This is embarrassing to have to admit, but I just thought people didn’t want to contact me. I didn’t know that I was getting emails that weren’t being delivered. I had to go to my blog control panel to see that, oh my! A long queue of emails!
THIS IS SO EMBARRASSING. If you wrote me and never got a response, that is the reason why. I have responded to as many people as I can, and will apologize to everyone here. “Soy tonta,” as they say in Spanish. I’m dumb.
I’m now trying to redirect everyone to my other site’s contact page. Eventually, if I can troubleshoot this blog’s contact page, I’ll restore it. But for now, just redirecting to the other site makes the most sense.
Here is an old cat painting, just so this post has some art in it.
“Cat with Booger on His Nose” 6×6″ oil on Gessobord.
I am not sure that’s the title, but if it’s not, it should be. It’s an old painting that sold years ago, but I like it.
In the last few months, I’ve tried to up my game. More painting, more studying. I got some awards, honorable mentions, etc., from art competitions. I just needed to get off my butt, you know?
“La esposa,” 8×10″ oil on linen panel.
“El esposo,” 8×8″, oil on linen panel.
These two paintings were exercises to push me out of the comfort zone. In my foolish arrogance, I thought, “This will be fun!” No. It was not fun, but it was challenging and I’m glad I did them. The lighting, the unusual skin tones due to the lighting, the values — all far more difficult than I first anticipated. But now, I want to do more!
They are entitled “La esposa” and “El esposo” because the models are husband and wife. I chose Spanish titles because I’m studying Spanish and do what I want (lol).
“La esposa” was a runner up in recent Daily Paintworks contest, and won First Prize (2D art) in a local gallery exhibition. I am beyond thrilled! I was not expecting the prizes, that’s for sure!
In other news, I just got accepted into the American Impressionist Society’s “Associate Members Online Exhibition” for my painting of Gizmo. The awards will be announced later this month. I am not holding my breath that I’ll get anything. I’m just happy to be in.
I know, a lot of people say, “I’m just happy to [be nominated/accepted]” but they don’t really mean it. I mean it. It’s a story I’ll get into at another time (perhaps soon, I’m feeling verbose), but suffice it to say, I never take any honor from a contest or show lightly or for granted. Neither should anyone else. (I try not to take any rejection too hard, either. I’d like to elaborate more on that as well.)
In July, I attended an online weekend workshop taught by Arthur Gain. There will be a separate post about that because (gasp!) NSFW alert, it was a workshop about figure painting. Very tasteful and respectful figure paintings (as I like to think most are in the fine art world), but still, NSFW. The workshop was FABULOUS. I’ll link to my post about it soon.
I decided to get a three-year license of Photoshop Elements. (Like they can’t even sell anything outright anymore? What’s up with that?!?) I’m toying the idea of downgrading from my subscription to Photoshop, because for editing photos of my paintings, maybe it’s overkill. I still haven’t decided, but so far, if I go in to the “Advanced” panel in Elements, it isn’t bad. Much better than I expected. And some of the time-honored keyboard shortcuts are still there!
“Alain in Limited Palette” 6×6″ oil on canvas panel. The limited palette consisted of White, Ultramarine Blue, and Burnt Sienna.
I adjusted this photo of Alain on my easel (shot at an angle to avoid glare) and was able to effectively re-square it and edit it moderately in Photoshop Elements. I still prefer the full Photoshop, but since my needs are rather basic, perhaps Elements will be sufficient!
The “small fix” referred to in the title was a few tweaks of the painting itself. I am a follower of Adam Clague’s Patreon, and he has these fabulous critiques every month over Zoom. He gave me a few tips on how to improve this painting. I did them and this is the result.
This is my latest painting, probably not my finest piece, but I had fun! Tons of fun! I used more deliberately loose impressionistic brushwork in this one and enjoyed the process immensely. I post it here because I just finished it last night. However, I have another thing I want to talk about…
QUICK AND CHEAP INTRO TO OIL PAINTING
In my last post, I touched upon AI, and also the scandal surrounding a person entering the Art Renewal Center’s contest and winning a purchase award. Problems emerged when it was discovered the artist didn’t paint the image at all, but used AI. The award was rescinded, it was very embarrassing for Art Renewal Center, but in the end, it turned out okay. Welcome to the New Normal. Every artist now has to work extra hard to prove that they did their own work!
Watching all of this drama unfold reminded me that artists who paint with physical paints (in oils, watercolors, acrylics) have an advantage, because AI is a digital-only platform. AI doesn’t encroach into our realm, unless someone is trying to pull a fast one (the way the person in the Art Renewal Center scandal did).
My blog reaches artists who already work in traditional media, but if you happen to be a digital artist who is interested in doing more oil (or acrylic) painting, I’ve got you. It’s not that hard, not that expensive, and you can get started right away.
Choose Limited Palettes to Start (No Need to Buy Lots of Paint Colors Right Away!)
“Minus” 6×6″ oil on canvas board. Limited palette of White, Burnt Umber, Ultramarine Blue, and a little bit of Yellow Ochre.
“Mercy,” 4×4″ oil on Gessobord. A limited palette of White, Alizarin Crimson Permanent, and Sap Green.
These are two examples of limited palettes, using white and maybe two or three other tubes of color. Pigments like Ivory black and iron-based colors (Burnt Sienna, Terra Rosa) are particularly affordable and are quite flexible and work well in limited palettes.
The classic starter palette (and very popular!) is the Zorn Palette. I love this palette and use it all the time.
For a digital-only artist who is not used to color mixing, a limited palette is ideal. You learn to adapt to your palette limitations because you don’t have every tube of pre-mixed color available to you. Often you aren’t going to get an exact match of the color you want with a limited palette, and there’s nothing wrong with that! It’s about color harmony, temperature, and values. If you get those right with a limited palette, you’re well on your way. Many ateliers and painting classes start their students out with a limited palette, and for good reason.
Don’t go too cheap, but don’t go too fancy when buying materials.
I have some long posts about paint brands (which I intend to update, since it’s been ten years since I wrote them), but here’s the gist of it. PLEASE don’t get super cheap colors from Amazon, Hobby Lobby, Walmart, etc., in the form of a set or a kit. These colors often fade too quickly, have the lowest-quality materials, and are hard to work with.
For “cheap” (but respectable) student oil paints, I recommend Gamblin 1980 and Maimeri Classico brand paints. (House brands like Utrecht Studio and Blick Studio are fine, as well as Lukas.) Also, Plaza Art has a house brand that is quite nice. Please get a higher-end white. I like Maimeri Classico’s Titanium White, but also Winsor & Newton Artists Titanium White (NOT Winton) will do well.
If you’re painting in acrylics, Liquitex Basics is good, but please get a better quality white, either Liquitex Artist Titanium White, Golden Titanium White, Utrecht Artist or Winsor & Newton Artist Titanium White. Student grade whites for acrylics are misery. Misery. I have tried and tried and I just cannot. (I intend to write at length about acrylics some day!)
For painting surfaces, you can buy watercolor paper, coat it with a layer or two of Golden GAC 100 Acrylic Medium, then a coat or two of acrylic Gesso, wait a day or two for everything to dry, and you’re good to go. This will work for both oils and acrylics.
There’s a lot more I’d like to say about getting into traditional painting! But this is enough for now. Happy painting!
Art Renewal Center is currently embroiled in a bit of a scandal. They gave an award to an obviously generated AI image. See the video above for further history on this. I’m very saddened. Saddened in every way.
I guess now is as good a time as any to state that I don’t use AI, not as reference, not in any way when working on my art. I do use Photoshop to process photos I take of my paintings and also to prepare references to paint from. Photoshop does have some AI features that I’m not completely aware of, and don’t really use (to my knowledge).
All I can say is I either paint from life, from photos I’ve taken, from stock photos (like posespace), royalty-free photos, or photos I have been given permission to use. Oh, and I occasionally paint some “fan art”, which requires the use of a screenshot as reference.
I don’t hide the fact that I sometimes use stock and royalty-free photos (like the ones available at RawUmberStudios) because the photographer got paid, permission is given, it’s all good. There’s a lot to learn from these photo resources, and I am very grateful for them.
Lately I’ve been taking photos of many cats of my acquaintance, as painting reference. Here are two paintings of my kitties or kitties of friends:
“Gizmo” 8×8″ oil on linen panel.
Gizmo is a sweet but mischievous cat. He and his companions are staying here while their cat dad gets his bearings. I loved this pose of Gizmo, looking out the window with the cool light on his face and fur. Gizmo just won a “Judge’s Choice” nod from the January 2025 “Daily Paintworks” contest, for which I am very grateful!
“Her Name is Blot” 8×8″ oil on linen panel.
I have a special affinity for this painting, and for this cat. Blot is a very sweet kitty, but not as objectively “pretty” as her sister, the Biter of Hands. However, Blot is a affectionate, loving kitty who just so happens can give these malevolent glares that in no way reflect her true character. I enjoyed painting her glare in this piece!
I’ve got more paintings in the works, and more things to yammer on about… hopefully will make more updates soon!
I haven’t been “gone,” I just haven’t been posting on this blog. But I have been painting! At least for the past several months with regularity. Before that, life got in the way, and also procrastination got in the way. Hopefully, that’s changing.
There’s a lot more to talk about, and I’m eager to share. But for now, I’ll just post three recent paintings and leave the rest for a future post.
“Alain in Limited Palette,” 6×6″ oil on canvas panel. This painting was not quite done when I took this photo. I have since tweaked a few things to hopefully improve the likeness. The limited palette consisted only of White, Ultramarine Blue, and Burnt Sienna.
“Sepia Tabby,” 5×7″ oil on panel. A limited palette of Burnt Umber, White, and a minimal amount of Yellow Ochre and Ultramarine Blue for the eyes.
“Yellow Crochet Flower,” 8×10″ oil on canvas panel. Part of the Raw Umber Studios challenge. This website offers royalty-free reference photos, virtual classes, and other goodies. I have an image subscription and am going to be using some of their reference photos for studies. This painting used only the Zorn Palette: White, Black, Cadmium Red, and Yellow Ochre.
So I guess the theme with these paintings is “limited palette.” I love limited palettes! They pose a challenge, but at the same time, they make it easier for the artist to have color harmony in their painting.
I feel right now like I want to go back to basics and focus on what I don’t know. Also, to find out about new things I never knew I didn’t know! It’s an endless process!
Yes, I’ve been busy painting lots of cat portraits and human portraits. Because I’ve been neglectful in updating this blog, I’m dumping a lot of new oil paintings in this post!
“Sun-kissed Tabby,” 6×6″ oil on canvas panel
This painting was just completed tonight, but it waited on my easel for way, way too long. So glad to finally call it “done”! I really loved capturing all the different colors I saw in this kitty, not least was the light showing through the ears.
“A Lock of Red Hair,” 12×12″ oil on panel. Photo reference by Marvin Mansilla (used with permission).
This is another painting that took a long time to complete. I actually signed it years ago, but only recently decided that it was truly “done” after a few touch-ups. I saw this fantastic photo on Instagram, contacted the photographer, Marvin Mansilla, to get permission to do a painting. He said yes, and here is the result! Thank you so much, Marvin, for being such an amazing photographer!
“Corazón roto” 6×6″ oil on canvas panel
I’m learning some new techniques and studying some new (to me) art concepts. One new thing is speed painting, or oil “gestures.” The goal is to see how much can be done in an hour. Well, I couldn’t quite finish this painting in an hour—it took 80 minutes. But I’m still surprised with myself! This painting is part of my “novela” series (paintings inspired by Mexican telenovelas).
In this portrait painting, this poor man obviously has had his heart broken, hence the title “Corazón roto” (broken heart).
I used a limited palette of White and Burnt Umber. I like Winsor & Newton’s Burnt Umber, as it has a warmer cast than some other paint brands.
“Minus the Tabby” 6×6″ oil on canvas panel
This is another “speed paint,” or a “gesture” painting, though it took longer than an hour. (Probably two hours?) This time I used a limited palette of Burnt Umber, White, Ultramarine Blue, a tiny bit of Yellow Ochre to mix the green eyes and a tiny bit of red to add some color to the nose.
Minus is one of my kitties. She is named after a cat we had when I was a kid. My dad named the original “Minus,” but I have no idea why he chose that name. (He had a propensity to giving everything and everyone weird or hilarious nicknames!)
Minus is a very sweet kitty, but a little “minus” in the brains department, alas. But of course she is very loved!
“Wide-Eyed” 4×4″ oil on canvas panel.
I loved the reflection in the eyes of this kitty and enjoyed capturing the many colors in the fur and also that wide-eyed expression.
Yes, another cat painting! I decided to go small again, and recently completed this tiny kitty portrait in oils. As I mentioned in a previous post, I love Trekell’s mini painting panels, which was what I used here. The texture on the painting surface is far smoother than the other mini 2×2″ canvas panels on the market.
For scale: The little painting next to an iPhone SE.
I can complete a painting this small in a relatively short amount of time, but in this case, I thought I had “finished” the painting but then changed my mind and did a little more work on it a few days later. Sometimes artists need to get some distance from recently finished art to see if there is anything else that needs a little work, and that was the case here. What also surprised me was how I was able to add far more details than I expected on something of this size, which is a good thing!
This painting is currently available for sale on DailyPaintworks.
I’m currently working on several more cat paintings and also just started another portrait from my “Novela series.” It feels so, so SO good to be back to painting!
I neglected to post these paintings earlier, after I first painted them. But it’s never too late. Here they are now!
I painted “Mini Siamese Kitty” on a Trekell Mini Panel. I LOVE LOVE LOVE these panels and bought an embarrassingly large amount of them. They now reside in my substantial stash of painting panels.
They are fabulous panels because they have a subtle texture that isn’t too overpowering when you’re painting that small. I much prefer them over extra-small panels that use canvas.
To give you context to comprehend how small this painting is, behold:
Mini Siamese Kitty next to a pink packet of sweetener. Just so you understand HOW SMALL this painting is!
“Green-Eyed Kitty” 3×3″ oil on panel.
I really enjoyed painting this tabby. I used a 3×3″ mini panel from Trekell with that same sublime subtle texture. So much fun to paint on—so much fun!
“Fluffy Tabby in the Grass” 5×5″ oil on canvas panel
I enjoyed painting this tabby kitty with all the grass reflecting on his fur. The size at 5×5″ was a little small, but since oil paint is so smooth and buttery it’s amazing how much detail you can capture if the canvas texture is not too rough.
“Siamese Tabby” 6×6″ oil on canvas panel
The color cast of the reference photo was a little warmish and I battled capturing the contrast between the warm yellow-greens and the magenta-burgundy colors in the shadows. In the end, I liked the way the painting turned out. Such beautiful blue eyes on this kitty!
Inspired by telenovelas
“Ana” 6×6″ oil on canvas panel
I fussed with this portrait a bit, but…what the heck, put a fork in it, it is done!
If you’ve seen a few select shows in the USA or if you speak Spanish (or study Spanish), you might (might! the likeness isn’t perfect!) recognize this woman. She’s a Mexican telenovela actress and I love the telenovelas. Many of the small portrait studies I paint are “inspired” (meaning the likeness is purposely not 100% there) by Mexican telenovelas. I am learning Spanish and watching Spanish TV is a great learning tool. But I’d be lying if I claimed I just watched telenovelas to practice Spanish. I also just love the over-the-top drama and the gorgeous Mexican landscapes and architecture. Watching my telenovelas is a true guilty pleasure.
There is a wealth of inspiring painting material from these telenovelas (so many emotions expressed, so much drama!) and so I’ve got a queue of reference photos from telenovelas lined up, ready to be painted.
