A still life i arranged, enjoying the saturated colors of the wet shells and seaweed under the grey morning sky. For scale, the broken bit of purple clam shell is half an inch wide on the edge parallel with the crab claw.
Archive for the ‘Today’s Log’ Category
Still Life: Brockton Point Color
Sunday, June 24th, 2007Wooden waves
Sunday, June 24th, 2007
I took many photos yesterday as i wandered Stanley Park. This image in full size is a little less sharp than i’d like, but the image stabilization feature on the new camera did an amazing job of allowing the image to be taken in the woods on a grey morning. I’ve another with a flash and i may see if i was consistent enough in my crouched shooting pose to merge the flash and natural light images. Someday. When there’s time….
Happy with Aerial Photos, for once
Tuesday, June 19th, 2007
The shots of the Cascade range peaks i took from the plane please me for once. This isn’t a peak, though, but probably Birch Bay, south of Vancouver. I loved looking at the patterns of the mud flats as we came in for a landing.
In Progress, as well
Monday, June 4th, 2007
I also did these tonal works a week or so ago. I think the paper i used was sold as palette paper, which i must have purchased before the birthday when Christine gave me the glass palette. Stretching the paper with masking tape at the corners helped keep the warping down and the dry pieces are satisfactory, especially as studies.
I want to keep layering color, but Christine became quite fond of the green piece as it is. I do like the tree, which has an underpainting of Golden’s light modeling paste, giving the bark texture a very tactile presence.
I really do love painting *textures* as much as saturated colors. The red has high gloss + tar gels that are slick, contrasting with the stained gesso.
Update from July 2005
Monday, June 4th, 2007
In late July 2005, I painted the grisaille under painting for this work. I froze up though, knowing that i don’t have the skills to bring my vision to the canvas. A couple weeks ago I added some color, finally. I think i’ve overworked the stormy sky and the water — which is much more translucent in person — is too dark. I’ve a white pigment that is supposed to be more translucent (titanium is more translucent than zinc), but it’s still more opaque. Ah well.
The first coatings of hansa yellow made the torso look jaundiced; i warmed it up with a red, and probably wiped off more than i applied — but it works.
I really don’t know what to do with the flying buttresses and how to imply more clearly that they are part of the being with the torso. I suppose having the window go “behind” her hip doesn’t support that idea, does it.
Oh well, in another couple of years….
[And then there's the whole sad state of the dead photo album links and the sad state of some of the imported MovableType entries.]
See the Flickr Image
Sunday, May 13th, 2007It’s a different sort of digital image, but it’s still fun to work with (except when one mis-copies digits in calculations).
In other news, i finished off the lingering roll of film yesterday (Roll2007.06, i think.) with some telephoto images of a goldfinch. I should remember to use shutter speed priority when using the telephoto.
I’m loading Roll2007.07 — Kodak HD4 24 400/27° — to have ready for the next bird opportunity that comes along.
[I don't know why the post-from-Flickr failed.]
May Day(-ish) Gardening
Saturday, May 5th, 2007Since i was out of town on May Day, the little bit of gardening for the season happened today. A trip to Summerwinds Nursery while Christine was at Foothill’s gym resulted in a red azalea for the dining room sideboard table and a variety of herbs and a few veggies.
At home, i got the last of the potting soil and mixed with worm castings. That filled a new low bowl planter — this one plastic — and a medium pot. In the low bowl i planted the six beans (I hope they’re runner beans!), dill, and two varieties of basil. In the pot went a Poblano pepper (if i recall correctly) and some sage. I pulled up most of the ginger root from the square planter, and left only two small nubs that looked like they’d sprout. There was already English mint in that planter; i added pineapple mint. In the herb planter, where the tarragon and thyme looked a little peaked, i added a lemon balm and loosened the soil a bit. I added a nice thyme to the oregano planter; Greybeard’s taken to sleeping in that planter, too.
Bursts of creativity on Sunday
Monday, April 23rd, 2007
Christine mentioned she needed some green and purple earrings to go with some of her outfits recently. When i passed a rack of beads at the craft store, i had an excuse to browse. Note that i’ve made a bracelet and necklace but not quite the earrings.
The bracelet is a little large and a less graceful that ideal — i rushed it. But i can’t manage leaving projects dangling around these days.
I also shot a handful of frames from Roll2007.06, lingering in my camera from our trip to Florida in late February. A flock of Cedar Waxwings was feeding on the eucalyptus blossoms yesterday afternoon, and they’re back this morning. I think i can smell the honeyed scent of nectar this morning — surely that’s a jasmine somewhere and not the eucalyptus. Yet watching the birds feed on the pompom blossoms, it seems they should have a wonderful scent.
Still in progress
Wednesday, April 4th, 2007
This is as much would fit on the scanner, perhaps the center. What i like about it so far is scraping off the red to reveal the textured surface below. (See here for the white & black layer.) I also like the almost opalescent effect of the green through the red.
Christine likes the red very much, which reminds me too much of ground beef. Her reaction triggers an almost perverse sense of challenge: can one paint expressionistically of intense emotion and use blues and greens?
The red: naphthol light red with a bit of q. magenta and some carbon black, mixed both with matte and gel medium
Color Notes
Sunday, April 1st, 2007Medium
Last night i used the fan brush, some soft gel, and the liquid hansa yellow and a touch of quid. red to paint a sheet of water color paper. I don’t know why i am so fond of yellow as a background, because i don’t think it is a good background, technically.
However, i’m preparing myself to ruin the lovely field of daffodil yellow (the streaks of quid. red from the base giving a subtle “up” and “down”-ness, a warmer weight at the base) with some blue. I ought to make the paint opaque, but still find myself enamored with the floating color in the clear gels.
We’ll see what happens.