Waiting for the Bus - Cape Town

This is for Virtual Paintout March 2011 challenge, Cape Town, South Africa. It's oil on 10x12 canvas board.

This month I almost ran out of time to paint with the move, renovations and all the distractions that come along. I finally got myself to sit down to look for a scene and paint it. I found a group of school kids at the Table Mountain Reserve in Cape Town, and saw these three boys sitting around waiting for the bus. (ref photo) I thought it was interesting because of the three boys against a scenic background, while one boy sat on a trash can, as well as the light vs dark contrast and red vs green contrast. I added an extra person on the right to add additional interest to the composition.

Because of the darker tone of many of the elements in this painting, I prepared my canvas with a brownish black acrylic ground. The background, including the mountains and city, was painted using various shades and tones of grey. The foreground people are painted using more intense color, such as madder, alizarin, ultramarine violet, raw and burnt umber, prussian blue, Winsor red, vermilion, lemon yellow, naples yellow and white.

Three Creamers

This is for Rookie Painter March 2011 challenge - Three Creamers. It's oil on 8x10 canvas panel.

The original picture had three creamers of approximately the same sizes sitting in a straight line against a white background and on a white table top. (ref photo) I wanted to change around the composition to make it more interesting. I made the creamers different sizes: the blue one taller, brown one smaller.

I originally painted the creamers with a white background. However, I thought the white background made the whole painting very bright, so bright that I almost had to squint my eyes to look at the painting. So I decided to tone down the background with gray plus prussian blue. I decided on a cold blue gray so that to compliment the orange and brown creamers.

My palette included torrid gray, prussian blue, cadmium orange, Winsor dark red, alizarin, burnt sienna, terra rosa, Indian red, ultramarine violet, ultramarine blue, ceruoleum, cadmium yellow, lemon yellow and white. I also add a touch of Renaissance Gold (mixed in with ultramarine blue and yellow) for the gold handle for the blue creamer.

Love From Me Project

I'm so honored to be included in this very worthwhile endeavor - Love From Me Project. The project includes publishing an art book to provide inspiration to people going through personal challenges, as well as to raise money for a cancer charity. (Click here for more detail) One of my painting that will be included in this book - Catch the Wave from the June 2010 Virtual Paintout challenge. I've also written a little something to go with the painting.

Catch the Wave
With all the ups and downs in life,

sometimes we need to sit back and

recuperate,

before we can get back and once again

catch the wave.

P.S.
I'm so honored to have one more painting included in this project. A cropped version of "Ripples", see below, will be included as the back cover of the book. I'm glad that a simple painting like Ripples can generate people's interest. Here's a little something that goes along with Ripples.

Ripples

Love is like dropping a pebble into a pond,

its impact ripples through far and beyond.

Parked Gondola

This is for A Day Not Wasted, February 2011 challenge. It's oil on 9x12" canvas board.

This is the first time I'm doing a painting for this particular challenge. When I saw the reference photo (ref photo), it reminded me so much of John Singer Sargents' Venice paintings. So I decided even with the short month and all the house renovations that's going on, I wanted to do this challenge.

I had read that John Singer Sargents' palette included mars yellow. So for the fun of it, I got myself a tube of mars yellow. I started with an acrylic ground of black. My palette included mostly earthy tones: mars yellow, yellow orchre, burnt sienna, terra cotta, sepia, asphaltum, sap green, ultramarine violet and ultramarine blue. For the dark areas, I've left some of the black underpainting showing. I kicked up the color for the seats by adding in Indian red and a touch of Winsor dark red. For the far end of the background I took a more black and white approach (white plus sepia).

Shepherd in the Snow

This is for Feb 2011 Virtual Paintout challenge, Romania. It's oil on 10x12 canvas board.

When browsing in Goggle Map, I found that Romania had an interesting mix of different climates: from sunny beaches by the Black Sea to the snowy mountains in the middle of the country. At the end I was debating between a beach scene and this snow scene (ref photo). I chose this one since I have not done too many snowy paintings. What caught my eyes with this scene were not only the herd of sheep and the mountain scenary, but also interesting color choice of the shepherd's outfit: purple and green.

First I started my canvas with an acrylic ground of a purplish brown. Then for oil paint I used a rather muted palette: violet gray, Portland grays, white, sap green, sepia, asphaltum, ultramarine violet, and yellow orchre were the main color. Viridian and ultramarine violet were the main color for the fashion forward shepherd. I also used palette knife to add edges to the painting for the fence and branches.

Ripples

This is for Feb 2011 Word Press's clear lake challenge. It's oil on 6x8 canvas board. (ref photo)

I did the water and reflection using thinned down oil paint so it had the consistency of water color. Then I used my fan brush to create the ripple effect while the thinned paint was still wet, and tissues to blot away paint for ripples and high lights. All these had to be done within an hour or so before the thinned paint dried. They final touches were added using thicker paint and palette knife. The color I used were mainly cadmium yellow, sap green, ultramarine blue and ultramarine violet.

Apples and Metal Jar

This is for Rookie Painter Feb 2011 challenge. It's oil on 6x8 canvas board.

This month's challenge is back to still life, with red and green apples and a reflective metal jar. (ref photo) I decided to do this challenge a little earlier this time since there are a couple of other challenges that also seem interesting I want to see if I squeeze into Feb. House renovation also added in additional distraction this month.

The apples are mixture of alizarin, madder, Windsor deep red, cadmium yellow pale, cadmium orange, sap green, lemon yellow, ultramarine violet and ultramarine blue. For the jar, I also added some Paynes grey. This was a good exercise to practice light, shadow, spheres and reflections.

PS. I realized after I had submitted to Rookie Painter that I might have gotten carried away a little bit with my highlights on the apples. So the version shown here I have toned down the highlights.