Larger painting

It was very enjoyable doing this 14 x 10 painting. I started it from life and continued from a photo. The reason being that I only had a couple of hours in the afternoon to do it when the light was the same. This is a big problem I must get over, because I would have preferred to do it all from life, but I work much too slowly at the moment. I do think I learned a bit from doing it though, and it's number 23 on the way to 120!

Reading

This pen has almost run dry, like all my other pens. I must get a new one.

remiss

I'm sorry I've been very remiss about posting lately. I've got caught up in doing a larger painting, which is taking time to do as I'm very busy with work. I've been reading 'Color' by Betty Edwards. What a great book! I'm going to try and do all the exercises in the book as there's so much I need to know... This is a quite recent pastel painting (horrible of D I know - he looks like a layabout - which he isnt!) There are a few bits I like about this painting - I went a bit mad with the colour, which I'm pleased with, although I havent seemed to be able to get into that 'mode' since. It was also a breakthrough with using Wallis paper - which I had found difficult before. I did a colourful underpainting on this, and for the first time really enjoyed using the paper.

Molly

Some studies of Molly, who looks very sweet at the moment as she was taken to the groom last week and bathed and brushed. So she is all clean and fluffy! I need to get a new pen for drawing soon as I have run out of cartridges for my Rotring Artpen and I don't think they do them separately. It's a great pen, but not waterproof - I'm going to have to find a different make I think.

Door

I just moved slightly to the left from the last picture to paint our front door. There's something about this painting I don't like and I think it's the curtains.
I've realised this blog has changed a bit now. It's supposed to be a sketch blog but for the moment it's about my struggle with oil painting. I haven't really done much drawing lately - will have to do some more soon.

Corner

This is a corner of the boat with detritus on the shelves as usual. It rained all day while I did this. The good thing about being on a boat when it rains is it's so noisy on the roof. It reminds me of rainy caravan holidays when I was young! Anyway this is my 21st painting - 98 to go! I was pleased with the way this went but I did put more effort into it. I did a tonal sketch and tried to make sure the values were correct. It's also quite messy and not too detailed, which I like.

The man with no face

My other half is getting a bit peeved that I'm not painting his features! This was done quite quickly, with a big brush. I think I do need longer at the moment so I have time to assess values and colours properly.

Freedom

I did this one using a palette knife - I found it quite liberating and fun - I'm not sure I think much of the result though! I've been reading a book called 'Painting the Impressionist Landscape' by Lois Griffel of the Cape Cod School of Art. Apparently students there are instructed to use only a putty knife when painting. This book has encouraged me to learn more about colour theory, so today I've ordered Betty Jackson's book on colour.

Struggle

This is my next effort - a jug that I really like and some shells. It was a struggle to get the colours right and I'm not happy with it but it probably looks better on here than it does in real life! I took 4 hours on this little one but tomorrow I'm going to do another painting and give myself a time limit.

White out

This morning we awoke to this. It's the worst snowfall in south east London since 1991.