I spent much of October painting autumn foliage. Much of it was outdoors/plein air/in person, but sometimes I saw a great tree and took a snap to paint later at home, and I actually did. This is the first month where I did a lot of painting from my own, very recent photos. Let’s see how it went!
Paintings
More #skieswithjt
The #skieswithjt challenge continued through August and September! The notes from the later paintings are more detailed because I did them in realtime, where the others I filled in later. (It’s worth noting that I like paintings better after time has passed!)
Monthly Retrospective: September 2023
In September, I continued painting National Parks; continued the #skieswithjt challenge; and I also participated in Kolbie Blume’s fourth challenge, Painting the Wilderness: Light! While I continued to focus on skies in September, my usual Summer of Skies is drawing to a close as I begin to focus on fall foliage. I slowed down toward … Read more
Sunset Photos Part 2: More Mauve!
Last month, I began painting some of my old photos, and realized all the ones I wanted to paint were sunsets! I was a little disappointed with my results, largely because I kept insisting on using Ultramarine Blue in the more violet clouds, which kept them very electric-bright when they should have been mauve. So, I decided to paint some more, different sunset photos, with a special effort to keep the mauve clouds muted.
Loved & Learned from #skieswithjt – weeks 1 through 10
#skieswithjt is an Instagram challenge hosted by the artist @jthomasart_ I participated in this summer. Each week, J would post a new reference photo of a sky to paint, along with a reel with some tips and tricks. Here are the tips that I picked up from either his reels or my own experience painting. … Read more
Monthly Retrospective: August 2023
In August, I painted 15 paintings – well short of the nearly a-painting-a-day I had done in July and in the past few months. I’d been furiously painting to get ready for a community art sale where I sold a few paintings – for the first time ever! – but after that, I was feeling lazy. Also, I backed off from the National Parks Project at 75% done, feeling a bit depressed at the idea of painting Redwood while it’s on fire.
But! I have still been goofing around with paint. I tooled around with swatches and palettes, and I thought a lot about skies! I kept up with #skieswithjt on Instagram; and I made a real effort to improve my skies through observation and self-critique, in What to do with those old sunset photos? Paint ’em! The skies I painted after that post have turned out better!
What to do with those old sunset photos? Paint ’em!
I’ve gained a whole new slew of possible reference photos while going through my Google Photos because I’m running out of space.
Alternative Paint Suggestions for Kolbie Blume’s Painting the Wilderness: Light Challenge
My first and favorite watercolor teacher/influencer/youtuber, Kolbie Blume, will be posting a new, free, 5-day challenge on Youtube on September 12. I’ll be participating once again, trying to keep up with each tutorial and post my work the same or next day. It’ll be the first time I’ve done any tutorial since Kolbie’s last challenge, World of Color! Even though I’m trending away from tutorials generally, I’m excited to be working alongside Kolbie’s rich online community for this one. I’ve participated in all of Kolbie’s challenges since I discovered their first Painting the Wilderness 10-Day Challenge in late 2021.
For the World of Color challenge in February, I posted alternative color suggestions for Kolbie’s palette. I stand by those! Per their new official supply list, Kolbie is still using the same colors, so please check that prior post for the general list of alternative suggestions. Below, I’ll post what I’m using this time (some new-to-me colors!), and I’ll reveal how my chosen alternatives went last time!
Paintings Inspired by Video Games
I’m not a big player of video games. I never developed the reflexes to play platformers, and I hate anything with stress or time pressure. But some games have such a great story, beautiful visuals, or such an engaging vibe that they draw me in. When I fall in love with one, I tend to … Read more
Monthly Retrospective: July 2023
July saw me working on my Summer Palette mark II, National Parks, skies, and seas! By the numbers, I did 24 paintings in July, of which: The Paintings Click on the image to open in a new tab.