Sunday, September 27, 2009

Shapes are still bothering me


I found sagebrush at the bottom was lower than it should, which was causing the shape of water unpropotional. But I still feel the river bank on the right isn't quite right. This feeling was from the beginning. I need to get it right now before I go with thicker layers. It's about time to do that otherwise this will never get finished.

Saturday, September 26, 2009

New Animal Piece

I started the third piece while keep working on two landscapes. I brought back some pictures of sheep from last Yakima trip. I was originally thinking a goat painting but none of the photos I took there was good. I didn't intentionally start drawing sheep vertically. I was painting the sides of the stretched canvas with raw umber and waited for the top and the bottom sides to dry. It actually worked better, I guess.

Saturday, September 19, 2009

Back to the first Yakima painting

After getting through the forest on the right bank, I'm working on bigger shape's positions on the left bank. They're still unproportional to each other. At this early stage, I'm not worrying much about the colors. But still closing the gap with the final values and temperatures.
I'm about to leave home to do some shopping in downtown (well, again art materials at Utrecht) and see Mariners game against Yankees. I haven't gone to see any ball game for last 10 years or so. I just want to see Ichiro and Jr. who might retire at the end of the season. Then hopefully they would win the game.

Monday, September 14, 2009

2nd Yakima Painting

I just started a new Yakima painting in my studio basement. The title would be "Beyond the Horizon". 20"x26". Only less than half of canvas was covered with complimentary underpainting colors. But the composition and layout are clear already. The color contrast of midground greens would be the key to a success.

Tuesday, September 8, 2009

Along Umtanum Road

I took the same route in opposite direction from Naches to go over highland to get to Ellensburg today, which I drove yesterday to get to Yakima. Today I had a plan painting along the road, not only driving back toward Ellensburg. Before getting on the road, I got a ticket earlier this morning while I was passing Naches Hights. I didn't realize there was a school there. 8:30 in Tue morning. Probably the first day at the school. The officer was sympathetic but gave me a ticket for $211 fine. Anyway, the new gadget worked very well as I imagined. I didn't have to lay down a brush stand on the ground. The new paint thinner container was also very effective. It's hanging at the bottom of the tripod.
Umtanum Ridge is on the south side of the road. I couldn't quite catch the lights and paint on the canvas. But I think I caught the colors of the ridge relatively well. The foreground with sagebrush is always tough to paint quickly on-site. I'll paint this in a bigger format sometime this year.
After all it was a very nice short vacation trip to Yakima.

Saturday, September 5, 2009

New Accessory for Trial

I attached a simple humble brush&knife holder to my field easel. I'm going to try this new accessory Mon-Tue during Yakima trip. I hope it would work as I intended. We'll see.