More California Auto Museum sketches

Here are the other sketches from the California Auto Museum Plein air Painting Meet-up. 

This top one is a quick pencil sketch of the car that you see when you first walk in.

 The second one is my "entrance fee", a 10 minute sketch on a note card (it was more like 25 minutes) that I donated to the museum.

 Here is a compilation of the other artists' note cards. I am not sure whose is who's, except for the bottom one. Martha Esch was working on the same 1935 Cadillac as I was sketching.

Watercolor Painting of Model T Ford at the California Auto Museum

Painting cars has never been something that I have done much of since my goal is to be out in nature as much as possible, but I was invited to a Plein Air meet-up at the California Auto Museum and decided it would be a good challenge. Martha Esch, the host of the event, had arranged for our "payment" into the museum to be a quick sketch on a note card to be donated to the museum. What an awesome idea! Of course my quick sketch ended up taking me almost 30 minutes.

It was quite an honor being able to go inside the museum to paint, as long as we didn't spill or clean our brushes like Bob Ross ( ha ha!) There are so many great cars there from a Delorean to a Dodge Pacer. The cars are placed close together though so it was hard to get a good spot to paint. I found a Model T that was in a nice quiet corner. The museum lighting was the hardest part to work with. The model T had a flat finish so reflection was minimal. But then determining how much detail to add or omit was challenging as well. Overall I think it turned out well.

Check out more sketches from this trip to the California Auto Museum here.

Plein Air painting at I -Fest in Rancho Cordova

Here is a step-by-step look at me painting plein air at the Rancho Cordova I-Fest, a display of the city's international diversity. The Sacramento Plein Air group was invited to document the event.

I started with a rough outline with an Expo dry erase pen,
and then washed in sky and began working on the background.

Working my way down, adding in more background.

Filling in the foreground.

Add in shadows.

A few minor details... and voila!

This was a very challenging project because I have always avoided drawing people, and here was a huge crowd! Also thought I'd throw a dog in there just for sport! Here is my "almost complete" artwork displayed next to David Peterson's work.

Artist at work.

I forgot to give my wife credit for the photos.  I was too busy to even notice that she was taking them, but it worked out well for showing the steps. Thank you Joann!

Locke, again!

Locke is one of those towns that just lends its self to creativity.  The buildings are so unique and the walkways throughout the town create these unusual perspectives.  The last time I was here, Painting Locke, I found myself challenged by the rules of perspective, which seem even more extreme down the long narrow main street of the town.  So this time, I put the vanishing point in the middle of the painting.  The details of the buildings was where the challenge laid this time.  I found that interpreting them into geometric shapes was the best solution.  And the negative spaces between created the supporting beams (as well as a buffer to keep the colors from bleeding together). 

The left side of the street was obscured from my view, so it didn't get any attention other than the shadows that were cast. I need to work on foreshortening  cars, but this was my first attempt at painting cars (putting cars into a painting!) so I thought I did pretty well. I liked the big yellow street sign at the end of the street so it got more emphasis in the painting than can be seen in the photo.

I think my favorite part of the painting, though, is the motorcycle in the foreground.  I was just experimenting with different shades of black and trying to get the essence of  the bike and its shadow without too much detail.