#14 - Getting Her Feet Wet

January 2014 Leslie Saeta's 30 paintings in 30 days challenge

Getting Her Feet Wet
6x6" oil

It was nice to be painting at the beach (in my mind) again today instead of looking outside at the gloomy rainy day.  

Can't Catch Me

I don't work in acrylic very often but enjoy it when I do.  I haven't done any acrylic paintings larger than 11x14".  For me, I find it a great medium for painting small pieces especially when I need to paint small works (3x3" or smaller).  Being an oil painter, I can't always get the acrylic to do what I want until I remember not to fight the drying time and just go with it.  Of course remembering to spray my palette so it doesn't dry out isn't something I normally have to remember.   I have learned unlike oil, just when I think I have finally achieved the color I want, I come back later and find the acrylic has dried darker.  

ART TIP: If I can't get it light enough, I resort to going back into an area and painting it out with white then repainting it.  Then I get the lighter coloring I was aiming to achieve.

I always try to take lots of pictures when I'm at the beach.  I couldn't resist the little boy running with his big pail and his ever patient mom bringing up the rear.  

I decided to tone the canvas in black which is a bit tricky when painting in acrylic and dealing with the paint drying darker.  I'm learning it is all about lots of layers. 

The painting didn't feel quite right/finished so I turned to my critique group for suggestions. They suggested I tone down his maroon romper which was too dominate and didn't fit in with the palette I choose for the rest of painting.  I heeded their advice and I'm very pleased with the final painting. 

Can't Catch Me, 8x10" acrylic on gessobord ($200)

 Comics & Art

Herman by Jim Unger

Art/Painting Critiques

Self Critique Tips

If you've painted for any length of time you know there are a number of things you can do to "self critique" a painting.  

• Turn the painting & the reference photograph upside down.  
• I've heard stories of new painters being told to look at the painting upside down and the instructor turning around & seeing the poor student almost standing on their head trying to look at the painting "upside down."  It'll save new students a headache if they just turn the canvas upside down.  
• Why do this?  It causes you to have to throw out preconceived notions of what you think something looks like and start looking at shapes.  It helps me correct my proportions & lines when they are off.  
• Look at your painting in a mirror
•  The mirror image allows you to look at it from a different perspective
• Take a photograph and study the photograph.  
• Its amazing to me how often something jumps out at me I hadn't noticed before when I photograph the painting.  
• Put the canvas somewhere you can casually study it.  
• Near where you watch TV is good place.  Sometimes it just takes a while before you realize why the painting isn't working for you.  It happens when you least expect it.  I think of it as an aha moment.  

Catching a Wave - Before & After

Before Changes

Finished Painting

Group Critique

Fresh eyes is what this painting needed.  I knew while the little girl had thin legs in the reference photograph, but it just didn't translate well to canvas.  Knowing it needed at least that improvement I decided I would use this painting for a group critique to get additional suggestions before I started painting on it again. Once again, I implemented the suggestions made after my painting was critiqued and think it is greatly improved.  

Suggestions  

• The top waves were too big for the composition and one person said she initially thought they were clouds - boy I didn't see that being so focused on trying to paint in the waves
• The legs could be a little wider
• The forward shoulder and arm angle needed to be changed
• Allow the bottoms of her shorts show to bring some green to another part of the painting

Painting out the waves, you can see the overall appearance is lighter because of the colors I used.   As I was implementing the suggestions, I brightened the splashes in the water around her feet too. 

Young Girl Waiting to Catch a Wave

Catching a Wave, 12x16 oil on canvas ($275) 

I saw this adorable young girl waiting ever so patiently with her bright pink pail and matching Crocs.  Who could resist? 

Holding onto Summer

Holding onto Summer, 8x8" oil on gessobord

I love to paint beach umbrellas.  There's something about them that just make me happy.

Frank and Ernest

By Tom Thaves

Add caption

Challenge #3 - HiltonHead4

"Kindle or Nook" 8x8", oil on Raymar panel

 Kindle or Nook?

The Hilton Head Four challenge continues and this one was really a challenge.. I will confess it was my pick and it didn't look that difficult when I picked it. Here it is 3 tries later.  

A judge at an art show said, when she didn’t like a tree that was placed right down the center of a an otherwise wonderful painting, "I know that tree was there in your picture reference.  You have to remember, artists are the strongest people in the world.  We can move trees, buildings, huge rocks, anything we see."  I love that quote.



November at the beach means it was hard to find beach umbrellas or people in colorful outfits.  Using some artistic license, I added an extra umbrella  chair for fun and moved the gal from a deck onto the beach.  

Chris Werst

http://chriswerst.blogspot.com

 

Regula Scheifele

http://regulascheifele.blogspot.com/

Double Vision' , 5x7", Oil on Gessobord

Maria Bennett Hock

http://mariahock.blogspot.com/

"Reading Room", 9 x 12, Oil on Raymar Panel

 

Challenge #2

The Look   The Hilton Head  Four challenge continues.  

The Look

 8x10 oil on Ray Mar panel, $250

Every two weeks a new challenge starts with a photo sent by one of the group.  Its been very inspirational and fun to see how each of us translates the photo reference into a painting during the big reveal when we email our paintings to each other.  Challenge 2 was Maria Hock's pick.  I love the look on the dog's face and of course the red jacket.   I'm hoping as I do more of these challenges I will get more adventuresome in my interpretation.

 

The Lookout

Artist: Maria Bennett Hock

Maria's blog is http://mariahock.blogspot.com/

Artist: Chris Werst

Chris' blog is chriswerst.blogspot.com

 

Bright and Early

Artist: Regula (Lulu) Scheifele
Lulu's blog is regulascheifele.blogspot.com