Poised in Pose

I was a little too excited to render the Silk in the costume that I painted all of it first. I realized that the high value contrast is what makes it shine! I struggled quite a bit when I finally got around to painting the facial features. The scale was too small for comfort. I'll remember to go big the next time I am painting the full figure. This is meant as a gift though and I thought 5x7 would be a good size. 

Setting limits

Why I haven't been using transparent red oxide is beyond me. It is going to be a constant fixture on my palette henceforth. The depth it adds to the shadows with it's transparency is truly unmatched. For the most part of this painting I used a limited palette consisting of burnt umber, transparent red oxide, terra rosa, yellow ochre and white of course. Color mixing turned out to be much less of a hassle and it was easier to maintain the color harmony.

White Dress

I hadn't thought about what I wanted to paint next; and so decided to rework an unfinished under-painting from earlier using the puddles of dried paints that I had left on the palette. This was an effort to reduce waste and an experiment with inventing color from a black and white reference. An exercise to get better at understanding values. I am happy with how it turned out and hence pretty pleased on many levels! :)

Value Planes II

Landscapes value sketches are difficult! especially when you have to indicate two colors of the same value. I might go over this one with some color to see how it turns out. 

Value Planes

Working on indicating the sky, the flat, the slanted and the vertical planes using values. Gets a little tricky because the lightest value in the darkest plane has got to be darker than the lightest plane itself! A bit of a mind bender, but fun nonetheless! 

Warm & Cool

She was waiting to cross and I wondered if she was heading home or to another store. The light was warm and the shadows cool. I had it the other way around on the lady's jacket and it dint look right until I corrected it. I then realized how important it was to get the temperatures right! A bit more of shadow work would have made the painting more 'grounded'. I was surprised though that many people pointed this one out among others as their favorite painting! I find quite a bit of difference between using canvas panels & gesso boards. The canvas panels need more strokes to scrub in the colors while the gesso boards being more slick take lesser time. 

A rocky greeting

Inspired by artist Elizabeth Tolley's book - 

Oil Painter's Solution Book Landscapes: Over 100 Answers to Your Oil Painting Questions.

Docked

Misty Mornings

The reference picture for this painting was from my trip to the Taroko National Park, a magnificent marble gorge in Taiwan. It was a pleasant morning with a slight drizzle, and this man here added an interesting pop of color to the otherwise sober morning!