Another moon picture

I finished this a couple months ago, I guess. I don't know why, but for some reason I cropped out part of the bottom in this photo, and now the picture is in a frame so I can't get another photo. Oh well, you get the idea. This is about 13 inches wide.

A friend of mine said she likes it, so I'll probably give it to her. I like it, also, but I have about four or five other pictures (all much smaller) I did about the same time, each with a moon in it, so I guess it's no problem giving one away. I think I'm out of my moon phase. No idea what possessed me to do a flurry of moon pictures, but one cool thing was that the day after I framed this one we had a full moon and when it got low in the horizon it looked almost exactly like this one. Kind of neat how that felt.

Interesting news

I just heard from the National Watercolor Society advising me I was one of those whose work was chosen for their 2012 annual all-members juried exhibit. I should point out that this isn't their "major" annual exhibit. In fact, it's probably not "major" in any true sense, even if it's a "national" exhibit.

But anyway, you know what this means: The price of my pictures has just doubled! Now, instead of not being available for sale, they're not available at twice the price! Sweeeeeeeet!


Well, if nothing else, it qualifies me for "signature" membership in the Alaska Watercolor Society. Which means I can put AKWS after my name on my paintings. Oh, wait, I just remembered: I don't sign any paintings unless I'm giving them away, and I only give them to people I know.....not sure what advantage being a signature member will be, but it sort of sounds cool.

Sorry about the boasting, but this is kind of a nice recognition. It almost makes me want to take up painting again....

Anyway, the exhibit opens April 5 and runs through  May 13 at the NWS gallery in San Pedro, CA, if anyone's in the area and feels like looking at what's sure to be a collection of high quality paintings.

Continued older picture

I think I started this picture in 2009, maybe 2010, and this is what it looked like when I considered it "done."

I never framed it. I put it on a shelf with a bunch of other pictures that were incomplete, and maybe every couple months I'd take it down and look at it for a bit. Even though it had a lot of stuff in it that I really enjoyed, it just never felt ready to frame.
Finally one day I stood it up across the room and just stared at it for a while. (It's on a piece of Strathmore 400 Bristol, so it stands up pretty easily.)
Then I went at it, and now I consider it finished. It's something like 19 X 14 inches, so you can get a better idea of the size of the forms in this. Trust me, I have no idea how much time went into making this picture, and I really don't want to know or even guess.
I cut a black mat and mounted and framed the picture. I'll risk sounding arrogant here: This picture looks so beautiful framed. I'm really happy with it now.
Here's the final version. I won't touch it again.

 

(I just realized how dull the first photo is. I'll see if I can adjust the levels in it in Pixlr and bring the color up. It's probably got a bad white level that's casting a blue/gray tint over the actual colors. Sorry, I didn't want to give the impression that I'd miraculously brightened the finished picture.) 

Here, let's see if the adjusted original looks better:

 

Better, but I really don't know if it's accurate. This picture looks different as the light in the room changes, so I've never known when I'm seeing the "true" picture. Oh well, you get the general idea. 

By the way, if you click on any of the photos they all open in a sort of slideshow gallery, so you can look at them side-by-side. Just passing that along for anyone that might not know about that (ha ha, as if there's anyone reading this! as far as I can tell all visitors are spambots!)

Last one for now

I'm taking a break from painting for a bit. I finished this one and only have to decide which way to hang it. It has a different feel depending on how it's turned. Kind of fitting that the last one I'm doing has confused me like this.

This is roughly 11 X 14 inches.

 

Edit: I matted this with a cream colored mat and put it in a natural-looking wood frame I had and hung it in the orientation of the third photo above. It never ceases to amaze me how a painting can come to life once it's set off by a mat. This picture is one of those ones that seems to change as the light in the room changes through the day. Really, really happy with this picture....too bad it's not larger but it's painted on a piece of bristol that's only 12 X 16, so I can tell myself there wasn't any way to make it significantly bigger. 

Maybe some day I'll start one on the big 22 X 30 piece of Strathmore bristol I've been saving for a couple years. Right now, though, I can't imagine having the mental energy to even consider something so time-consuming. This picture took long enough. As far as I can determine, I started it in September 2010, so it took at least 14 months to complete it. No big deal. I've got one that I started almost three years ago that sits waiting for me, and another one that promises to be really special that's easily a year old and not even 10% complete. Good thing I have no deadlines to meet.

Happy holidays

Just some cards I made for people this year.

 

Small moon picture

I just realized that I refer to this as a picture of the moon and it seems to look more like the sun.... the thing is, it felt like the moon while I was making the picture.

I think this is about 6 1/2 X 4 1/2 inches, something like that. I'm trying to decide whether to make a large version of it, but I have so many other pictures in limbo right now I might have to put it off. I'll also have to figure out if I want to make the moon more pale. I have another small picture I recently did that has a pretty cool looking moon in it, sort of a faint yellow / gray mix that feels cooler than the warm gold in this picture. Sorry, I can't get a good photo of the other one. I think I'm getting in a rut with all these pictures with lots of blue and gold/ochre/naples yellow/deep raw sienna in them.... time to do other things, I guess... back to the grays and browns and boring stuff, I suppose.

I didn't make much effort at getting any atmospheric perspective in this. If it was a larger picture I'd try to move the cliffs back and put in some sharp detailed stuff in the foreground. Still, it's just a card so I can't justify spending more time on it than I already did (which was quite a bit considering the size). I'm happy with it, and I have to decide who to send it to....ha ha, I'll probably keep it, as I tend to do with the ones I really like.
One of the best parts of this picture is the stuff on the left side. The shadowed area at the horizon worked great, and the variation in the terrain on that side is pretty nice. There's lots of stuff in the picture that I could have done better, so it's a good learning experience.

Fly to the moon

This is about 11 X 15 inches. It's painted on a piece of cardboard. I have no idea why I used cardboard for this, but pretty much any white piece of paper or mat board / Bristol board / illustration board seems fair game.

This is nearly finished. I need to fiddle around with a couple of the forms in it, but otherwise, it's complete enough to post here. It's a happy picture, I think.

 

I guess I should mention that this picture is a followup to this other one, which is about 7 X 5 inches. Sorry, I couldn't get a better photo of it. The blues in this small one are really pretty.

Another one with a gray background

The problem with these things - aside from how much time they take, which is probably my most common and tiresome complaint - is that they really wear me out, because each one seems to involve me more. The first ones were instinctive. This one was a bit more deliberate. Another one I've started has already stumped me, because the background is different than I had envisioned and I have to debate whether to leave it as is or continue to mess around with it. Its character changed immediately after the background went in. I guess I'll just remind myself that it's just a small picture and nothing's really lost if it doesn't turn out as well as I'd hoped. It wouldn't be the first time that happened, not by a long shot.

 

 I probably should try to get a crisper photo than this one to show some detail, because the lower half of this picture is really something else in person. The foreground stuff at the bottom has wonderful texture, and the standing form absolutely feels like something tangible and three-dimensional. This picture was painted with a certain rhythm that might be a one-time thing. I'll take it, and I'll hope I get that rhythm again some day.