only because they don't live and work near the hard hit areas. Very heartbreaking images and videos are on TV everyday after the event. Even people on the opposite side of the ocean have to get over the experiences we never experienced before. Lives would never be the same regardless where you live, or directly hit or not.

Then, I have to move on. I have to.

This disaster re-reminded me how strong the nature is and how vulnerable human being is in front of it. I really want to go back into nature and paint, and paint, and paint....Since last weekend, I started making another wet canvas carrier. Because the current one (top left corner of the photo below) is specifically designed to hold only one 12"x16" canvas. After the last Jim Lamb's workshop, I decided I want to go to smaller canvas for en plein air. Maybe 11"x14" or 10"x13". My plan is to make another carrier for two of those sizes, which fits in the top box of my Moto Guzzi, Nevada. So that I can start painting again in April. It might take a couple of more weeks.

A little progress on the cows

2011-02-19T21:28:00.000-08:00

Worked on the front cows and grass around them. Now the overall of color and value contrast is showing on canvas. Not bad. I guess I need to make the brown cow a little darker next.

Block-in Process

2011-02-11T22:35:00.000-08:00

First I started this process with cool dark blueish purple. But changed my mind and painted over with warm redish purple. The reason being: the icy part is much cooler. To balance with the coolness dark part needed to be warmer. Otherwise the entire painting would become cool-cool. The outcome looks like wookcut printing, which is cool!

Photo from the workshop

2011-02-09T22:14:00.000-08:00

The host of the last workshop, Cary Jurriaans, emailed us a bunch of photos from Day 3. This was the moment Cary teased me about the reflection of the lamp and I rushed to turn it off :)
Please note that the two paintings on the wall are Jim's landscapes. Even though this is a small photo, you might be able to recognize the difference in quality between his and my painting.

New Landscape "Icy Falls"

2011-02-08T23:03:00.000-08:00

I started drawing on 18"x28" canvas with grids on it. You might not be able to see the grid in this photo though. I first drew a horizontal and vertical line to separate the surface to four quadrants. Then drew two diagonal lines in each quadrant. This idea, of course, came from Jim's workshop. I knew drawing is very important for this wide format with complicated shaps/lines.

Color-wise, this would be relatively mono-tone since most of the part are in shadow in early cold morning at Shoshone Falls. I might do some more for the falls from my last vacation trip. But that's would depend on how this piece goes.

Jim Lamb Workshop is over

2011-02-06T20:21:00.000-08:00

I came back from the workshop on Whidbey Island this evening. This particular workshop was quite fruitful and got a lot of ideas how to proceed with my painting career. Great thanks to Jim for the useful and insightful advises. I can see easily that I would be painting based on the principles I've learned through the workshop in very near future.

Below is a photo for the outcome of Day 2 and Day 3. I finished one piece every day. They are 12"x9" and 11"x14" respectively. What Jim repeatedly instructed me was to connect shadow shapes at the beginning of painting and keep it until the end. It works! Then push them further toward warmer side or cooler side as needed. As the result, even each shape in either painting may not so realistic, the overall of the painting has captured the atmosphere of the subjects, which appeals to viewers.

Jim Lamb Workshop - Day1

2011-02-05T21:54:00.000-08:00

Since Friday, I've been attending Jim Lamb Workshop at Whidbey Island Fine Art Studio now. Yesterday was the Day 1. Day 1 is always difficult at any workshops. Because I need to understand what the instructor is intending to convey through his/her first demonstration and to follow the guideline I got then to put it on the canvas. This is 9"x12", which is very small compared to the format I regularly paint on. Even though it's inside of the studio, I've been feeling like I'm doing plein air. Jim advised me a couple of times, starting from the composition of this painting, color/value contrast between the bright yellow green and dark front ground, then values on the background. He fixed many part of this painting. Especially the advise how to treat the background tree area was quite useful.