Study of a Sunflower

Playing with other mediums other than watercolors keeps me on my toes. I started with a colored pencil sketch of a sunflower from imagination.

  Then I tried translating that into acrylic on canvas. Acrylic is definitely my weakest medium here. Some people love it because it is a forgiving medium, but I still don't have a strong grasp of it.

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 Pinecrest Lake

Can't beat being at the beach, in the mountains, and painting simultaneously! Pinecrest Lake never fails to disappoint...

I love painting the water but I'm still trying to figure out how to best represent the ripples on the water...

Fun with sidewalk chalk

After working as a camp counselor for Camp Celiac for a second week, I just needed to get some creativity out. The "Chalk Garden" was just the place! The impermanence of it is freeing. So with a bucket full of random sidewalk chalk colors, I started playing around. And the great thing is that it was contagious...soon the campers were creating too!

Pencil drawing at camp

While being a camp counselor at Camp Celiac for a couple weeks, it was nice to be able to sneak away for a while to be creative. Not knowing how much time I was going to have, I stuck with pencil, which always makes for quick set up and clean up.  Landscape drawing with pencil is always challenging because I have to get creative determining what shade to give to different colors. I sketched this plein-air and then later, snapped a photo of the scene with my phone.  I think it turned out quite accurate to the scene...not as much artistic licence as I have taken in the past! I need to work on not smearing as I drag my hand across my work.

Plein air painting at the pond fountain at Land Park

So I finally get outside to do some plain air painting with our Plein Air Meetup group, and its 106 degrees out! I wonder why only a couple of us showed up? It actually didn't feel too bad in the shade next to the water. I was working with some new paints today that are much better quality than the $5 set of twelve tubes I was working with before. The tricky part is that there are only 5 colors...it just lends for more practice color-blending. They are made with a honey base so they have more brilliant color and don't dry as fast on the palette ( that was particularly important on a hot day like today).
I'm still trying to figure out the reflection and ripple effect that is created by water, so I keep challenging myself with it. My last attempt was at Hagan Park and today I'm at Land Park.  I started at the top with the sky and worked my way down with the trees and grass, and finishing with the pond.  I "cheated" a little bit because I used white paint to create the water spray (most watercolorists would say to use the white of the paper instead but without masking fluid, it just wasn't going to work). Although there were a couple other people painting, I was so totally focused, I probably wasn't very good company.