Sunday, December 27, 2015

Offset High Crop

Does that title sound a little cryptic?  It's nothing too mysterious really, it's just the designation for the configuration of the tractor that's the subject of my latest painting;

art painting tractor abandoned rusty farm desert

"Offset High Crop"

14" X 11", Acrylic on panel


This is an old, derelict Farmall tractor I found in Wallsburg, Utah.  This configuration is unusual, in fact I believe this is the only one of this kind I've seen in person.  The front axle is raised to clear certain crops and the engine is offset from center to give better visibility to the operator, at least on one side.

I've been on a tractor kick lately, the last few ten minute sketches have all  been tractors, one of them based on the same reference photo as the painting.

art sketch pencil graphie tractor Case vintage
#17, Case

art sketch pencil graphite tractor Allis Chalmers vintage
#18, Allis Chalmers

art sketch pencil graphite farmall vintage offset
#19, Farmall Offset High Crop

art sketch pencil graphite tractor eimco powerhorse old

#20, Eimco Power Horse 4WD

art sketch pencil graphite fordson track vintage
#21, Fordson crawler



Saturday, December 19, 2015

One More Miniature

I painted another miniature, this one based on another ten minute sketch, #15

art sketch pencil graphite landscape clouds sky


I was going for an even bigger sky than I had in "Clouds over Sanpete County".  I believe my reference photo for this one was also taken in Sanpete County which is in central Utah where there is much more wide open countryside than most other parts of the state.

art painting palette knife landscape rural cloud sky

"Incoming"

Acrylic on panel, 6" X 8"
Original - $60



As with other recent paintings I painted this one mostly with a palette knife.  The ten minute sketch provided a perfect values road map and was very helpful in making the painting.  All these ten minute sketches I've been doing are becoming awfully handy!






Friday, December 18, 2015

An Autumn Miniature

Remember Ten Minute Sketch #14?  If not look at the last post, it's there.  I made a small painting based on the same photo and TMS #14,

art painting palette knife landscape autumn fall foliage

"Firery Bush"

Acrylic on panel, 6" X 8"
Original  - $60


I often go for walks on the Jordan River Parkway.  The Parkway is not far from my home however the Parkway is quite long, running through the whole Salt Lake Valley starting at Utah Lake in the Utah Valley and dumping into the Great Salt Lake at the other end.  Thanks to conservation and restoration efforts the Parkway is full of beautiful, natural spaces as well as recreational opportunities.  In this case I was exploring an area of the Parkway not so close to my home, near the south end of the Salt Lake Valley in an area called the "Narrows".  I saw this small, simple scene with the bright red/orange bushes framed by a cool background and yellow grasses and just had to take photos and make sketches, I knew some day I would paint it, and I finally did, about two years later.  TMS #14 helped me establish the value pattern.  I used a palette knife for most of the painting so it's full of thick, textured paint.




Saturday, December 12, 2015

TMS #12, #13 and #14

I indicated in my last ten minute sketch post that in the future I'll be blogging multiple ten minute sketches in one post from now on, so here we are.

Ten minute sketch #12 is a pen sketch for planning a 24" X 12" painting I'm working on.  I made a measured outline for this sketch to make sure the proportions would be right.  The scene is a mountain landscape, the season is autumn but you can't really tell that from the pen sketch but I've had one two hour session with the painting and it's going well so far so you'll see before too long.
art sketch pen ink landscape mountain tree


Ten minute sketch #13 is another pen sketch based on a photo I took in a rural area so far North it was very close to the Idaho border. Just a simple sketch of a large oak tree next to a garage, probably not something I'd paint but it was a good sketch exercise. Maybe if I put a barn there instead.....


art sketch pen ink garage tree rural


I switched mediums for ten minute sketch #14.  This time I got the graphite pencils out.  I used this as a preliminary sketch for a small painting.  Small, simple paintings you can paint in an hour or so are good exercises to do now and then as well, I plan on making the painting very soon.  I wanted to use pencils for this sketch because I felt graphite could capture the subtle values and soft shapes of this natural landscape better than pen.  I'm a little rusty with the pencil, I probably should do my ten minute sketches with graphite for a while.

art sketch pencil graphite landscape nature bush




Sunday, December 6, 2015

TMS #11, Back to the Pen

You might notice that the last TMS I shared was #7.  I decided to not share the rest of the digital automotive sketches here. I've decided I've had enough digital for a while.  Every now and then I pick up my Surface Pro and play with the ArtRage for a while but I always return to traditional media.  While there are advantages to digital I don't find the process as enjoyable or the results as satisfying.  For an artist enjoying the process is of paramount importance.  A piece of art can take many hours to create, so no matter how good the result is or how convenient the medium might be, if the artist does not enjoy the process while creating the art he's likely to abandon it and even if he finishes the result will be lacking in some way.  Anyway, that's why I've ditched digital again....for now.  Spending a little time with the digital can be a good break now and then, so I'm sure I'll play with it more in the future.

Now, to TMS #11.  I used a Copic Multiliner 05 black pen to make this sketch of a common type of scene in the rural areas of northern Utah, 

art sketch pen ink barn rural derelict


An old, decrepit wood hay shed full of hay bales, one of those scenes that's so appealing for reasons we don't quite understand.  I think I might make a pen drawing based on this sketch, it's been a long time since I've done a pen drawing.

As for the Ten Minute Sketch thing, I'll continue to do them but I most likely won't do them every day, maybe four or five a week and I'll probably make my TMS post a weekly thing and post all of the TMS's from that week in one post, so check back in another week if you want to see the next batch.





Friday, December 4, 2015

Automotive Week Continues

I actually started this painting late last week.  I saw a photo from a car ad from 1917, a car as it turns out never made it into production, Homer-Laughlin.  The photo was black and white of course but that's probably why I noticed the striking composition it made.  The photo was of the whole front of the car but I thought a crop might make it even more dynamic. The car was a light color in the photo, probably white, I decided to use yellow and give the painting an abstract violet background to make the yellow pop.

"Yellow Antique"

Acrylic on panel, 16" X 12"