Little Cabin Creative

Can't Get Me Down

2011-07-28T14:54:00.000-07:00

Can't Get Me Down

oil, 6" x 6"

I don't know what it was, but I just got obsessed with DPW Challenge this week. Normally I would steer clear of flowers since I've never been happy with any flowers I've painted. I guess that's why this challenge was a HUGE challenge for me.

The challenge had a limited palette of Ultra. Blue, Cad Red Lt, Cad Yellow Lt. and white, plus it had to be done in 1 hour, plein aire.

After 6--yes 6!! failed attempts and 6 hours of frustration I finally got something I can live with. I sat in the rain outside with my umbrella and in between the kid related interruptions I was able to get this thing knocked out in the 1 hour time limit--just barely.

June Sky

2011-06-30T12:07:00.000-07:00

June Sky

12" x 16", oil

My husband told me to grab the camera as we were headed out for an evening walk. I'm so glad I did because the sky was so beautiful. Thunderheads were forming in the distance lit by the sunset, cliche maybe, but so cool looking.

My mom suggested doing another palette knife painting, TOO much fun! Would it be wrong if I abandoned my brushes?

Morning Patrol

2011-06-30T11:58:00.000-07:00

Morning Patrol

8" x 10", oil

Our new pullets are close to full grown now and happily roaming the yard on most days. They were left out of my last painting because I got too focused on the swing, but here they make an appearance.

Summer Swing

2011-06-28T10:23:00.000-07:00

Summer Swing

8 x 10, oil

This is one of my favorite spots in the yard, and it just glows on a sunny morning. I've taken so many pictures of this spot in probably every season, so I'm glad I finally got around to painting it.

Stand and Sway

2011-06-22T11:32:00.000-07:00

Stand and Sway

8" x 10", oil

....must ...paint ...greens

I'm trying to develop a taste for the many green, green, greens of summer. My two favorite colors in the world are alizarin crimson and cad. yellow med (think red dogwood, golden grasses, and throw in some snow patches). In other words, I'd rather be painting a fall or late winter scene. So, while I have some free mornings this summer I plan to force myself to confront the greens.

This is from a photo I took in our yard, as you can see we are not too meticulous about weed whacking around the trees. In fact, I have no trouble at all finding interesting weeds and bare patches to add a little flavor to the GREEN.

Winter Shore

2011-03-31T07:24:00.000-07:00

Winter Shore

6 x 8, oil

I guess I'm still in winter mode, just like our weather around here. Right after my palette knife frenzy last Friday I still had and hour and a half before the school bus, so I did another little painting. This time -without- the palette knife, just so I could make sure I could still use a brush!

I'm sure other artists can relate, but every time I set out to paint something it's like I have to mentally convince myself that I know how to do it. The more time that passes between paintings, the harder it is to believe I might be able to do it. Such a maddening endeavour, painting!

Field's Edge

2011-03-26T08:11:00.000-07:00

Field's Edge

8" x 10", oil

I always struggle with skies so wanted to try something different. This was a first for me, but I got out the palette knife just to do the sky, then something happened and I couldn't put it down! I ended up doing the whole thing with the palette knife since it was so much fun. I'm generally not a big fan of palette knife paintings, they remind me of those big abstract paintings of the 70's that look like they were done with a spackle knife. I now see how it could become really addicting!

6 months later...

2011-03-19T10:21:00.000-07:00

Winter Cut

8 x 10, oil

Finally back with a painting. I'm trying to get myself to paint larger, so that means bigger brushes. I'm pretty hooked on flat brushes now so when I discovered that my large brushes were all filberts I had to get out the scissors. I'm sure this is a big no-no, but it actually worked out OK. I WILL be shopping for some larger brushes tho.

Almost all the snow has melted now, but after a fresh snow this winter I went out to the marsh and took some photos. With the sun low in sky the shadows on the snow get so dramatic. The path through the marsh looked so sharp in the sun, just cuts through the peaceful winter scene.

Fall Reboot

2010-10-24T12:42:00.000-07:00

Just Turned

6 x 8, oil

available at Sweet Lips Art and Gift Gallery

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My paints sat all summer untouched, so this fall Mom and I took a plein aire class in September. I came away from that with nothing worth posting, but my goal had really just been to paint regardless of the results.

Today was gloomy after a heavy rain and I had planned to paint from a photo, but after spending a 1/2 hour looking at photos and getting a few cropped and ready to print, photoshop crashed on me! I decided then to just head out across the road with my Pochade box and paint something. The field was just turned on Friday, and even with the mud and gloomy sky there are still some nice fall colors out there. Since I feel I'm once again starting over, I kept this one to a very simple palette, just Cobalt Blue, Cad. Red, and Yellow Med.

Feathers & Fluff

2010-05-20T10:16:00.000-07:00

Feathers & Fluff

6" x 8", oil

available at Sweet Lips Art and Gift Gallery

I had a nice photo session with our hens the other day, this one is a little bantam hen. The eggs are really at their best now with all the fresh grass and bugs to eat, yum (eggs, not bugs)! I didn't quite capture what I had hoped to with this one, but there are some things I like about it anyway.

I'm making arrangements to put some paintings in a new gallery nearby. Working with a gallery and pricing my work is pretty new to me so I did a little research. I ran across this piece that I think helps give some perspective on pricing artwork so I thought I'd share it:

Robert Genn's Ten Commandments of Art Pricing

Thou shalt start out cheap.
Thou shalt publish thy prices.
Thou shalt raise thy prices regularly and a little.
Thou shalt not lower thy prices.
Thou shalt not have one price for Sam and another for Joe.
Thou shalt not price by talent or time taken, but by size.
Thou shalt not easily discount thy prices.
Thou shalt lay control on thy agents and dealers.
Thou shalt deal with those who will honour thee.
Thou shalt end up expensive.

Pig Race

2010-05-13T14:41:00.000-07:00

Pig Race

6" x 8", oil

available at Sweet Lips Art and Gift Gallery

I celebrated my birthday today by finally doing another painting. It's pretty bad when I had a snow scene on there in May, so at least I've got my blog in the correct season now.

Why pigs? Don't know. They were just so cute, I took the photo at our local Schuster's Playtime Farm during the "pig races". I'm sort of in farm animal mode right now, since I'm reading "The Face On Your Plate". Except for the occasional fish face, I don't have faces on my plate anyway, but maybe I'll put some of their faces in my paintings. Or perhaps by the time I get back to painting again I'll be in landscape mode, who knows...

Now for some photo tips:

Before photographing my previous painting, I spent some time researching and experimenting to find the best way to photograph paintings. I also got myself a small collapsable photo tent to diffuse the light.

So here is what I've found:

--Set the camera farther away and zoom all the way in.

--Set lights nearly parallel to the subject on either side and on top if glare is a problem.

--Set camera to ISO 100.

--Use AV setting and set f-stop to 8 or higher, 8 or 10 seems to work for my lighting.

--Try to use a fast shutter speed if possible.

Some links:
http://emptyeasel.com/2009/09/17/camera-tips-for-photographing-your-artwork-for-the-web/
http://www.photoflexlightingschool.com/Lighting_Lessons/Advanced_Lighting/Product___Still_life/Photographing_2-Dimensional_Artwork/index.html

Red Cedar Secret

2010-02-23T08:00:00.000-08:00

Red Cedar Secret

6" x 8", oil

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Obviously there are no cedars in this painting, but the name of the lake is Red Cedar. The photo is taken from my "secret" path (deer trail) that follows along the lake for a bit.

I'd been avoiding using this photo because it seemed so dull, but a good one to try out the Zorn palette (white, ivory black, yellow ochre, cad. red) that my mom has been using recently. It was a really nice vacation from my usual pallet of 7-9 colors, it felt more spontaneous since I wasn't spending so much time thinking about all the options normally on my palette. It was more about values and trying to get the most out of what was available.

I'm very lucky that my mom does a lot of the leg work looking up artists and sending me links, this is a link she sent recently to Stapleton Kearns, a wealth of knowledge. I found this quote on his blog:

PAINTING SHOULD GET HARDER FOR YOU RATHER THAN EASIER. THE BETTER YOU GET AT IT, THE HARDER IT WILL BE.

I am sorry to have to be the one to tell you that cruel truth, but you will be a better painter if you accept that, and look for evermore expressive ways of doing things rather than more effective, or tried and true means.

At first it was a bit disheartening to read, but then it was sort of a relief to find out that it should be hard. Now when I feel like I must be really bad at this because it's so hard for me, I'll have to remember that it's SUPPOSE to feel hard! Hooray! ...I guess...

Up Early

2010-02-13T13:03:00.000-08:00

Up Early

5" x 15", oil

This field is what I look at every morning standing at the kitchen sink. I finally got out there with a camera as the sun was coming up, and the school bus pulling away a few days ago. Tho I'm still learning how to paint snow, this one was very fun. I used walnut oil as a paint medium this time, and it seemed to worked nicely.

I also like the panoramic format, somehow the 15" width is not as scary as a 15" height would be.

Shout It

2010-02-05T08:12:00.000-08:00

Shout It

6" x 8", oil

I've been wanting to do a painting of my (rock star;) husband Kurt to celebrate the release of his first -all original- CD, "Shout It Out Loud". I'm very proud of his work, he's a great songwriter and musician.

I'm always nervous doing figures, since I'm pretty new at it, but it was fun.

Meet Me

2010-02-01T09:45:00.000-08:00

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Meet Me

6" x 8", oil

Help! I don't know what I'm doing!! After neglecting the painting half of my studio for over three months, I finally tried to paint something. My favorite thing to paint used to be snow, but feeling so rusty, it was quite a struggle. I liked this subject because of the footprints leading to a nice little meeting spot along a X-country ski trail.

"13"

2009-10-15T09:19:00.001-07:00

"13"

8" x 10", oil

Just got this done in time, I wanted to paint this while my son is still 13. Another mighty struggle with pretty much everything in this one, but it's done and he likes it.

It's from a vacation photo taken in Arizona along the original Route 66. All that's left are the telephone poles to show where the road was.

Autumn Edge

2009-09-24T14:10:00.000-07:00

Autumn Edge

6 x 8, oil

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Mom and I went out to Kettle Moraine Forest today for some plein aire painting. It was a beautiful drive out, the fall leaves and colors are just starting to come out. After a long summer it feels like we're finally on the edge of autumn. It was fun to throw some red sumac colors on the canvas, along with the (probably over the top) yellows.

This is what I was looking at...

September Marsh

2009-09-18T20:11:00.000-07:00

September Marsh

6 x 8, oil

Southern Wisconsin has had an endless summer this month, so I finally took advantage of the perfect plein aire weather. I was able to sit on a log right IN the marsh behind our house. It has been so dry that meadow flowers have replaced the reeds and are taking over the drying muck. The colors were beautiful and the best part was NO BUGS! This must be what it's like to live in California : )

Ready For Take Off

2009-09-12T11:14:00.000-07:00

Ready For Take Off

10" x 10", oil

This one was a real humbling experience, I struggled mightily. I snapped this pix while on vacation months ago and have been thinking about painting it since. As often happens when I "think" too much on a painting it just turns into a mess. After much scraping I've just gotta call it done.

I do love painting ravens tho, I'm glad I went crazy and took lots of photos of the "friendly" ravens at Petrified National Forest this past spring.

I'm back, with cupcakes!

2009-09-04T14:06:00.000-07:00

Sprinkles Please

6 x 8, oil

Karin's cupcake challenge (for DSFDF) felt perfect for sliding back into painting mode. I haven't painted since last April (what can I say... work happened, then summer happened). This one was really fun. I wasn't sure how I'd handle the sprinkles, so I ignored them til the end. I ended up using a small nail and dipping the nail head into the paint to sorta stamp them on. Too fun!!

The pink background is magenta acrylic paint that I used as an underpainting.

Diana Diversion

2009-04-29T09:31:00.000-07:00

Diana

11" x 14", charcoal

Diana pestered me until I did this sketch last night. I gave her some finishing touches this morning so I probably spent about 1-2 hours on her, she could use more time (that I don't have!). My box of charcoals had not been opened for at least a decade, it brought back memories of a figure drawing class I had about 20+ years ago!

I did this from a poor quality laser print out of nothing other than laziness, which I was kicking myself for later. I suppose it kept me from getting caught up in details tho. I had to cheat a bit by putting a few little marks on the paper for her arms, head and feet from a rough tracing I did. I put it away after that so I wouldn't be tempted to use it again. My drawing skills are rusty and I really need to do more.

I had no business even doing this since I've got a couple of design projects that REALLY need my attention right now, but I didn't want to miss out on another DSFDF!

A Superior Day

2009-04-08T15:28:00.000-07:00

A Superior Day

6" x 8", oil

After looking at all those beautiful beach scenes on DSFDF I had to look thru my photos for my own beach scene. This one is from my favorite place to be on sweltering day, the beach near Pictured Rocks on Lake Superior. My daughter was playing while watching mom or dad? in the kayak and her brother and grandpa snorkeling, grandma took the picture.

This was another big challenge for me, my second try at painting a figure. As usually the parts I thought would be easy (rocks) were difficult and the parts I thought would be hard (figures) went pretty easy.

Tagged with Random Passion

2009-04-01T19:21:00.000-07:00

Its late Weds. and I was unable to do the latest DSFDF (which I was really looking forward to). After a spring break trip last week and being a "single mom" this week I couldn't make it happen : (

So instead of sulking about it I'll send a belated thank you out to a number of amazing folks who have been kind enough to "award" me over the last couple months.

As fun as the awards and tagging are, in my book they qualify as a "chain". I just can't bear to break my lifelong streak of never participating in chain mail of any kind. So instead I will list the wonderful artists who have tagged me, please check them out if you don't already know them, or even if you do!

1. Sheila Tajima - Sheila's new project Art for the Animals is truly inspirational, she's just a dynamo!

2. Tom Pohlman - This guys just blows me away (get this--he thought I was inspirational?!?)

3. Lauren - Wonderful watercolor artist, I especially love her landscapes.

4. James Parker - His blogs can't be missed, he is a HOOT. His paintings are darn good too!

Masago Munchies

2009-03-18T12:02:00.000-07:00

Masago Munchies

4-1/2" x 4-1/2", oil

available at Sweet Lips Art and Gift Gallery

This is my painting for the latest DSFDF challenge. I'm a big time sushi fan, but I had to look up the name for the bright orange roe on these California rolls. In the process I learned that masago is the cheap stuff, what you really want is something called tobikko. Personally I don't think I'd like either... I'm not much for seafood in general.

Marsh in March

2009-03-08T12:16:00.000-07:00

Marsh in March

6" x 8"

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On Friday I abandoned housework to head down to the marsh for some plein air painting. I haven't used my pochade box much so this was a good shakedown run. I had packed a small tube of zinc white since my big tube of titanium wouldn't fit. That was a near disaster. That stuff would just NOT cover the canvas. Because of this I ended up spending about half the time painting outside and half in the studio. Here's how it looked at the half way point...

Here's the spot where I was painting. I had planned to sit on the crate, but I need my knees up higher so I just sat on a canoe pad instead.

Somewhere in that snow and weeds is my rigger brush. It was the only one I had so that forced me to use a palette knife for some of the details.

This is a photo of my new toy. I picked up a digital photo frame marked way down at a Circuit City. To my utter amazement, Kodak actually thought to put a screw thingy on the bottom so (with a little rigging) it can be attached to a tripod. I wanted to try this because I basically hate dealing with trying to get decent prints from either my printer or a photo processor. My studio isn't setup to view my monitor, so this seemed like a decent compromise. I've only used it with these last two paintings, but overall I'm fairly happy with it. BTW--that IS a stuffed Totoro in the background. If you don't recognize him, google "My Neighbor Totoro". I'm generally not much of an anime fan, but the art in that movie is amazing, not to mention a really cool story.

Carousel

2009-03-08T12:04:00.000-07:00

Carousel

6" x 6", oil

Stop this thing, I want to get off!!! That's all I could think while painting this. I've never painted a human figure before so like an idiot I chose about the most difficult photo I could find. I spent way too much time on it until finally washing my hands of it. I wasn't going to post it, but in the effort of full disclosure... here it is.

Alpha Chicken

2009-02-22T11:44:00.000-08:00

Alpha Chicken

8" x 6", oil

My first chicken painting. This one taunted me for several weeks before I was ready to give it a try. It was actually really fun to paint and I'm looking forward to doing more. This is our "Alpha" chicken, she's the meanest of the bunch. It's her duty to protect her sisters, seeing as we have no rooster. We've had these lovely layers for about a year and a half now, and they definitely pay their rent. I'm so sold on backyard chickens, I can blather on about then forever.

Mud Lake

2009-02-15T09:44:00.000-08:00

Mud Lake 1

6" x 8", oil

Mom and I drove around last Sunday taking photos. It was perfect weather and I fell in love with this frozen entry point on Mud Lake. I'd love do some plein air painting here if I get a chance.

After painting this late last night I thought it was a total disaster, but with a fresh eye in the morning it didn't look too bad.

Bale 'em, Bale 'em...

2009-02-08T08:54:00.000-08:00

Bale 'em, Bail 'em

6" x 8", oil

...hay! hay! Now I have that Saw Doctors song in my head when I look at this painting. I had fun with this one even tho naked trees against the sky usually scare me. It gets easier to tackle them each time. I love painting snow patches and the weather has been perfect for it this weekend. I wasn't able to get outside to paint, but I did take lots of photos.

Pugnacious Pines

2009-01-31T09:54:00.000-08:00

Pugnacious Pines

6" x 8", oil

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After two paintings of subjects I had never attempted before I thought it would be nice to go back to a soothing, simple (ha!) landscape. Well, this landscape seems anything but soothing to me, every part seems to be fighting for attention. The pine woods in the back was the worst offender, they did not want to retreat!

2009-01-30T14:54:00.001-08:00

San Francisco Victorian

6" x 8", oil

Another painting for DSFDF. This time I tried painting on an all black background, at first I thought never again, but I think I'll give it another try. This one was a huge challenge for me. Several times I was ready to wipe the whole thing off, but Mom gave me some helpful advice and saved it from the garbage can. Thanks mom!

Technicolor Jefferson

2009-01-19T07:58:00.000-08:00

Jefferson Memorial

8" x 8", oil

My first submission to DSFDF.

OK, I went a little nuts with the colors. I think I tend to do that when I haven't painted for awhile, in a addition to painting from a photo. I'm still working out some sort of method to the madness. I've been using Shelby Keefe's underpainting method for awhile now, but I'd like to try the all black canvas method that Karin Jurick uses, or maybe a hybrid of the two??

Two steps forward, one step back? Seems more like one forward, two back right now... but at least I painted something!!

Photography & Retouching Help

2009-01-19T07:13:00.000-08:00

I was going bonkers yesterday trying to photograph my Jefferson Memorial painting for DSFDF. The outside shots washed out my highlights completely and my indoor shots were speckled with tiny bits of glare from the lighting.

Putting my painting in my homemade light diffuser helped somewhat but I still had glare speckles. I found a nice way to save those speckled photos tho. Here's how I did it in photoshop:

Under FILTER go to NOISE > DUST AND SCRATCHES. By setting the Radius at 1 or 2 and the Threshold between 15 and 25 I was able to make the speckles disappear. Be sure to zoom in and make sure you aren't losing any brush detail tho. The number I used may be different for different resolution photos also.

Some tips on adjusting photos:

After cropping my painting in photoshop I start with the overall values. The first step is checking the levels:

IMAGE > ADJUSTMENTS > LEVELS

I usually move the black arrow in to the right just to the point where histogram levels start to climb, I do this with the white arrow on the right side also. This cleans up any haziness and gives you nicer contrast. Then on the midrange arrow I try to match the values of my actual painting moving it to the right or left:

Next I work on color. I mostly use this tool to make color adjustments:

IMAGE > ADJUSTMENTS > COLOR BALANCE

If the colors in your photo just don't seem to match the intensity of your actual painting try using this:

IMAGE > ADJUSTMENTS > HUE AND SATURATION

Try boosting the saturation a bit to match your painting.

There are probably 10 different way to achieve the same results in Photoshop, so here's my method to add to the pile!

Gypsy

2009-01-11T12:46:00.000-08:00

Gypsy

6" x 8"

This is our border collie/blue heeler mix, Gypsy. Its extremely difficult to get her to sit still and pose, especially outside, but she laid down long enough for me to get a couple photos. This is the first time I've ever painted a dog, it turned out better than the chickens attempted once before, but I still have a lot to learn...

Back to the studio

2009-01-11T12:32:00.000-08:00

This past fall my freelance biz dropped off a bit so I finally got back to painting a little bit before the holidays took over. Here are my first three attempts:

Rust Remover

6" x 8"

Beware of Thalo Blue

6" x 8"

Getting There

6" x 8"