Stretching my Skills

So....I've been taking a class to learn how to use my Corel Painter program.  I bought it a couple years, ago, and never really learned how to use it.  I see that if I am going to be able to do anything on it, I'm really going to need to dedicate some time towards actually learning it.  So here's an attempt.  I even took notes.

#1: 

#2: 

#3: 

4: 

And now I think I'm ready for some more traditional media....

Exercise in lights and darks

So I was reading James Gurney's book (sorry I can't remember the name) and he was talking about a painter (whose name I also don't remember) and a painting of a windmill, and how each of the blades of the windmill was handled differently--light on dark, dark on light, dark on dark, and light on light--and how interesting that is.  So that's what this is all about.  The guy is from a picture in our local newspaper (of a local college basketball player whose name I don't remember either--though one of my students recognized him and commented upon it when walking past my desk this morning).  I made a couple little tonal sketches, and while working on this realized that I do a lot of this in my drawings anyway, but not usually all four.  Getting the light on light was the hardest.

Oh, and here's a link to a page of Gurney's blog where he talks about this: http://gurneyjourney.blogspot.com/2012/11/bargue-study-of-seated-man.html

Illustration Friday: Zoom

Hey--I actually made an illustration for Illustration Friday.  Okay, so I didn't manage to get it in before the topic changed, but since I'm not going to do a "whiskers" picture, I thought I'd post it anyway.  Last week's topic was "zoom".  This is large (or relatively large), 11 X 15 inches, and regardless of how it turned out, I am pleased, because I had an idea, made some sketches, and then executed it, all in one day. Actually, it's not the "all in one day" thing that I am pleased about, it's the planning.  I'm usually not so good at planning.

P.S. The top half of this drawing is now inside the dog.  The dog has an unnatural fondness for watercolor paper, and I was getting lax about leaving things around where he could get them.  Darn.

Face #20

What's to say?

More Faces

I guess I'm not done with these after all.  I started a whole new batch.  (I guess this is #19.)

The Last Tree

So this is the last tree (I think).  This one is a real tree (though several of the others--most  of the others--were loosely based on real trees), the hated Tree of Heaven behind my neighbor-across-the-alley's house.  I'd actually like to do it again, in a different kind of medium.  The gouache is really thick, and if I thin it, it doesn't resist the ink as well.

More Trees

Okay....more trees.  It's been a fun day doing these.....