Friday, January 25, 2013

PBS and Lobenberg




A few weeks ago, a local and nationally PBS personality by the name of Rob Stewart and his videographer came to my studio (Studio L) and videographed me doing a watercolor portrait (posted earlier on this blog). Last Tuesday, they came back and videographed me being interviewed by Rob. On February 27 at 7:30 p.m. the whole bowl of nuts will be aired on Sacramento PBS station KVIE. The interview will also be used in an on-going national PBS show on the arts (all the various art disciplines) in America. The interview will be on Youtube, and I'll post that link on this blog soon. The whole experience was fun and most exciting!

Thursday, January 24, 2013

Yosemite's Half Dome Under a Full Moon


How did I render the moon? It is an unusual technique that I tried.

Tuesday, January 15, 2013

"Yosemite Valley - Early Morning" Fini!


Fini. and I didn't screw it up! Time for a Jack!!

Monday, January 14, 2013

"Yosemite Valley, Early Morning" in progress but not yet finished








First I laid down the early morning sunlight breaking in between the mountains of Sierra granite, wet-on-wet. Next I painted in some base hues for the mountains wet-on-dry and more yellowish sunlight hues for the rest of the valley forest. Next I painted in the sky wet-on-wet. After the sky dried, I used a Mr. Clean Magic Eraser to pull off some of it to create a sun glare effect. I also started painting in the valley floor tree shapes. As I went from the distant trees to the foreground trees, I painted very loosely, very wet-on-dry, and wet-on-wet with my drafting table (that I always paint on) at about a forty five degree tilt so the paint would run. I varied the greens and threw in some complimentary accents of cadmium red. I could have painted in more realistically detailed trees, but I'm not a detail person. Whenever I go detail, my paintings go boring. In the last photo, I worked on the two mountain planes on the left. I'm liking how the tonal range is getting more dramatic, and I'm starting to create the feeling of early morning sun brightly illuminating the valley floor. This painting could have gone "south" very easily, but at this point where I have stopped, it looks like it definitely going in the right direction. I will be bringing my watercolor to completion within the next day or so. As the world-renown Aussi painter Bob Wade once said on one of his video productions, "wish me luck and wave me goodbye".

Wednesday, January 2, 2013

Two watercolor challenges


Watercolor some very soft and subtle clouds crossing over snow covered mountains and the second challenge being how to watercolor puddles in a pathway. With watercolor, one really needs to have a painting sequence in mind. I'll try to post the photo sequences for these two watercolors when I have a little more time. Happy New Year dear readers!

Tuesday, January 1, 2013

Sketched at 35.000 feet.


A sketch I did while in flight last November. Used a Sharpie ultra fine tip pen, a Tombow art pen, and a Niji Waterbrush. Gotta love flying!

Tony The Tiger! Remember him boys and girls?


Watercolored this on last week on 140lb. cold press. In what year did Tony The Tiger appear in the marketplace, and does he still exist?