Volunteer Parade of Lights

The parade of lights volunteer had to wait till the event was over to have time to pose. He grew up down the road from me so the conversation kept going catching up on what everyone is up to. 

11" x 14" oil on mdf 

Volunteer no. 44

I start with the face and often leave the rest for when I work at home. I was working on the shirt when I noticed that the orange looked out of place. I had to add a little bit of the shirt color into the face. That is what happens when I add a color that was not originally on my palette.

11" x 14" oil on panel 

Volunteer no 46

Another volunteer. I have 5 more to go. At one point we were not sure that we would make 52 but right now we are on track.

11" x 14" oil on panel

Lions Club Volunteer

I gave a demo for the Lion's Club's monthly meeting. The volunteer started out looking straight ahead but with all that was going on changed positions, looking to the side. I just worked with what I had and wiped the image off when I got home. This image is from the photo that I took. I sometimes wonder if that is how Picasso's Dora Maar Au Chat started out and he just said the heck with it I will work with what I have.

11" x 14" oil on panel.

Volunteer

I am trying to play catch up on the volunteers. The original plan was to paint one a week, but I got behind. Now I am painting 3 this week. I also painted his wife and that makes 3 couples in the project. Volunteerism seems to be a good activity to do together. 

11" x 14" oil on panel 

Christmas pins 2015

I try to make these every year to give as gifts. I only managed to get 5 successful paintings. They are watercolor and ink on mat board, then sprayed with a fixative. The beads are strung on a needle then dipped into acrylic gloss medium. Then carefully pulled the needle out(that explains the crooked bead lines). Finally a layer of gloss medium over the image and bead, Sign on the back and attach clasp.

After the Rain

This was in a previous post as a study. I had stopped on my way to another plein air painting location. This stream is close to a bridge which I could set up under to paint this plein air. I just need to buy rain boots. They now come in lots of fun colors and styles, not like when I was growing up on the farm and all you had were army green rubber boots.

16" x 8" oil on canvas

Startled

I painted this from a photo-shopped reference. The rabbits came from different scenes that throws off the lighting. 

10" x 8" oil on canvas

Calendar for 2015

I decided to try my hand at creating a 2015 calendar using my animal paintings. They can be ordered from this site: http://www.lulu.com/shop/my-calendar/calendar/product-22457703.html

I played with the backgrounds in Photoshop creating some in plaid using sections of the paintings. 

Preview of the images since I could not preview it on the website.

Volunteer Vietnam Vets

This was tougher. I have seen Dean Mitchell's wonderful painting on the internet and I can't help but compare my attempt at skin tones. Even on the internet his are so rich with wonderful darks. When working from life you see so many different colors that do not show up in the photos I use to tweak these images. 

My palette from a couple of days ago with Photoshopped color samples. It may be a little late but I need to do color charts of skin tones. Just look at the many different colors of makeup out there. I remember my first pastel class when the instructor told me to add green to the shadow. I did what he said expecting weird results only to be amazed at the ability to create depth and dimension on a face. Just look at Rose Frantzen's portraits some have green and it works perfectly. There is a limit to blues and greens, sometimes too much with the wrong combination will give someone a dirty face or worse yet a five o'clock shadow on a woman.

11" x 14" oil on panel 

Heritage Roses

Taking a break from the portrait to do a quick study. I have two portraits today and 3 to finish tweaking.

Filling in the pinks

The rough in.

6" x 8" oil on canvas

volunteer

I still have trouble with grey hair. Sometimes I will just use black and white especially when I am in a hurry. 

11" x 14" oil on panel.  

Volunteer of the year

This volunteer came in wearing a pink top and requested I change it to red. Neva also took a couple of classes with Carroll and me. I really don't know how she found the time, because if there was an event that needed volunteers she was there.

11" x 14" oil on panel

Volunteer for the new rec center

The volunteer representing the new rec center. A huge undertaking for the community. They just opened the fields this fall. Great for the youth of our community.

11" x 14" oil on panel

Volunteer

This is the wife of the volunteer from the post on October 30th. They are honored for volunteering for different organizations, although they often volunteer together. 

11" x 14" oil on panel

Volunteer

I have not had a woman pose for a while. 

11" x 14" oil on panel

Vietnam Vet Volunteer

The first of two volunteers for the veterans. 

11" x 14" oil on canvas on panel

Hospital Volunteer

Another great volunteer from the hospital. There are several different organizations involved with the local hospital. He is of Italian descent and has great blue eyes. So many great faces with such a wide combinations of facial features. Every face is so interesting. 

11" x 14" oil on panel

Fishing in a Blue Boat

We went out plein air painting at Wilson lake. Although the trees lost there color early or did not have much this year I found this blue in blue fisherman. Painting as fast as I could I managed to get him done before he moved on. Then I worked on the landscape behind him with a tip from Jessica to paint the tree holes a darker shade of blue than the more open sky above. The sun was shining at me but that is what made the great light on the fisherman.

6" x 8" oil on canvas

Volunteer

I also painted his wife for volunteering for another group. He came in looking for her finished portrait which I am still working on. I don't know why some come easier than others. I guess as an artist I am also a work in progress.

11" x 14" oil on panel