Today I worked on making color swatches using the colors from my portrait class: flake white, venetian red, yellow ochre, ivory black, and burnt umber. I used the left over paint to make the face.

Here's my first attempt at doing 5" x 7" paintings from my head. It felt weird not having any visual references. I did like trying out lots of color combinations. I was working in acrylics using some techniques from a Robert Burridge video. Need to watch it again.

So the dragon fruit sat in the fridge for few days waiting for me to get back to it. I sliced into it and couldn't believe my eyes. It was so white and so fuchsia. I love all those little black seeds. I actually think this photo is a little on the orange side, but you get the idea. The white fruit has the texture of a kiwi, but the flavor is sweeter.

This is from a few days ago. I am taking a portrait class, learning to use the old master's technique of tonal under painting covered with glazes. So this is the result after two weeks. This is called the "dead layer". We used black, yellow ochre, and transparent red oxide, and flake white. I can't wait to see what it looks like next week.

I wanted to be able to see some of the inside of the pomegranate this time. It was fun trying to get the seeds to look juicy. I think I could still use some more highlights. And yes, this tasted very good, as long as you don't mind spitting out the leftover seeds.

Caitlin

Found an old black and white photograph of my daughter Caitlin and wanted to give it a try.

Lumpy

This is a pot I made in ceramics and yes it is kind of lumpy. but I love the raku glaze and thought it looked great with this pomegranate.

Exotic Fruit

This is a Dragonfruit, and when I was it at Wegman's yesterday, I just knew I had to paint it. It really is a magenta fruit with green markings. I want to paint several views of it so I have no idea what's inside. It better be good because it cost $10.00!. It's about the size of an eggplant.

This is the persimmon I also got yesterday. I also got a pomegranate but will paint that next. Very fun to paint such bright colors. Wonder what this tastes like?

Pitcher

Second try using black, white and grays. I switched the objects to white ceramic pieces so colors wouldn't confuse me. A couple more then I'll try a white object and a colored one together. Read some interesting info by the "father" of the PAD (painting a day) movement - Duane Keiser. He's worth checking out.

I brought these two geraniums a few weeks ago and noticed a beautiful new set of flowers. So I set out to capture them right where they are in front of the window.

This was done with all the leftover paint when I cleaned my palette. Very fun to just plaster on the paint.

After seeing the black and white paintings done by N.C. Wyeth last week I remembered a painting class in college where we worked on the same large still life for a whole semester using only black and white. I hated it. Now I realize what it can look like when it's done well, so I plan to work in black and white til I get it right! Not so easy. Try again tomorrow.