Got to Keep it Straight

As each days activities is so busy it seems necessary to invoke a simple little tool to keep one aware of the must do things so that they just don't slip away. A little reminder at the proper time is good to keep things in order and on tract so as not to force a comment like, "Man, that was suppose to be done a while ago and now I'm in deep water!"

Need a calendar. Yep. Organization. I've got to setup a system to remind me to make timely entries to my twitter, Facebook, blog, website and future articles? First thought that comes to mind is how many times should one make an entry to each account in a reasonable timely fashion? Second thought is how should each one be used in communicating which types of messages? This is getting pretty heavy cause one needs to use these wonderful tools in a proper way.

Any of these tools used to much or to little can be a bad thing but used at just the right way and with the right message can be great for just about anything. You know there's a lot of books on this stuff but surely there's got to be a condensed, simplified version some place compacted for easy reading. Hey, maybe after I've got it figured out I write a little summary on my findings?

Yellow Lily Sunshine

Yellow Lily Sunshine floral oil painting was created from a photograph taken of a lily growing in my backyard. Yellow conveys a warm feeling and this particular painting reminds me of my boyhood days. I'd lay in the farmers field on sunny days while watching the clouds row by. I'd try to picture in my mind the many animal images they would make as they danced across the sky.

It seemed good to paint a painting with this memory still intact from those days before it would become forgotten and lost. The sun was warm as it shined brightly and every now and then it would hide behind a cloud. I remember golden yellow blades of tall grass swaying in the slight breeze of each day.

There was no pond in this field but a river flowed by where I'd play once in a while by skipping stones across the water surface. And fishing was a pass time done now and then along it's banks.

All in all this is a warm painting with glowing colors to brighten every day forward may they be wet and rainy, cloudy and snowy or dark and stormy.

http://www.lloydthibodeau.com/

Bay Water Buoy Oil Painting

Prepared the composition for my Buoy oil painting today. A litte bit ago I had dug into my artist photograph reference shoe box and found a picture I had taken while on a vacation boat ride of a buoy. I thought that this would make for an interesting peice of artwork. To the right is the photograph artist reference image I'll be using. I'll also post the progression on this oil painting on Draw-N-Paint so that if your interested you can paint an art peice like it also.

After painting on a layer of white gesso onto the artist canvas I drew a grid pattern for transferring the drawing of the buoy. I used a red watercolor pencil for drawing that was similiar to the buoy color. I think the composition is set pretty well when considering the rule of thirds techniques artists use. The buoy will rest on the left vertical line and the top portion near the number two letter on the buoy will rest on the horizontal line which will be the focal point. The lighthouse to the right on the outcrop of land mass will present a lesser secondary focal point. If all goes right, this oil painting will be on display soon for sale at LC Art Gallery.

To The Gallery We Go!

Well in the past few days I've setup four new oil paintings. Three of them will be rose floral paintings and one is going to be a red buoy floating in the bay water. On the seascape painting with the buoy will be a portion of land extending out to the ocean with a lighthouse resting at the furthest point of land.

I went to visit LC Art Gallery in downtown Greenville, South Carolina and talked to a very nice lady named Marie and she told me about displaying my artworks in their gallery. I need to get these artworks done and anticipate that at the beginning of November will be a good starting date.

LC Art Gallery is located at 123b S.Main Street, Greenville, SC 29601

Pinkish Rose

Well, have to regroup on the Pinkish Rose oil painting and take a few steps back to ensure I'm getting the composition right. Art is a learning process that in one's lifetime is never going to end and that's wonderful thought. I think that's a great thing having a outlet that one can escape to and make the bad days go away.

I made the mistake of not doing a thumb nail sketch before starting the oil painting. Now I've gotten myself sort of stuck and wondering where am I going to go with this painting? Thankfully I haven't painted to far where it can not be adjusted in some ways to correct somethings.

So it's to the drawing board. I removed a sheet of Stratmore Bristol board from the art pad and the brain was placed in motion to figure out what can be done. First I needed to get the ratio of the canvas size down so that the flower image will be equal to the canvas. So with some measuring, dividing and other math equations I broke it down to a sheet of drawing board of eleven by eight inchs for the thumb nail sketch. Now when the gridded flower image is drawn it will reflect the equivalent ration on the canvas.

Using the outlined grid pattern I transferred the Pinkish Rose image to the drawing board. While do so I am also able to set the lines for the rule of thirds. This will ensure the flower is drawn in the right area and will appear the same on the finished oil painting making for a more pleasing artwork.

"Move Over" Harmonic Proportions/Armatures

After starting “Move Over” I learned of an artist technique referred to as Harmonic Proportions. In simple terms it is the placement of art subjects in an art composition at areas where the art viewer's natural vision rest. Artist blog of Alan Douglas Ray gives a more indepth discussion of this artist technique. I was a little surprised as to where the intersecting interest points of the viewer eye came together after having already begun this artwork.

By dividing the artist canvas from eight locations and then connecting them with pencil lines I found the highway sign I had drawn to be located where four points rest. The top right portion of the composition I find is complete and adding more art subjects in this area would cause this location to be too busy. There's no other interest points and the steel framing of the sign structure will create much interest for the art viewer.

One of the intersecting points rest at the center. I was surprised to see that the police vehicle's front portion that I penciled outlined was located at this point. As the painting is brushed in I will create contrast here enhancing this area at this point.

All the flower art subjects are located from the left side to right side and work their way to the bottom middle of the canvas. Colors of these flowers that are around each intersecting point and where they converge will be painted to standout. Artist Arleta Pech shares informative art information on this in her article about Harmonic Armatures.

Daisies Grid Drawing Puzzle

Got a pencil and like doing puzzles? An artist grid drawing puzzle is an artist tool use that helps in learning to draw. Grid puzzles let us see negative space, distance, shapes and a whole host of other arty things. After sometime with practice you can find yourself seeing art subjects in a whole different way. Drawing puzzles enable the basic art form or foundation of an artwork to be drawn with more accuracy. This then helps in making the end artwork appear as a more realistic artwork. A funny thing is that drawing puzzles lets one draw something and yet not know what it is that is being drawn. It blocks out the logical mind and opens up the creative mind of a visual artist.

The Daisies Grid Drawing Puzzle contains one hundred and six drawing pieces. In the online web version each drawing piece can be viewed by clicking on the labeled square. If you need a blank grid pattern to draw to you can download one by clicking this here Download Blank PDF File Grid Drawing Sheet.

Start drawing from the top line and work left to right until you have completed each line. If you start at the middle or bounce around to different labeled squares you may find your completed artwork to be a harsh and jagged picture. Drawing this way creates a smoother flowing drawing without having to return with an eraser to cleanup different areas.

If your an art teacher you may be interested in a slideshow version of the Daisies Grid Drawing Puzzle. From an image projecting system it can be shown as a Power Point presentation to a class of art students.

Yellow Lily Flower Oil Painting

Colors on the canvas of the Yellow Lily are painted in rich glowing golden hues. This painting begins with bright warm sky colors with shadowy contrasting clouds. A small meadow is brushed in the background along with a pond that reflects more of the warm sunlight's beaming rays. The large Yellow Lily flower is painted off center to the left.

Selecting an area off center in the upper right I brushed in the brightest area of sunlight. Here I started by blending Titanium White with Indian Yellow and mixing in a small amount of Cadmium Yellow Light. More Indian Yellow was painted on as I worked toward the outer edges of the canvas. Indian Yellow really creates a warm glowing effect that radiates out from the sky to the whole oil painting's composition.

Clouds where painted with a mixture of Alizarin Crimson and Thalo Blue. This mixture was blended more toward a slight redish color to help give the clouds an appearance of lavender color. You may note on a color wheel that yellow and violet are opposite each other. By using colors near these two helps to create stunning sky effects. In some the painted cloud formations I used Cobalt Blue to tone down a little of the richness that is in the Thalo Blue.

Instead of using a Black color straight from the artist oil tube I choose to mix my own for darkening the different cloud areas. Again Alizarin Crimson was in the paint mix but with Viridian to create what looks like a dark richer black color. By taking a tiny sample of this and mixing it with some white you can see if is blended just right. A middle gray is the color to achieve for creating shadows within the clouds. I find this gray mixture a very useful artist color in many of my paintings.

It's good to paint the sky colors in first because these colors are reflected throughout the whole painting. When enjoying the outdoors, everything around us reflects light from the sky be it a cloudy or clear day. Light from the sunshine makes the meadow glow with warmth. Water sparkles from beams of sun rays striking the surface of the pond. Light from the sun highlights all the parts of the lily flower.

Bear in the Blueberry Bush

Bad. Really doesn't look good. Yep it's down right ugly but it does what I need it to do. It tells me where the sky, background mountains and foreground areas will be. What it is, is the underpainting. By painting this way I've learned to make an art composition complete. It helps me not to hit any bumps in the road and get stuck.

I like to let my paintings dry a few days which gives me time to think about maybe adjusting the focal point. Viewing the painting as is I like the brightness just above the bears head in the sky area. Lighter hues in the background mountains and darker hues in foreground areas helps to bring a sense of distance into the painting. The bears head and blueberries appear to standout in the composition. I think it's now ready for some detailed brushing for a second round of painting.

Painting Composition Deer Overlook

Well it took a little bit but I'm very well pleased and excited about getting started my newest landscape oil painting. Over looking a waterfall from the top side and looking outward to a valley gives a dimensional feeling to this artwork.

Artistically I'm still contemplating the direction where the sunlight will illuminate from which will have a bearing on the whole artwork. Light will effect the waterfall so I've had to refresh my art thoughts on painting rocks in flowing water. Some stones will be visable just under the water, some will be wet sticking out of the water and some will be dry with moss on them. The different stone colors are many in this painting to be able to acheive the right effect.

Atmosphere conditions are going to effect the look of the background hills so they'll be lighter in hues to give an impression of distance. The river in the valley will add to this impression of depth as it flows into the background. So much to think about but yes this is going to be a good one!