Lessons in gouache

I've put off posting this, my first work with gouache, for what should be obvious reasons now that you've seen it. In an effort to make the edge of the buildings a little crisper, I decided to employ some masking tape. You know, as a mask. It seemed like a good idea at the time, until I went to remove the tape, taking big chunks of the paper with it.

So now what? Rather than just tossing the entire painting out, I'm trying to come up with a way of using it. Perhaps I'll collage over it, or rip it up and use the pieces in a different collage. There are elements of this painting I like, and I want to find a way to salvage them. I just haven't figured out how yet.

Tuscany paintings: good and bad

I think this painting (last seen here) is done, and I'm quite happy with the way it came out. I need to take a better photo of it, and then I think it's ready to go up on my art website.



This one I'm less happy with. Back in December I was almost ready to declare it done, but then I decided it was all wrong. I liked it a lot in its early days, but that like faded as I added in more detail and more colors. I recently changed the sky from pink to black, which was an improvement, but it's still not right. I think it needs some radical re-working, which I'm almost ready to do. Sometimes it's hard to accept that a painting needs a lot of changing when I thought it was so close to done. Time usually helps me get over that.

Little face paintings

I'm back at home in my studio for a few days between trips to Ireland*. I'm trying to make the most of this studio time, but I haven't decided on my next big project yet. I've lost steam on the two paintings series (Munich and Tuscany) I've been working on. Perhaps I just need a break, or perhaps I'm just not meant to paint in series. Or maybe I've just chosen the wrong subject matters. Whatever it is, I'm trying not to let it get in the way of my creative output, so I've shifted gears to a completely different subject: faces.

I bought ten little (15 cm square) canvases on my last trip to the art store, and I've decided to use them to play around with imaginary faces. While I've painted many portraits over the years, I rarely work without a model or photograph. With this new project I'm trying to challenge myself to create faces from only my imagination. It's freeing to not have to worry about whether the painting resembles the subject, since there is no subject. It's also fun to play around with more abstract facial features than I'm used to depicting.


* You can read about my adventures in Ireland on my other blog.

Creative retreat in Ireland

I find myself in Dublin with a little free time on my hands, and I'm using it for a couple of creative pursuits. I brought along my new gouache and some postcard-sized watercolor paper, as well as a sketchbook and various sketching utensils. But my main focus is on working through the book Perfect Digital Photography and trying to teach myself to use my new DSLR camera.



I am an impatient student, but hopefully I'll start to see my new knowledge come through in my photos soon. You can check up on my progress on my flickr stream.