An Oil-A-Day Adventure.

**k4pka** · November 21st, 2006, 06:51 PM

This is 100% inspired by Seedlings thread, and by her (unknowingly) opening my eyes up to the world of daily painting and blogging. After seeing the general gist, off I popped to blogger to embark on my own daily painting challenge!

So why post them here to you ask? Well, CA.org has been my number one lurking spot for sometime now, and I feel I owe a lot of my development to this place. As such, I feel that if I post my daily efforts here, I can recieve some good honest critiques, and also a kick up the backside should I slip-up!

Along side that, I can write anything of note that I may learn along the way, about oil painting in general. Who knows of what use this could be to you guys. Nothing? Something? Only time will tell...

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So, day one (and two actually)

Some roses! Sheesh, how can there be so many colours in one leaf? I found myself asking this over and over as I tried to capture them

Also, I feel this may have taken a little longer than the idea of Daily Painting encourages? This was a little over 2 hours? Practice may speed me up, heres hoping

!

Day two...

Funny story behind this pansy. Shh! Twas half-inched from a roundabout flower bed in the dead of night... I had wanted to paint it as just a flower out of a clod of earth (Ill write that down for a day in the future!) But it was making a mess all over. I jammed it in this large mug instead.

I must confess I cheated a little with the mug. It had "Property of Dave" written on it in big white letters. I was unsure if I could paint that, and so my artistic licence (read:saviour) came into play.

Bon voyage!

**Rich Pellegrino** · November 21st, 2006, 07:06 PM

Excellent start! I too was inspired by Seedling as well as many others I'm sure, to start a Painting a Day thread. I am excited to see where this is going, looks good so far! Happy painting!

**k4pka** · November 22nd, 2006, 01:44 PM

[voodoochile] I wondered over to your thread. So glad to see other daily oilers on this board. Seems I have a warm welcome despite my lack of concept art

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Pear!

Getting that dull, almost matt surface of the skin was difficult, to say the least! Also, less artistically speaking, as was getting the pear itself. I got most untoward looks from the girl whose door I knocked on! I was only asking her if I could take a pear off her tree with some branch attached. That and getting it all the way to the studio without the two becoming seperated.

**k4pka** · November 23rd, 2006, 11:08 AM

Todays:-

Sheesh, painting lots of berries in a short time span is damn difficult!

**k4pka** · November 24th, 2006, 07:59 AM

Todays:

**Seedling** · November 24th, 2006, 08:04 AM

Wowwie! Very nice! :-)

**term8or** · November 24th, 2006, 08:42 AM

I like the way you handled the edges in your last painting... what pallete are you using?

**k4pka** · November 25th, 2006, 04:30 PM

Seedling, thanks!

Term8or, my palette consists of white, cad yellow, cad red, burnt sienna, ultramarine and cobalt blue.

Todays, an awesomely bright orange Squash: -

**k4pka** · November 26th, 2006, 06:45 AM

Got a good early start, and with it being sunday, had nothing to do but paint all morning! Wohoo.

**360.** · November 27th, 2006, 02:23 AM

Hey, found your stuff over at wc, left a comment there. Amazing daily paints.

**k4pka** · November 27th, 2006, 09:32 AM

360, why thank you!

Todays was tough, very seasonal though

**360.** · November 27th, 2006, 10:04 AM

Awesome! Your paintings remind me of Schmidt's...

**k4pka** · November 28th, 2006, 02:27 PM

**asoir** · November 28th, 2006, 03:13 PM

wow, deserves more replies. stunning paintings, colours are spot on.

**sease** · November 28th, 2006, 03:21 PM

these are some nice paintings! i wouldnt worry about the hour limit thing. im assuming thats self imposed by those of us with external time restraints. also , thanks for the advice in my thread.

**k4pka** · November 29th, 2006, 09:21 AM

Asoir, thanks for the comment. Its funny you should say that about the colours. I restricted my palette for these in order to learn more about painting from your palette, rather than what is infront of you. (Since due to life being so complex, we have to make equivalents)

Todays. I sliced a pear, abd put it on a background with similar colours, to make the edges more challenging.

**k4pka** · December 1st, 2006, 10:40 AM

Yesterdays and todays: -

**Seedling** · December 1st, 2006, 11:46 AM

Your flowers and the pear blow me away! You have succeeded in paintings that look like roses, rather than images of roses. That's hard. And with slicing the pear oddly, you've still made it instantly readable as an oddly-sliced pear. Nicely done.

I don't know what the last one is, and the one right before that looks like it gave you a hard time as well. Sometimes they just don't work out so well, but they're all stepping stones anyway. :-) Keep going!

**k4pka** · December 2nd, 2006, 06:07 PM

Todays was more about composition, than subject really. The way I work means I can still be playing with compositional options even once the painting is finished...

Three Radishes:-

Seedling:- Thanks for the kind words. I am so glad you recognised the pear, as I did cut it very strangely. Its in three bits, with the two quartes laid on the half. It looked interesting to paint, but was difficult to make it recognisable, Im still unsure how well I managed it

The onion and garlic was tough, as I purposely put it on a bg where I knew the onions edges would be lost.

The other you mention is a prawn, with head and shell on, laid on a really garish chopping board. Difficult to work out eh? Time to work hard to get better...

**Seedling** · December 2nd, 2006, 06:18 PM

Originally Posted by k4pka

The other you mention is a prawn, with head and shell on, laid on a really garish chopping board. ...

Aha! Now I see it. Hmm. . . it needs a good strong light on it or something, because it looks quite flat.

Keep going! You're doing good work. :-)

**k4pka** · December 3rd, 2006, 11:14 AM

Haha either a strong light or a better person painting it! Thanks for the comments seedling

Todays, a fennel, with all the green hairy bits still attached:-

**Seedling** · December 3rd, 2006, 11:17 AM

The whole point is to push yourself to the edge of your abilities, and then staying right at the edge of what you can do. That means some paintings will utterly fail. So your shrimp is an indication that you are on the right track. :-)

*boggle* Holy fennel batman! I so need to learn to paint foliage like you do.

**k4pka** · December 4th, 2006, 12:55 PM

Ah, the prawn's terribleness is a good] sign, thank the lord for that! And all those other horrible pictures I make (that never see the light of day!) are good signs too? Brilliant, thanks Seedling

And thanks for the fennel comment! Made me laugh. A tip for painting foliage:- Physically apply the paint in as many different ways as possible! Foliage is so abstract that you can pretty much do whatever you like! Also, mix your greens. I dont use a tube green, i just mix them. And dont mix them too thoroughly

Todays, a crazy fractal looking Romanesco broccoli that was very very hard to paint.

**darkwolfb87** · December 4th, 2006, 01:54 PM

Excellent series, the fennel is wonderful. It's so inspiring I think I'm gonna drop everything I'm doing and paint right now, thanks!

Keep up the great work, I look forward to seeing how you progress.

~ Stephen

**Seedling** · December 4th, 2006, 02:08 PM

Tee hee hee! Yes, some crash-and-burns can be considered a good thing. Just so long as it's a result of your having pushed your own limits.

What pigments are you mixing your greens from. I've always had an awful time mixing greens, and I've been avoiding it lately, silly me.

That's some way cool yuppie broccoli!

**ogar555** · December 4th, 2006, 04:06 PM

Nice idea! Hope you keep it up!

**AztcFireFlower** · December 5th, 2006, 02:40 AM

k4pka
Thanks for visiting my SB.

What a fine example of study you're setting. A painting a day and you show sophistication in each piece you approach . The fennel is my favorite. Really nice work on the foliage.
Am wondering how you mix your greens. Are they a bit greyed down due to the limited palette? Am curious as I like to see how individual artists achieve their results. Your lighting is natural I gather. What time of day?

**k4pka** · December 5th, 2006, 02:41 PM

That fat kid, Thanks for the comments. Its very true. I paint mosaically, usually starting with my intended focal point (ie the part that interested me enough to paint the pic) and as such as I get further out from that, I feel less is needed due to me already stating what I had intended.

Sometimes, as you have pointed out, this is not such a good idea. I try to do each pic in as few strokes as possible, with large brushes. As usual, a photograph is not enough to give an idea of the actual painting. The root of the fennel (where I started incidentally!) was painted by washing on a turpsy grey, with a yellow placed in it, and then just 4 thick juicy strokes over the top of that (and a couple of other touches on the top edge with the same lighter colour). The strokes had none-thoroughly mixed paint, and gorgeous texture from both the bristles, and where I picked the brush up off the surface sharply. But hell, maybe you are right, if it looks under-done, it probably is

Darkwolf, thanks!

Seedling:- I mix my greens from ultramarine and cobalt blue, along with cad yellow. These 3 provide 8 totally different greens. Then the addition of burnt sienna and/or red and I have an awful lot of greens! And the white adds yet another dimension. Limited palettes arent nearly so limited as they first appear

Ogar, Ill try!

Aztc, see above for green mixing. If I need greyer greens, thats where the cad red becomes useful. And dont overmix! Under-blended paint is great when you start learning to control it! An yeah its natural light, usually in the morning, coming for a window facing east. Houses across the road block out the easterly morning sun!

Todays, I tried to paint a red onion and garlic, to go with the white onion and garlic from a little bit ago:-

(Gah, must remember to shoot the photos in daylight!)

**Rich Pellegrino** · December 5th, 2006, 03:02 PM

This is great work, thanks for sharing the info on greens, it helps a bunch. Any insight on laying down brush strokes and adjacent brush strokes? I am not sure if I should blend or mix a new color for blending. Or do you leave them untouched? OK now my head is going to explode.

**chaosrocks** · December 5th, 2006, 03:12 PM

very cool
you and Seedling's dailys make great inspiration and workshop advice.
One of these days Ill stop doing weelkly Selfportraits and start doing dailies

thanks fpo rsharing

I liked the shrimp...got it right away

chaos