Foggy Days

This small contingent of island boats has been disappearing and reappearing from the fog over the last couple of days. Have resorted to photography a little more over the last few days as the studio has been a little hotter and more humid than I care to tolerate. 

There was a wedding on the island this past Saturday and have started a portrait of the brides from a reference photo that I took as there processional went by the cottage. Love the quaint living of this place.

Summer Solstice

What could be more fitting than to usher in the summer with a hazy, hazy hot and humid day. 78F when I got up this morning at 530. Already too hot in the studio so will focus on some photography today. 

Covid-19 Coping Week 7

Man.... the weeks that have passed seem like a blur with not much to show for it. So in affirmation that I have actually accomplished something, this post is more of a note to myself.

Was able to finish another painting that I called "Across Whitehead Passage," 11x14inches, acrylic on canvas panel. I am pretty pleased with it. Instead of painting on a stark white canvas, I toned the panel in three different colors. That helped when it came time to see the sky through the trees at the the top of Cushing Island as well as in the areas of transition from rocks to water.

Started another painting. This is nearly done and is a black and white portrait of the granddaughters. Hope to wrap it up this weekend. In this painting, I toned the panel a light grey to help with transitions that would have been impossible to create on a bright white canvas.

I ordered and received a new camera body. A Canon EOS 77D. It arrived yesterday, and by the time the battery had charged the weather had turned to shit. So I have only been able to practice with it in and around the house. Also got an app for my phone that turns it into a light meter and have been reacquainting myself with shooting in manual mode. I think the art of photography lies in Manual Mode.

Spent a little time trying to figure out how to construct and post Instagram stories. Actually quite a creative and fun thing to do.

"Across Whitehead Passage," 11x14inches

Covid-19 Coping Week 4

Another week of Island social distancing. The big conciliation has been the weather. At the same time the virus arrived so has an absolutely lovely spring. First in many years. So there is plenty of reason to be outside but by yourself. We had two days of rain this past week. It could have been worse. Over the past four or five years, most of our winter snow has come in April (knock on wood).

I spent quite a bit of time walking with my camera, as a companion, and got a few good photographs after the rains that are posted below. Placed an order with Jerry's Artarama for some more paints and brushes. Trying to brainstorm a next painting. Those item's arrived yesterday. I thought it would take longer for the order to get here, so I continued with art courses on Udemy. Now that they are here, the pressure is on.

In the mean time enjoy a few photos I took this past week:

Covid-19 Coping Week 3

Spending most of my socially distant time, this week, in my studio. I was able to finish up the fourth in a series of four portraits of my grandchildren. These works are a departure for me from a traditional painted portrait look. Over this past winter I focused quite a lot of time on learning how to paint digitally. I tried a number of apps, tablets and programs in order to find tools I was comfortable with using. It was also important that the end product not be just a print of a digital painting but an acrylic or oil painting on canvas panel. With that in mind, I ended up deciding on the following workflow:

• Artworks were going to be conceptualized, drawn and painted in an app called Infinite Painter This app is only available in ios or android. That being said, I used a Wacom One Creative Pen Display connected to my Samsung Note 10 Plus phone in order to take advantage of this particular app.
• Digital paintings were cleaned up and finalized on my MacBook Pro connected to the same pen display using a painting application called Corel Painter The final digital painting was then printed for reference.
• The line work of the digital reference print was redrawn on the canvas panel and rendered in color using acrylic paint.

My plan is to use this same workflow for another series of paintings. Hope you enjoy.

"Emery With Water Wing," 11x14inches

"Riley Floating," 11x14inches

"Colton Sleeping," 6x8inches

"Finnley Sitting," 6x8inches

Covid-19 Coping Week 2

Another week of moving through the corona virus pandemic trying to take in disseminated information and filter it into lifestyle modifications. Using the solitude to meditate, virtually catch up with family and friends, spend time in the studio, getting used to carrying my DSLR on walks (leaving phone behind, so that at least for some part of the day, to resist responding to every alert that posts) and taking advantage of online learning through Udemy They have had some great sales on art courses and I am currently taking one on hand drawn 2d animation. I have been a member for several years and in that time I have purchased a number of courses to take at some point in the future. With the pandemic, the future is now!

I spent many hours since my last post blocking in color on the 4th of a portrait series that I have been working on. Making good progress, but this final painting is much more detailed than the others and I am finding I can only take painting on it in doses. In the mean time I have been reacquainting myself with taking photographs with a DSLR. Learning about exposure settings (especially nighttime photography), white balance, manual focus and the different characteristics of the lenses I have. I think that I am having about a 20:1 ratio of good photos to bad through trial and error. Glad I have large capacity SD card. Below are a few of the successes.

Looking South from the TEIA Club

Signs of spring which continues unthwarted by Covid-19

A spring beach day at Hadlock Cove

Whaleback

Pandemic Pandamonium

Didn't post Sunday as I should have. Like everybody else, I have been consumed with navigating the corona virus do's and don'ts and local shutdowns. There have been many and wanted to make sure that my pandemic lifestyle changes were being handled before making art. I was supposed to go on vacation today for a couple of weeks to visit my son, his wife and the granddaughters. Had to cancel that trip last week, and I am glad that I did. The situation with the virus has been so fluid that I didn't want to end up in Florida with no way back to the island two weeks later. Miss them terribly though.

Back in the studio, I got started on the fourth portrait transforming a digital painting to a rendering on a canvas panel with acrylic paint. The base drawing on the panel is complete and I was able to start blocking in colors. My focus mid week changed to photography when, at a friend's house for dinner (before the social distancing thing), I was shown her new DSLR camera body just purchased. She could tell that I was handling the camera with envy and offered me her old canon DSLR body for free. Amazing offer. She told me that she didn't have any lenses to go with it and gave me some advice. To see if I want to get back into photography by investing in good glass. If I didn't like it, then I had nothing invested in the body, and would always be able to re-sell the lenses. So that is what I did. I spent the rest of the week and weekend consumed with trying to find the best glass I could afford.

My friend dropped off the camera on Sunday afternoon. It turns out the body was a Canon t4i, which was the last DSLR I owned before giving it to my son in favor of using a phone as camera for the last 3 years. When I took it out of the bag it immediately felt familiar. At the time I first purchased this same camera, I had also obtained a third party book (for Kindle) on making the most of this particular camera. Primarily to learn where to begin with using a camera that comes with a 370 page owner's manual. While waiting for my lenses and SD card to arrive from B&H Photo I started re-reading all I could to about the camera.

The lenses, protective filters and SD card arrived yesterday. I spent the rest of the day playing with my new toy. The photos that follow were not taken with the t4i but with my Samsung note 10 plus, which has a remarkable camera.

My porch at night

A wide look at the neighborhood at night