Figure Drawing

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Another progress post

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I've been working on this little painting copy the past few days when I get a chance. If you know much about current artists, I'm sure you recognize this one immediately ;) My copy isn't perfect--the drawing's a little off here and there, and goodness, I'm having a hard time matching the greenish hues in his grays--I want to make everything more warm. But I'm learning so much copying this. There's something very different about gazing at a painting with the intent of recreating the effect and then actually trying to do it, versus just gazing at a painting. He is very careful about the temperature of each brushstroke--it's a constant play between warm and cool, muted and more saturated (though really, almost everything is so beautifully muted to a degree). Also, there are very few flat color shapes. It's as though each brush of paint is half-mixed, creating so much variety within what would appear to be very small, simple shapes. I also love ...
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Painting en plein air

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5x7, water mixable oil on linen panel, 10/23/15 The clouds have been unbelievable lately here in Utah--so big and billowy. Whenever I go outside, I have this urge to paint! But I'm not a landscape painter (yet)... not that I wouldn't like to be. I'd like to be able to paint whatever I want :) However, I used to have this idea that I just couldn't paint landscapes (after a couple of miserable failed attempts).  But now I'm thinking, "Why not?" I'm sure I can learn how with some practice, and I do want to. I'm finding lately (especially since starting this blog and recording some of my thoughts as I go along), that I have this constant inner dialogue regarding my art. There's always a voice saying "you're not any good and you might as well not bother." I don't like that voice. And since I'm more aware of it, I'm becoming more effective and pushing it away. Who really cares if I'm not any good anyway? No on...
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Portrait painting from "life" ;)

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Haha, a month or two ago I was perusing the local thrift store with the kids, and came across this beauty school mannequin in the toy department. It has real human hair :o and isn't really very lifelike, in my opinion. But I thought she might hold still and let me paint her ;) And she does. But painting portraits is sort of really, really hard. I think it was in a John F. Carlson book that I read something along the lines that a good picture is nothing but a series of good corrections. And I was correcting and correcting and correcting here (mostly the drawing, of course--the color I may worry about later). Which sometimes feels a little discouraging, but that's just what it is. Correcting. Over and over and over. At least the setup is very repeatable. And I guess $4.99 was a pretty reasonable unlimited model fee ;) Also, I feel like I have no idea what I'm doing, but that doesn't mean I won't eventually, right? Except for one 20 minute attempt at painting my k...
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