I’ve been picking at this painting for a few days, and I think it’s time to say, put a fork in it, it is done!
“Siamese Cat Head” 8×8″ oil on panel
Thanks to Lily-Stock of dA for the photo I used as reference. I don’t currently have a siamese kitty at home, so I had to use a stock photo as reference.
This kitty looks a bit like a Siamese version of Grumpy Cat. It wasn’t deliberate! I guess I smooshed the face in somehow, or made the kitty look extra sour, or in some other way grumpified it a bit. In any case, I still kind of like how the painting turned out.
8×8″ oil on panel. It’s on a thicker, high quality archival wood panel, primed with acrylic priming. There is no “dovetail” slot (hanging slot) in the back, so it’ll need to be framed.
I enjoyed the challenge of capturing the colors in this kitty. There was a lot of blue in the fur and highlights, as well as warm tones. I’d like to do some more paintings of siamese cats.
I’ve been absent from this blog for too long! That’s mostly because I’ve been busy migrating all my stuff to a new, bigger studio.
I have waaaay too much stuff, particularly art stuff, like panels, boards, paints, brushes, and other art STUFF. My previous studio, while very cozy, was too cramped for all my STUFF. One day I snapped and said, “This is it!” and decided to move to a new studio, which is far roomier.
But first, a new painting. “Male Profile,” again using my fave model, Jason Aaron Baca (photographer Portia Shao).
“Male Profile,” 6×6″ oil on panel.
I tried to go with a looser feel in this portrait and think I like the direction I’m going. The palette was simple—I don’t think I technically used a Zorn Palette, but I did try to keep it limited. Really loving the limited palette these days.
Now onto the studio—it’s not huge, but so much bigger than my postage-stamp-sized previous studio. Not that I didn’t love that studio too (got a LOT of work done there!) but I was running out of room, fast. Something had to give! And this new studio can accommodate a computer & scanner, and even a little kitchenette of sorts (hot plate, dorm fridge, and so forth). Very conducive to getting a lot of work done, I hope!
View of Studio
This is just a small view of the studio, which still needs to have more STUFF schlepped in to it. I’m trying to be sure to protect the carpet from the oil paint, as you can see with the variety of rugs and so forth littering the floor!
“Black Hat” 8×10″ oil on panel. Thanks to Cathleen Tarawhiti on dA for the beautiful photo I used as reference!
The latest effort, only I’ve been picking at it and picking at it for a while now . . . I don’t know why some paintings are like that. There are the paintings that come together in a few hours, and then others that I have to revisit and fix this and fix that. Why why why? 😉
I liked the simple color scheme in this one (lots of black and grey) and the drama of the pose.
A very limited palette was used on this one. I maybe used some magenta or perm. alizarin crimson somewhere, but for the most part I tried to limit it to Zorn: White, Black, Vermillion (Cadmium Red Light), and Yellow Ochre. There wasn’t much need for many more colors than that.
I used an 8×10″ acrylic-primed panel from Dick Blick, it’s got a canvas-like texture which I kind of like!
I’m a “cat person” and have been enjoying painting these series of cat heads. I had a lot of fun capturing the various whites and greys in this B&W kitty’s face. The subtle colors found in the white fur, the shadows of the fur, was a challenge that I enjoyed very much.
Thanks to azaleapoena on dA for the stock photo I used as reference!
Grey CAT HEAD, 5×5″ oil on panel.
This one looks a bit grumpy or sour. An alternate title might be “Glowering Grey Cat Head.” I enjoyed finding the various greys (warm and cool greys, dark and light greys) in the cat’s coat. Thank you to nickistock of dA for the use of the photo for reference!
“Hidden Heart” 9×12″ oil on linen panel. Many thanks to Jason Aaron Baca (model) and Portia Shao (photographer) for the reference photo!
This is a “put a fork in it, it is done” painting. I do like it, but I also think there comes a point where if you pick at something too much, you ruin it. I think I’ve reached that point.
I actually started this painting a few months ago, for a Valentine’s Day painting challenge (we had to do a painting with a “hidden heart” in it somewhere). I returned to tweak a few more things on it just a few days ago. And now I think it’s time to call it done, even though, as always, I see things that I would like to tweak some more. But there’s a limit, right? And it’s time to move on. Right? 😉
It does seem like I do a lot of paintings of Jason Aaron Baca. And I do! He is awesome. He’s a highly popular figure on DeviantArt.com, where he has a plethora of reference (“stock”) photos available for artists to use. I have been collecting these photos for a long time now and am on a roll, doing a series of paintings from some of them. I love the drama of some of the shots!
The painting is on 9×12″ linen panel, by Fredrix. It’s classified as “archival” (meaning it is durable and won’t fall apart before its time). Fredrix has archival boards available in linen as well as cotton, and the linen ones have the option of being primed with either acrylic or oil-based primer. This painting was primed with acrylic, if memory serves.
There’s something quite sublime about the texture of linen, I can’t describe it exactly, but I like it very much. I’ve stockpiled quite a few of these boards for future use.
I started this painting a while ago, and finally finished it! I love cats and have already painted a few, and plan to paint many more in the near future.
The amount of subtle colors in a white cat are astonishing! I had such a wonderful time trying to capture not only the colors, but the values (level of light and dark) as well. I started out by using a printout as my reference, but finished up by referring to a photo on my iPad. Wow, the colors showed differently. I had to wing it.
Thanks to sarahharas1 of DeviantArt for the fabulous reference photo.
I did some final tweaking to this painting and I think it’s done!
For some reason I had trouble with this; perhaps it’s still “not right,” but I believe in letting go eventually and moving on to the NEXT! So that’s what I will do with this.
Again I used a reference photo from Jason Aaron Baca (model) with photographer Portia Shao. I love his photos because there’s so much drama there. I love the drama! He’s so generous to make his stock photos available to artists.
With this pose there was a slight “searching” or “beseeching” expression on his face, which I enhanced. I did a few slight adjustments to his features (just to mix it up a little). I hope this will make for a somewhat arresting portrait.
Painted with oils on another Sourcetek (I think—or was it Raymar? I think it was Sourcetek) panel. I love the texture of these panels. I covered the entire panel with a thinned-down layer of Transparent Oxide Red, which I wiped away in some spots (to paint in the face and flesh tones) but I left much of the Oxide Red still there. I think it worked as the background.
Another painting done, and a couple others that haven’t been blogged about yet.
“Demure” oil on Sourcetek canvas panel, 8×8″.
And yet again, I used one of my favorite photographer’s work for reference. Thank you Cathleen Tarawhiti for the use of this stock photo!
I always feel I’m in the process of learning, and many times there is this feeling of uncertainty—did I get this right? Am I off the track. . . again? I guess all artists go through this to some extent.
It was fun to explore the cools and warms in this subject. I purposely left parts of it unfinished—that’s the fun of it! Let a bit of the canvas texture to show through!
Now onto another recent effort, still not done as I feel I must fuss with it some more.
“Roman Youth” 6×8″ oil on Sourcetek panel.
Many thanks to Jason Aaron Baca and Portia Shao for the stock photo I used as reference! Mr. Baca (the model) is another favorite of mine; I have quite a few of his photos on my iPad, ready to paint!
In this photo I am struggling with a few things, so it’s not quite done yet. I hope to finalize this little oil sketch in the next day or two.
The reference photo shows a fuller-length pose of Mr. Baca in some sort of Roman-style period costume, and him looking up, searchingly . . . I enhanced that expression (plus changed his features just a tiny bit—like to mix it up!) and came up with this. I want to tweak a few things a bit more and then I hope it’s done! And onto the next painting.
And both of these above paintings were painted on Sourcetek panels. I love, love, my Sourcetek! I’ve been doing some spring cleaning and have been finding hidden pockets of Sourcetek. Here, there, everywhere they are stashed! Those 5-packs of boards in various sizes and types (oil primed linen, acrylic-primed canvas, hardboard, birch, all types!). I had no idea that I’d bought so many! Well, it’s time to use them up!
And I forgot, one last painting from a few days ago:
“Piercing Gaze” 6×8″ oil on Sourcetek panel.
Yep, another Sourcetek panel, I believe! This time I used a stock photo by Stockingbird on DeviantArt. The original photo was a nude (crouched pose) but I couldn’t get past the face—the sublime warms and cools, the neutrals, they cried for attention. For this painting I used a Zorn Palette (which I’ve used before) which is an excellent way to get back on track with color. You only have black, white, vermillion (orangey-red) and black to work with. You mix all your colors with that. Adding black to colors can cool them down and you can create some good subdued blue-greys and greens with the addition of black. Another interesting experiment. It won’t be the last time I use the Zorn Palette!
I’ve been a busy, busy bee, painting and painting and painting!
This post is the story of two profile paintings, and learning when to stop, or in other words, am I quitting too soon? Or going too far? I am still learning and don’t always get it right.
The other day I started a painting, got it sort of “done,” and posted it on Facebook. I got some compliments. But I didn’t think I was done! So I did some more to it. And then even more. And I do NOT think it’s improved. I should have quit while I was ahead.
So tonight, I did a little oil sketch and “quit while I was ahead.” Maybe I’ll have to find a few dabs here and there to touch up, but I very much hope that there won’t be much more to add to it.
Blue Shadows, 6×8″ oil on panel
Thanks to hermitmessiah on DeviantArt for the use of the stock photo. I found the reference photo so fascinating because of the strong color shifts, and wanted to try to capture warm/cool temperatures in the blues and greens in the shadows and reflected light, as well as the muted flesh tones. Also loved the overall pose and expression.
Here’s the painting from the other day that I should have also quit while I was ahead, but didn’t.
Eavesdropping, 6×8″ oil on linen panel.
There’s a little more I need to do; it’s probably not “ruined” (at least I hope not) but I should have just stopped earlier.
The problem was, it didn’t look enough like the reference photo, and while it doesn’t have to be an exact likeness (I was going for a feel, and expression, not the likeness per se), I wanted the likeness a little better! I mourn the loss of the original version, which was fresher and simpler, but didn’t look like the guy in the photo at all.
This painting is part of my “novela” series, which I find great fun, so many wonderful expressions and emotions to explore!
Again I use a “favorite” model, Jason Aaron Baca. (Photo reference credit: Photographer Portia Shao positivevista.com – Model: Jason Aaron Baca jasonaaronbaca.deviantart.com) Mr. Baca has a plethora of stock photos on DeviantArt, available for artists to use as reference. So often his photos are fraught with drama and imagination, so I have used his stock several times and plan to use more!
With this photo, it was a photo of his figure (I think waist-up) but I found the expression on his face so arresting, as well as the dramatic lighting, that I thought I could make something of it. Really enjoyed working on this one.
Painted on an oil-primed panel by RayMar. (Love my Raymar panels!)
