Reworking Spooner's Cove No. 02

in , , ,

I recently took another look at the Spooner's Cove No. 02 picture I created last year and decided to make some changes to it. I wanted to add some more detail while keeping the abstract theme and retaining the flat colors.

I didn't want to add texture to the colors like I have been doing by brushing over colors with the “Old Oil” brush using the same color which creates slightly darker and lighter streaks then filling it with a darker shade of the color. See the picture below for an example.

The original painting. It didn’t seem as finished as I thought it was and I wasn’t happy with the foreground.

I began by changing the foreground by adding some more shapes and modifying a few colors.

I added some more colors to the foreground and made some changes to the sky, the beach and the small section of waves and rock at the left of the picture.

Using the “Old Oil” brush this texture was created by brushing random strokes over a block filled with yellow using the same yellow color. This created some very light marks. Using the Fill tool with a tolerance setting of 2 or 1, the yellow block was filled with a darker color bringing out the lighter marks.

Bringing a picture done in another app into Infinite Painter

I created this picture back in 2013 when I first started working with digital medium. My first app was Sketchbook Pro on a Galaxy tablet. The image you see here is after importing it as an Infinite Painter 7 project. I did some tweaking in a few areas and set the dpi at 144 otherwise the image is mostly original. It is part of a series of furniture in libraries in West Jordan, Utah.

One of my favorite chair pictures. I wanted to keep the colors simple and abstract and the picture without a lot of detail except for the texture in the floor which I added in Infinite Painter.

In the Pink or on the pink

in ,

I'm working on a pink version of the orange colored recliner in our living room. I'm trying to figure out what object to put on the seat or one of the arm rests and so for I haven't come up with anything.

I’m thinking of adding this to a series of the same chair in different colors and poses or various kinds of chairs.

The actual chair is orange. I chose to do a pink version with some other unnatural colors surrounding it.

How I start a picture

in , , , ,

I thought I would show a picture of how I start a digital painting.

I start out by drawing black outlines of objects and shapes in the picture then quickly add flat colors to the shapes. These colors are starting points that I will add textures to and change colors by painting over them or refilling them with other colors.

Inspiration with some help from a library

in , ,

Salt Lake County has a great library system as does the Salt Lake City Library system. I checked out a few books to read and look at. Since I don’t have an opportunity to see much art in person that I am interested in this will have to be the next best thing as well as what is available online.

All these books in the picture below are inspiring in various areas. The one titled Hand-In-Hand is particularly inspiring in that a married couple who were faithful and devoted to each other were able to work together successfully and stay married. And they produced fabulous products.

The older books about Robert Motherwell, Frank Stella, and Sonia Delaunay are from the Salt Lake City main library. The one titled Hand-in-Hand is from the Salt Lake County Library system and is one I requested be purchased.

Sidewalkscape or Landscape of a Sidewalk Progression

I came upon a bunch of papers strewn on a section of sidewalk on my way to post a letter in the post box. It occurred to me that it might make an interesting piece or at least a departure from the seascapes and landscapes I have been mostly working on as of late.

I have a few things to do before calling it a day on this one.

I put some more details in the grass and sidewalk and added a black bird just for fun. I will come back to it in a few days and see if thee is anything that needs fixing or call it finished.

A mini hallway gallery

I have a lot of paintings hanging in my studio where mostly I see them. So I decided to make part of the entryway to our condo into a mini art gallery. Now people walking up and down the hallway can see them. I plan on rotating them. I also need some wall space to hang more projects while I work on them.

Not the best lighting but it will have to do.

Hanging right along with some kitsch.

Why I like real painting medium

In yesterday’s post I shared why I like digital painting. In one of those likes I mentioned that there is no mess. In this post I share why I like real paint even though it can be messy. It’s about the physical 3D quality.

I don’t use traditional painting medium that many artists use. I use Behr paints from the DIY store. They come in lots of colors, they are less expensive than artist acrylics and I can get them in small sample batches. I tend to go through white paint faster because I use it to prime my panels so I purchase it by the quart. I can also mix colors together to achieve another color or shade of a color. I usually work with flat paints but sometimes will get a paint sample with a satin finish. These paints can be sanded smooth or given a scratched texture. Sanding with a well used block can act as a buffer giving the flat paint a slight sheen.

I started using this type of paint when I did my first temporary Flying Objects sculpture. I used interior/exterior paint and after the sculpture sat outside in the sun, rain, and snow for over a year the paint still looked like it did when the sculpture was first installed outside.

The range of colors is so large that is is hard to choose sometimes between colors and shades. This is a small portion of my collection of 80 containers of colors.

Fresh paint is quite liquid and can get slightly thicker as time goes by. I use wooden craft sticks to stir the paint. I like to use paint that has become thicker to add texture to a painting.

The colors of the flat paints are solid and opaque. Sometimes I use brushes to apply paint but I tend to use old plastic cards to spread and smooth paint more than a brush. I will use brushes when I want to achieve visual texture and will also smooth the paint after it has been applied with a brush. If I’m now using a brush I will apply the paint to a surface with a paint stir stick as you can see in this picture where I have dribbled some paint on a card.

A Bakersfield Hills painting progress 4

in , , ,

I made a few color changes to this painting yesterday morning as you can see in the before and after pictures. I rather like both versions which presents a slight dilemma. Which one to keep? Or is it finished?

Before changing a few of the colors in the pyramid hill, deep shadow at the bottom of the hill and some of the oranges in hill and above to the right.

After making the color changes.

Posters

I have been using a local print shop called Printology located in American Fork to print my postcards. I decided to try out their large format printer capabilities with a couple of A1 size posters.

Why the A1 size when we typically don’t use international paper sizes in the US? Having lived in Germany for a couple of years I got accustomed to these sizes and I like the slightly narrow and longer shape. I did them mostly to see how they would turn out.

New greeting card source: local

I'm looking into having my greeting cards produced locally and save myself a bit of dough. I had Printology (formarly Copy That) in American Fork print a sample for me. Printology has everything I need including envelopes.

The pictures on all of my greeting cards and postcards so far have had a page border of about 1/4 inch around them. I wanted to try having them go to the sides and top edge of the card to see how they look.

Subtle changes

in , , ,

I recently received some kind words of critique from a fellow Infinite Painter user of a painting I posted on the community forum. After following his advice I made some changes to it and decided to do the same with this one by toning down the greens of the hills to add some depth.

The painting before reworking the hills.

After: I faded the hills and some of the trees in the background by making the colors not so vivid to help make them recede and give the picture a bit more depth. I also changed the greens in the foreground. I need to do a bit more work on it before I call it a day.

Tools: Galaxy Tab S7

in , ,

When it comes to digital work I use a Samsung Galaxy Tab S7 tablet with S-Pen. I use Infinite Painter for Android by Infinite Studio. I also have a vector app called Infinite Designer also by Infinite Studio but I don’t use it much these days except for the occasional quick idea drawing.

Galaxy Tab S7 with S-Pen. I have the Infinite Painter launch screen open that allows me to choose current and recent projects I have been working on. From here I can also see past projects and create a new project.

A Bakersfield Hills Painting Progress 3

in , , ,

In this post I’m showing how I change colors slightly after adding some texture with the Old Oil brush I made a slight modification to. Infinite Painter gives one lots of options to make changes to brushes or create a completely new brush.

Detail of the top right corner of the painting showing texture created by brushing over areas with the same color. The Old Oil brush leaves streaks of light and dark versions of the color as you can see in the blue purple color.

I typically use the fill tool with a tolerance between 1 & 3. This time I set the tolerance to 1 so it would fill only the closest matching color that I choose to click on. This brings out a bit more of the brushed textures. Overall the color changes may appear to be rather subtle but compare the darker blue areas.