Smalls_He Really Needed Some Shadows

If you are a painter and haven't done one, you should consider doing a daily painting exercise for a month or even a week.  Its amazing what you will learn.  It is an outstanding push some of us need (me).  We all know practice makes perfect, well at least it helps you improve.  I liked doing Leslie Saeta's January challenge because knowing I would be posting my paintings on her blog mentally held my feet to the fire.  For me, while it was a wonderful exercise to get me painting after the holidays, it also showed me that finishing a painting in only one day will probably never be me.  Hat's off to all you daily painters!  Everyone needs to do what works for them, so maybe even doing 15 paintings in 30 days is a better option for me!  While I was pretty happy with many of the paintings, I find I usually need to be able to put them away and take them out the next day (or later) and look at them with fresh eyes. 

My painting of my niece's dog Smalls was a good example.  The painting just felt flat, but I was off painting another painting the next day so poor ole Smalls was put on a drying rack and not picked back up until yesterday.  As a practice painting he was OK, but looking at him again he was very flat and needed more shadows and a few highlight to give him some dimension.  Plus looking again, I realized his nose was too small.  I'm much happier with my second day of painting on Smalls and I hope Christen is too.  

My January one day try.....

“"Smalls"”

Day 12 | Henry

“Henry”

6x6” oil ($75)

I saw this cutie on Facebook and wrote the owner asking if I could paint him.  Henry is a Boston Terrier.  If I hadn't known his name I might have titled this painting,  "Eye Got Yah!"  


Learning tip:  Knowing nothing about dogs' anatomy and painting from photographs, I am finding using a black and white photo to do the initial drawing and going back to it after I've laid color in is helping me see shapes better. 

Art tip using Procreate:

Like many artists, I sure my iPad for my photo reference when I paint.  If I print out my reference photo, I usually do it in black and white to use when I draw do I'm not distracted by color and see where I want to lay my darks and later, lights.

I've talked about the Procreate app and how it was recommended to me by both the local art store and a few artist friends.   I'm still at the beginners stage.  After watching some YouTube videos (love, love, love YouTube tutorials and all the wonderful people and artists out there who share their knowledge) on procreate basics to get me started I've been intrigued.  I'm still working on drawing thin lines with a stylus, but I'm having great fun finger painting with it!  I always learn something interesting when I'm just fooling around.  I discovered if I copied a photograph I'm planning to paint on it, I can use it as a color checker.

I've used it to work out the composition before I start painting.  This time,  I left a lot of white boarder.  Then you can touch an area on the photograph your "paint brush" will pick up that exact color.  If you are struggling with figuring out the color this will isolate it for you making it easier to see.  Take the color you have "picked up" and draw a thick line in the white boarder to see the color you are trying to figure out without the surrounding colors throwing you off.