My Week in Art

New camera!

2012-01-29T21:51:00.003+08:00

It's taken almost three years to make a decision but I finally bought myself a new digital camera.

My first digital camera, purchased almost ten years ago, was a 4MP Nikon 4300 Coolpix. It was expensive at the time but I loved it to bits. The picture quality was astonishing, even by current standards in my opinion, and it had plenty of manual controls so I could override the auto functions when necessary. But it eventually started playing up (I did tend to drop it a lot) so I had to retire it.

Then I needed a camera to take away on a trip and I had to make a quick decision, so I naturally went with Nikon again. This time it was a cheap and simple L18 Coolpix. At 8MP I'd expected better results than I was used to with its 4MP cousin, but it wasn't to be. I've had it for almost three years and never really been happy with it. The images just never felt "right" and, frankly, didn't seem to me to be as sharp or detailed as the lower-resolution images from the 4300.

So I've been watching camera prices - and reading reviews - for a while until finally, this week, I saw a Canon 1100D SLR on sale for under $400. I wasn't really after a DSLR but I'd never seen them this cheap before so it was hard to pass up.

48 hours later and I'm loving it.

This little guy is a Bobtail Skink and was wandering across our back lawn this afternoon. Much more acceptable than the tiger snakes we've had hanging around for the two previous summers.

For those who are fascinated by such things, the photo was taken with the standard 18-55mm lens at full zoom, auto-focus, with the camera on macro setting. I was about 30-40cm away. I've cropped this section because the full image is a 4.5MB file.

I just love the detail.

So in future, when I mention that the photos of the paintings that I post here aren't up to scratch, you can blame the photographer (me), not the camera.

Handy Andy

2012-01-23T19:23:00.002+08:00

I've just built myself a "custom-designed" computer/monitor stand for my new studio. I'm not much of a handy man ("Andy by name, not by nature", some might say), but I'm pretty happy with the result.

Built from some home-made shelves I pulled apart almost a year ago, it stands a little over a metre high, bringing the monitor up to a comfortable height for viewing whilst standing and painting. I also made the keyboard tray retractable so it all tucks neatly away when not in use.

It still needs a paint job.

I might add castors one day if I feel the need and find the confidence. And when I do that, I might consider adding some shelves to make better use of the space.

A change of approach

2012-01-21T12:31:00.007+08:00

I decided it was time to try something different to see if I can make my plein air painting experience a little less challenging.

I've used limited palettes before, and it does help, but this week I tried a three-colour palette and pre-mixing.

I used French ultramarine, cadmium yellow light and cadmium scarlet, plus white.

I pre-mixed some warm and cool grey from these colours and used these as the starting point for other mixes. I then mixed patches of all the major colours I could see in the landscape before putting even one spot of paint on the painting panel.

My first attempts made some aspects of painting easier, since all decisions are made prior to painting, so all colours and tones are assessed and then mixed at the same time, side-by-side.

(Sketch for Grey day, Knights Road. 22x20cm oil on board. © Andy Dolphin)

If you've been reading my blog for a while, then you've seen this tree before. It's a favourite spot.

It was cloudy while I was doing this painting. I don't think sunlight hit the scene the whole time I was there.

The first thing I've noticed from the changed approach is that the result is quite harmonious. That's hardly surprising when everything is mixed from just three colours. But the colours also seem somewhat neutral, to me.

I suspect my cadmium scarlet is just a bit too orange and, when mixed with the ultramarine, rather than making the sorts of clean violets I'm used to when using permanent crimson, I'm getting grey-browns.

(Sketch for Wild Ptilotus. 20x33cm oil on board. © Andy Dolphin)

Those little fluffy things are the flowers of a Ptilotus, an Australian native plant. They were scattered in patches all over this strip of roadside bush.

This painting presented two challenges. Firstly, it was a new subject for me. I mostly paint scenic views whereas this was like a combination of landscape and still life. Secondly, I used the same limited palette, pre-mix approach I used above.

Again, I like the harmony but feel it is a little grey. I need to get some more rustic warm tones and natural greens in there. I'm going to go back and have another go as soon as possible.

For now, we've been promised thunder storms again - and the clouds are definitely building fast - so I'm going to have to go for a drive and see what nature can throw at me this time.

Clouds in oil

2012-01-21T12:06:00.002+08:00

I love clouds. There are various types of formations, including stratus, cirrus and cumulus and infinite variations within, and combinations of, those categories.

I love them but rarely use them as a subject in their own right. I'll have to do something about that.

(Sketch for Clouds over Mt Barker. 22x20cm oil on board. © Andy Dolphin)

These, I believe, are cumulus clouds and they were building prior to a thunderstorm.

I painted this from my back verandah, an hour or so before the short-lived storm hit. The clouds were moving and changing very fast so, to speed things up, I used a limited palette. Even so, I had to "invent" most of the cloud detail, using bits of other clouds that formed and drifted by as reference.

Bluff Knoll - sketches in oil

2012-01-13T14:41:00.002+08:00

It's been warm and sunny here for a few days and I managed to get out to Bluff Knoll on two consecutive evenings.

Here's a couple of oil sketches I did.

(Sketch for Sunset Bluff. 22x20cm oil on board. © Andy Dolphin)

(Sketch for Behind the Bluff. 20x22cm oil on board. © Andy Dolphin)

These are small sketches, done mostly with a single brush so there's not much in the way of fine detail. The major struggles were keeping track of the changing colours and trying to lock in the shadows that tend to stretch rapidly as the sun sets.

Gold Coast Hinterland - digital art

2011-12-19T20:31:00.005+08:00

Just doodling in Photoshop tonight.

(Gold Coast Hinterland. 1400x534px digital. © Andy Dolphin)

This is somewhere near Tambourine Mountain. Painted from a photo taken in 2009.

Two in one night!

(Car in shade - Williams. 600x560px digital. © Andy Dolphin)

I spotted this car in Williams a couple of years ago, when I stopped for lunch. I did a pencil sketch of it on site but did this digital painting from a photo taken at the time. It's an unusual subject for me but something about the scene caught my eye. It feels very Western Australian.

Shih Tzu Digital Painting

2011-12-11T16:31:00.002+08:00

I haven't updated for a while because I haven't had much chance to paint but here's a little digital piece I did today.

The close-up format for this was actually inspired by Carol Marine's "silly face" series of paintings.

(Shih Tzu. 500x500px digital. © Andy Dolphin)

I might try the little guy in oils soon.

Tom Richmond Book!

2011-10-26T18:52:00.000+08:00

The Tom Richmond caricature book I pre-ordered a couple of months ago arrived today, earlier than expected. Despite travelling half-way around the world, it arrived in perfect condition.

Tom's delivered 170 pages of in-depth instruction on the art of caricature. I've got a bit of reading to do now.

Plein air mountain sketches in oil

2011-10-23T20:26:00.001+08:00

Spring made a welcome return for a few days this week and I managed to get up early on Saturday morning and headed back out to the Stirling Range.

It was pretty hot for 6:30am, and there was very light cirrostratus cloud cover all morning. The light kept changing as I was painting, sometimes revealing subtle detail in shadows and sometimes obliterating it, but I was pretty happy with this one for a quick sketch.

(Sketch for Bluff Knoll Framed by Eucalypts. 35x25cm oil on board. © Andy Dolphin)

I hope to develop this into a larger painting and to spend a bit of time resolving the tangled mass of bushland in the middle and foregrounds. The clouds look a bit contrived here but that's what they actually looked like at the time. It was quite surreal.

On the way home, I stopped on the side of the road and did a quickie of Mount Trio. I used a very limited palette of French ultramarine, cadmium scarlet and Australian red gold, plus white. The Aussie red gold makes the most amazing colour mixes and I'm still to work out how to predict them.

(Sketch for Mount Trio. 20x22cm oil on board. © Andy Dolphin)

I hope to get back here at different times of the day and see what happens with those shadows on the peak.

Bluff Knoll - Finally!

2011-10-15T14:43:00.006+08:00

Bluff Knoll is the tallest peak in Southern West Australia. It lies in the Stirling Range and is about a one hour drive from my home.

Come this Monday, my family and I will have been in Mount Barker for eight years but in that time, I've been to Bluff Knoll only three times, and never for painting. I finally fixed that this morning.

I was up at 4:30am and, after cereal and coffee, I was out of the house shortly after 5am. I arrived at the Bluff Knoll car park around 6am.

We'd been promised a sunny day in the Great Southern but the Stirling Range creates its own weather and there was no shortage of cloud and a heavy veil of "atmosphere". Still, it was a pleasant, if slightly cool, morning so after scouting around for an interesting vantage point, I set up my easel and got to work.

When I began there wasn't much sunlight and I thought I was going to have to focus on the clouds drifting across the top of the bluff for interest. But as I was laying down my first washes, the clouds, mist and distant peaks took on a wonderful warm glow. There was my subject!

The light played hide and seek as I pushed on but I managed to get enough information down early on to capture the feeling. Here's the result after about one hour...

(Sketch for Morning at the Bluff. 28x34cm oil on board. © Andy Dolphin)

I used a limited palette of just three colours, French ultramarine, permanent crimson and cadmium yellow light, plus white. This helped to move things along a little faster although I did have a few moments of trying to mix the right shade of reddish, yellowish, bluish green-purple.

The light began changing dramatically with more foreground being lit with each passing minute - and each passing cloud. Finally I had to tell myself to "stop". I told myself two more times before putting the brushes away.

Here she is on location...

You can see how dramatically the light was shifting with absolutely no sunlight on the mountain in this shot. Luckily these "very grey" moments were few and far between, though they at least gave my eyes a rest when they came as I was looking almost directly into the sun.

Hopefully I can get a better photo of the painting when it's dry.

Updating blog

2011-09-26T23:12:00.000+08:00

I'm in the process of giving the blog a bit of a freshening up. So forgive me if things look a bit weird occasionally as the only way to properly test changes is to apply them.

New painting studio

2011-09-26T13:56:00.000+08:00

One of the reasons I haven't painted much for the last few months is that I've been trying to set up a new studio. The space I'm adapting is from an enclosed verandah that was here when we bought the house. Part of that room was demolished to make way for an extension to the main house and the half that was left is to be my art studio.

I installed a new Gyprock (plasterboard) wall a few weeks ago then painted all the walls in a slightly warmed, very pale grey. The existing walls used to be turquoise - almost the same colour as the door you see in the photo. I always painted in this space and I'm certain that the blue-green surroundings had an impact on the finished results.

The room also had an exposed sheet metal roof which made it very cold in winter and very hot in summer. I installed a suspended ceiling yesterday. Hopefully this will moderate the temperature a little.

It has two decent-sized, south-facing windows. We need south-facing windows in art rooms in the southern hemisphere so this was a bonus.

There's still quite a bit to do, including painting that hideous door a neutral colour, but at least it's starting to feel like a studio space now.

Walk in Porongurup Range

2011-09-24T21:47:00.007+08:00

I went into Porongurup National Park yesterday, my first visit for quite a while. I was with my daughter and her friend, on holidays from Wisconsin, and we soon set about following a trail past the "Tree in the Rock" to Nancy Peak. I'd walked part of this trail alone about six years ago but never made it to the top - mainly because I hadn't told anyone I was going there and I had no idea what to expect.

Yesterday, however, was perfect weather-wise and it turns out I'm fitter than I thought I was. After walking through the leg-aches on the lower slopes, we made it to Nancy Peak without too much effort. Once there, we checked the time and made the decision to keep walking and complete the circuit that would bring us back to the car park.

The next stage was quite rugged compared to the walk up to the peak. But it least it was all downhill from here, so it wasn't too bad.

Once at the top, there are aluminium trail markers bolted to the granite, so it's difficult to get lost. And seriously, it's a long, skinny, steep-sided range so there's really only two ways to go - east or west.

It was a sunny day with broken cloud cover. The views were spectacular. I did have a sketchbook with me but we were too short on time to stop and draw so I had to make do with photos. I'd like to go back with a pochade box or some other lightweight way to paint.

Anyway, here's a few pics. The first three are the view from Nancy Peak and the last one is of the karri trees on the return journey through Wansbrough Pass.

The complete circuit is about 5-6km long. Nancy Peak is 490m high (650m above sea level).

If you're ever in the Great Southern (Western Australia), then you might want to give it a go (mid-Spring is perfect - the wildflowers are blooming). It turns out moderate fitness and a decent pair of shoes is okay for this trail. It took us about three hours, including pauses, to take in the views.

Canola oil painting

2011-09-17T22:50:00.002+08:00

I did this studio oil painting yesterday based on a plein air sketch I did in Porongurup last weekend.

(Knight's Canola. 37x50cm oil on board. © Andy Dolphin)

Here's a close-up of the brushwork on the flowers.

And here's the on-site sketch from last week.

(Knight's Canola - plein air. 20x22cm oil on board. © Andy Dolphin)

Latest oil paintings

2011-09-11T12:46:00.003+08:00

Here's a painting I did last weekend. It's a bit looser than my normal style and I was interested in pushing the dark/light contrast whereas I'm normally playing warm reds and oranges against cool neutrals, with a focus on aerial perspective.

(Angus Evening. 30x70cm oil on board. © Andy Dolphin)

And here's yesterday's plein air piece. I think this one will be repainted much bigger soon.

(Knight's Canola - plein air. 20x22cm oil on board. © Andy Dolphin)

Once again, the photography is less than perfect. That's a problem I hope to solve soon.

Spring Plein Air

2011-09-10T22:31:00.001+08:00

Spring has finally arrived in the Great Southern and the canola is in full bloom all around us, so I took the opportunity to get out and paint.I was joined by Ted who's on holidays in the region. You can see Ted below, completing his first-ever plein air painting, with spectacular results.

Here's my effort completed using a limited palette of French ultramarine, cerulean blue, permanent crimson, cadmium yellow light and white...

We were painting well before sunset and the sky was clear, with no threat of clouding over, so I took a bit more time than usual. There's about an hour of work in this piece.

Long-time followers of the blog might recognise this tree from paintings I did at the same location last December. It's a great spot with a ready-made composition. I think I'll be painting here again.

I'll post a better photo of the finished painting soon, along with a studio painting from last weekend.

Self Caricature Sketch

2011-09-02T23:26:00.002+08:00

I decided it was time to do a caricature of myself. This is somewhat worse than doing self portraits (and it's been many years since I did one of those) because a caricature requires the exaggeration of features, even the less-flattering ones.

Most of us are used to seeing ourselves in the mirror but mirrors don't give an accurate image. Not only are we in reverse, we are also, in my experience, slimmer, taller and less wrinkly.

This was an impromptu decision and there was no combing of hair, no shaving and no makeup - just a few reference photos snapped in the spring sun. So here I am in my natural, wrinkled, uncombed state - and exaggerated.

This is just a quick digital sketch. I might work on it some more in the future.

Reminiscing

2011-08-22T20:22:00.000+08:00

Rolf Harris came up in discussion at work today and a few of us were reminded of watching him on his TV show, in the 1970's, quickly doing large paintings with buckets of paint and 6-inch paint brushes. So I hit Google to to search for some examples and found this...

What a star!

August Workshops

2011-08-21T16:04:00.004+08:00

I did two workshops earlier this month - the first for Gallery 500 and the second for Albany Art Group. Here are the demonstration pieces I did in each workshop...

In this seascape, done with Gallery 500 at Terra Verde Gallery in Albany, I focussed mainly on translucent water and the colours required to make a convincing "white" in sunlight and shade.

I did this landscape with Albany Art Group. My main interest here was aerial perspective and shadow-sunlight contrast. The original is very warm as we were painting under mercury-vapour lamps which lean heavily toward blue-green and tend to suck the life out of reds and oranges. Consequently, there's a tendency to mix these colours more saturated that usual.

Quinninup Cow - Digital Painting

2011-08-15T14:59:00.000+08:00

Another digital painting based on a photo I took earlier this year on the way home from Pemberton. I was particularly interested in the contrast of the sunlit "brick red" cow against all those cool, dark greens.

(Quinninup Cow. 1200x432px digital. © Andy Dolphin)

Millie in Oil

2011-07-31T15:13:00.002+08:00

I found some time and space yesterday to get some brushes wet. Here's the result.

This is the under-painting, done with thin mixtures of burnt sienna and French ultramarine. Animal studies like this require a little more care than landscapes and seascapes because it's too easy to "be wrong". If a tree branch is painted a little short or a wave a little too high, no one will know. But if the proportions of head, body and legs aren't right on a lamb, then most people will notice something is wrong, even if they can't identify what the problem is.

So I spent quite a bit more time on this under-painting than I would on any of my small landscape subjects. It doesn't look like much but there's probably 45 minutes work just in the under-painting.

(Millie. 20x22cm oil on board. © Andy Dolphin)

This is Millie, one of our pet sheep. I did a digital painting of her last August, based on a photo I took a few years ago when she was only a matter of weeks old. This oil painting is based on that digital piece. I used a limited palette of French ultramarine, permanent crimson, burnt sienna, cadmium yellow deep and white.

I'm still here!

2011-07-29T00:06:00.006+08:00

Things have been a bit quiet on the art front for me lately. I'm still without a practical painting space but progress on the studio is taking place - or at least, it was until I sliced the tip of my finger on some galvanised flashing (It's pretty minor but I'm trying hard to keep it clean) and now we have some severe weather happening so progress has halted - again. On top of this, my real job as been hectic for quite a while (cue the violins!).

I've got a couple of workshops coming up very soon. Next weekend, Saturday August 6, I have another workshop with Gallery 500 at their Terra Verde Gallery in Albany. By popular demand, I'll be revisiting seascapes in this one. The first three were great fun and the finished works were fantastic so I'm looking forward to seeing what we can produce this time.

The following week, Thursday August 10, I'm doing a workshop with the Albany Art Group and Vancouver Arts Centre.

Army Art is on again in Perth in a couple of weeks. I've entered two pieces and I'm hoping to travel up there and meet up with some of my old art friends.

This year's exhibition will be held at Leeuwin Barracks, Riverside Road, East Fremantle on Saturday and Sunday, 12th & 13th of August. All exhibited work will be for sale and part proceeds will benefit The Fremantle Foundation.

Forest Workshop

2011-06-26T21:51:00.011+08:00

I enjoyed another great workshop yesterday at Terra Verde Gallery in Albany.

The subject this time was a Karri Forest. These are not the easiest things to paint but, once again, everyone did a terrific job in the time available.

Here's a small (20x26cm) reference I painted last weekend...

It's a fairly simple design and not without its faults - like the small tree being too close to the centre of the painting - but it did the job as a reference sketch.

Here's my demonstration painting from the workshop (the photography on these isn't great). I used a limited palette approach on this one to simplify the process a little...

The major lessons here include atmospheric perspective and tonal contrast. While our minds will usually read a karri tree trunk as being somewhat pale, or "beige", it is actually quite dark except where the sunlight hits. You can see this in the greyscale image below. Note how dark the trunk of the main tree is against the sky...

Tones are relative to surroundings so the smoother bark on the tree is lighter than the rough bark and the shadowed foreground shrubbery but quite dark compared to other parts of the painting. You can also see how the shadow-side of the smaller tree is virtually the same tone as the background yet it stands out quite clearly in the colour image. This is where temperature changes get to work to differentiate objects.

Getting these tones right, especially in seemingly busy scenes like this, can present a challenge to the uninitiated. To be honest, it still tests me.

This simple graphic demonstrates the concept. The small grey rectangle appears to change tone but it is in fact just one shade of grey all over. It is the changing tones surrounding it that affect our perception of it.

Is it any wonder tonalism is such a challenge when our minds play tricks like this on us?

Here's some pics of the workshop gang hard at work...

Thanks again to everyone for making these workshops so enjoyable.

June Workshop - Forest

2011-06-07T20:03:00.004+08:00

Gallery 500 have invited me to do another painting workshop for them.

Workshops run for around four hours on a Saturday morning and students paint along with me as I break down my process of painting sunlight into easily managed stages.

The techniques demonstrated suit either plein air or studio painting. While I paint in oils, the approach works equally well for acrylics.

This month's subject will be "Karri Forest " and the date is set for June 25th.

If you're interested in attending, contact Brad at Gallery 500 in Albany, WA.

In the meantime, here's another digital "seascape"...

(Wave at The Gap. 1500x900px digital. © Andy Dolphin)

I wanted something a little different to the usual seascape vista with beach and sky so I focussed on a single wave breaking along the rock wall of The Gap, near Albany.

It's a long way down from the lookout platform to the water and it's difficult to judge scale when the only references are the water itself and the massive wall of rock. I'd estimate this wave to be around two-three metres tall - it could even be bigger.

I'm particularly interested in the various surface textures of clear water and foam.

Before the Storm - Oil

2011-06-05T20:02:00.002+08:00

Oil version of the digital painting I did a few nights ago.

(Before the Storm. 70x37cm oil on board. © Andy Dolphin)
SOLD

Before the Storm - Digital Seascape

2011-06-02T22:01:00.004+08:00

Following last weekend's seascape workshop, I had a taste for painting the sea, something I haven't done for a while.

Yesterday I grabbed my camera and headed to The Gap in Albany's Torndirrup National Park. This is a wild area where huge swells can appear without notice, even on the calmest of days. Yesterday was no such day.

As I drove down the road to the car park, I saw white water spouting up well above the rocks that top the gap. I'd never seen the water spray this high here before. I could also see towers of white water out to sea.

It was rough!

I wandered over the rocks from The Gap to The Natural Bridge and down toward the bay that lies to the west. The sea was white with foam, the air was wet with salt spray and the wind was whipping straight up the sloping rocks where I was standing taking photos. There was so much going on, and the waves were so much bigger than I've seen them here before, I didn't know what to take photos of... so I took photos of everything... lots of them.

I was wearing my sunglasses, not because it was bright - it was actually overcast - but to keep the salt out of my eyes. The scene was exciting but very grey, until I lifted my "sunnies". With bare eyes, there was a warm glow about everything except the deep water. The cloud cover was thin so the sun was having some effect.

Today I rummaged through the pics and borrowed bits from this one and that one to try and assemble a scene that conveys the feeling I experienced. From this, I did a digital painting in Photoshop...

(Before the storm. 2000x1057px digital. © Andy Dolphin)

I titled it "Before the storm" because there was a severe weather warning for later in the evening.

The painting is heavily influenced by the late E. John Robinson's famous seascapes. It's a style I've admired for years and I have his book "Paint the sea in oils using special effects" and two of his videos on the subject. His approach is sensible and straightforward. It makes a difficult subject much easier than it could otherwise be.

I hope to repaint this one in oils this weekend. I'll let you know how I go.

May Workshop

2011-05-29T15:32:00.008+08:00

I did my second workshop for Gallery 500 in Albany yesterday morning. It was nice to see some familiar faces from my landscape painting workshop, along with some new faces.

The subject this time was "Seascape" and I took the students through my approach to waves, flat water, rocks, sand, wet sand and, of course, sunlight and atmosphere.

My reference for the morning was a painting I did in preparation last weekend...

There's quite a bit happening in this small (25x35cm - 10x14") painting which took around four hours to finish. I wasn't expecting this same level of detail in a workshop setting where we only had four hours for explanation, demonstration and following along. Time got tight near the end as we were all adding those last bits of sunlight and detail. Even so, the results from the group were amazing.

Here's my demonstration painting from yesterday's workshop so you can play "spot the difference" with my reference painting...

In reality, this probably represents about one to one and a half hours actual painting time.

I didn't have my camera with me but I hope to post some photos of everyone hard at work when I can.

Thanks again to Brad and Jo of Gallery 500 for inviting me and to everyone who attended.

UPDATE:

Photos of some of the gang hard at work. Thanks to Ros for sending these to me.

Practical 3D Art...

2011-05-08T21:10:00.003+08:00

...with a difference.

For years I've had a fascination with the rustic features of farms - from rusty sheds to old vehicles to meandering fence lines. Many of these things have featured in my paintings.

This weekend begins an "artform" of a different kind for me. I got hold of some old fence posts from a farm in Kendenup and will be constructing a rustic fence from them in our back yard. Then, when I sit out on the deck, I'll be able to watch the wrens and robins flitting about the aged, lichen-covered timbers.

Here's most of the posts I purchased. They don't look like much in this arrangement but they have far more character than the treated pine or steel posts (star pickets) that are becoming commonplace these days.

Here's a close-up some of the lichen that attracted my interest. This is the top of a strainer post, already notched ready to accept a top rail.

And here's the first post in position. This is a corner post, it's about 30cm (1ft) in diameter and there's as much below ground as there is above ground. It's about 2.1-2.4m (7-8ft) long in total. I'm only 1.6m (5'3") tall so this post, as seen, comes to almost-shoulder height on me.

This is the biggest of all the posts - it weighs "a ton" and was a killer to move around on my own with nothing but a small sack trolley and some rope. It was an exercise in logistics, or insanity, to get it into the hole. I hadn't anticipated the enormity of strainers and corner posts when I dreamt up this idea - I'd only thought about normal fence posts.

This new-old fence will replace the existing one that keeps our pet sheep out of the back yard, so it's practical, it's three-dimensional and, to me, it's art! I'm not sure my back and shoulders will agree with me tomorrow - they're already complaining.

Dreamt up

2011-05-02T22:06:00.000+08:00

Just a little something that came into my head this morning.

(Verge flower. 1000x1000px digital. © Andy Dolphin)

This was painted from my mind, without reference, in Photoshop.

"Hotch" & "Gideon" caricatures

2011-04-28T18:08:00.001+08:00

I'm still without a studio to paint in, so here's another digital caricature sketch to add to the list. This time it's actor Thomas Gibson, best known as Aaron "Hotch" Hotchner, from TV's Criminal Minds. He used to be best known as Greg from Dharma & Greg, though his expression is quite different in his current role.

I'm still coming to grips with the caricaturing process - some seem to work while others don't - and while it might seem to be totally unrelated to landscape painting, it is in fact great training for the eye. Tom Richmond's blog has some brilliant tutorials for the budding caricaturist.

UPDATE:

And here's one of Mandy Patinkin who plays Agent Jason Gideon in Criminal Minds. I actually started this one first.

"Unsub, unsub!" ;)

A little art history

2011-04-23T21:59:00.006+08:00

We're currently undergoing renovations at home, and I'll hopefully end up with a dedicated studio space when it's all done, but it is slowing me down a bit. Today I painted a lot, but it consisted of two coats of paint on a 40 square metre ceiling. Unfortunately I'm getting no opportunities to go out and paint landscapes.

Earlier this week I was going through some old artwork I'd uncovered so I thought I'd share that, just to keep my "weekly" blog moving.

The first of these dates back to the mid-eighties when I was a signwriter. With my background in airbrush art, I was often given jobs that involved detailed or lifelike illustrations. This beer bottle was painted in lacquer on white acrylic sheet (perspex). It was one of four that I painted side-by-side and stands around 1.2m (4ft) high.

Acrylic sheet comes with an adhesive protective sheet which peels off easily. I used this for a lot of the masking work. All paint was applied with spray guns and airbrush.

The second one comes from the early nineties, after I'd jumped ship into the world of advertising and commercial illustration.

I did a series of concept paintings for Austal Ships in Western Australia. This was in the days when computer graphics were still incredibly expensive, so illustration made sense. I worked from preliminary plans to produce the 3D image and once this was approved by the designers, I'd draw it up about 50-60cm wide, transfer a faint image to illustration board, mask it with "frisk" film then break out the inks and airbrush ready to colour it.

This one uses a photo of the ocean as a base. The boat was airbrushed on the illustration board then it was cut out and the surface layer of the board peeled off (I always hated that part). This cut-out was stuck on the photo with double-sided tape and was then photographed and printed. This print was retouched before being sent off to a commercial printer for reproductions.

I loved these concept-art jobs but I know so much more about light and shadow these days that I would do them very differently if I had to do them all again.

The next one, probably from the early-mid nineties, is perhaps my first real painting done for no reason other than the fact I wanted to do it. Prior to this, almost all the art I'd produced as an adult had a commercial purpose.

One day I walked past a travel agency and saw a brochure with a man skiing on the cover. For whatever reason, possibly insanity, I immediately imagined the man as a kangaroo. I grabbed a copy of the brochure and some others for extra reference and soon went to work with tube acrylics and gouache on a canvas board.

I didn't really know what I was doing but I was having fun at least. I think I painted that roo hair-for-hair!

May Workshop

2011-04-18T21:05:00.001+08:00

After a very successful oil painting workshop in March, Gallery 500 have invited me to do another workshop in May.

Workshops run for around four hours on a Saturday morning and students paint along with me as I break down my process of painting sunlight into easily managed stages.

The techniques demonstrated suit either plein air or studio painting. While I paint in oils, the approach works equally well for acrylics.

If you're interested in attending, contact Brad at Gallery 500 in Albany, WA.

World Policy Journal

2011-04-11T20:50:00.000+08:00

A while ago I was asked by Nick Ditmore, Creative Director for World Policy Journal, for permission to use one of my caricatures with an article in their Spring issue. Permission was granted and the article, discussing how Australia rode-out the Global Financial Crisis, is now online.

Kendenup Rail Bridge

2011-03-31T21:39:00.003+08:00

Here's the plein air painting I did last weekend near Kendenup...

(Kendenup Rail Bridge. 30x20cm oil on board. © Andy Dolphin)

It's far from perfect but it was an unusual subject or me and presented quite a number of challenges from perspective to tonal contrasts to colour to reflections. Plus, the sun was setting fast so all these things had to be dealt with without much thought.

At one point I thought I'd lost it completely but I pushed on and once I'd mapped in the major highlight areas in the foreground and on the bridge pillars, it didn't look so bad so I continued with it. From here on I added most colour and tone from memory as the scene had changed dramatically in a short time.

I hope to go back soon and try again, from a lower angle so we can see the width of the bridge.

Perfect weather

2011-03-27T23:31:00.001+08:00

While summer was colder and wetter than we usually get down here, autumn has been spectacular so far. The last few days in particular were hot with mostly cloudless skies, day and night.

I took the opportunity this afternoon to go an paint a subject I noticed a long time ago.

This bridge carries the Great Southern railway line over a small creek near Kendenup. That trickle of water is probably more than it usually has at this time of year.

Plein air painters have a phrase "chasing the light" and I experienced it full on in this painting.

I started about 4pm, as the sun was casting a shadow of the steel bridge on the creek bed. It was 5pm by the time I finished and, as shown above, the whole scene was in the shadow of the distant trees.

I had to establish major shadow positions and angles at the start and try not to "chase the light" as the major shadow moved away from the bridge and toward me, which it did quite rapidly. I used a limited palette of four colours plus white to save time.

It was a subject I've never tackled before and quite a challenge. I might go back another day and try a slightly lower angle so I see a little of the underside of the bridge as this would give me a nice strong shadow tone and probably some warm reflected light. I hope there's still a bit of water flowing when I get there.

I'll post the finished picture when I can get a good photo of it. In the meantime, here's the plein air painting I did near Woodanilling a few weeks ago...

(Near Woodanilling. 20x22cm oil on board. © Andy Dolphin)

Albany Workshop

2011-03-26T20:03:00.003+08:00

Today I did a workshop for Gallery 500 in Albany, hopefully the first of many.

With ten keen and competent "students" and a wonderful workspace at Terra Verde Gallery, it was a great way to spend a few hours on a beautiful autumn morning.

I explained my approach to painting light in the landscape and everyone followed along as I demonstrated each step. With lots of good questions, exchanges of ideas and some good conversation, it was all great fun.

This is my painting, based on a digital image I came up with in my head a few months ago...

And here's a few pics of everyone hard at work as I cracked the whip...

Thanks to Brad and Jo of Gallery 500 for inviting me and to everyone who attended.

My next workshop is planned for late May. Contact Gallery 500 for details.

Woolorama time again

2011-02-27T20:05:00.001+08:00

Yesterday I drove about 200km to Wagin to deliver some paintings for the Woolorama art exhibition which takes place in a couple of weeks. It was a hot, humid day with clear skies and a gentle breeze.

On the way home, I deviated down a few back roads looking for "something different" that I could stop and paint. I found it on the road to Woodanilling. The tree was interesting and the light blinding. There was space to park the car and a shady tree to stand beneath.

I had no excuse not to paint.

We normally think of shadows as cool and highlights as warm but these trees seem to have a warm, peachy glow about their trunks, even in the shaded parts. Finding a colour and tone that would convey that warmth whilst still allowing the strongly sunlit highlights to jump was an interesting challenge.

I'll post the finished image when I can photograph it properly.

Strange summer!

2011-02-20T21:18:00.001+08:00

Large parts of Australia have been hit with extreme weather this summer. Northern Queensland was hit by floods and then perhaps the largest cyclone on record. Meanwhile, northern and central WA and Victoria have also suffered exceptional flooding. You need to visualise the size of the Australian continent to grasp the area that's been affected. It's ridiculously huge.

Whilst we haven't been personally affected by any of these events, this has been the weirdest summer we've had down south since leaving Perth over seven years ago. February is normally hot and dry, with temperatures in the forties not out of the question. This year, however, we've had the threat of a cyclone, though we're nowhere near the tropics, and of a surprise storm that devastated some southern towns but never quite made it this far. What we have had is day after day of drizzle and rain, often with gusty winds. I think we've only seen clear skies for about four days this month.

With only one week left before autumn arrives, I'm hoping for some opportunities to get out and paint some summer sunlight. In the meantime, I'm managing the odd painting indoors. Here's this week's contribution...

(Evening glow, Porongurup. 30x45cm oil on board. © Andy Dolphin)

This painting was based on a couple of plein air works I did last month. I took a little licence with the lighting since I have seen it turn warm on previous occasions. I kept the mountains simple as I wanted the white sand track to catch the viewer's attention and for the large tree to stand out against an atmospheric backdrop.

Here are the two plein air studies I used as reference.

(Porongurup track. 20x24cm oil on board. © Andy Dolphin)

(Summer track, Porongurup. 30x20cm oil on board. © Andy Dolphin)

Latest

2011-02-07T22:52:00.003+08:00

Things have been a bit hectic lately but I finally managed to get some painting done.

(Inn Kitchen, Arthur River. 70x37cm oil on board. © Andy Dolphin)

This piece was based on a small plein air painting I did in March last year and "fixed up" a couple of weeks ago.

(Karri Light. 50x37cm oil on board. © Andy Dolphin)

These will be on their way to exhibitions in the coming months.

Google Art Project

2011-02-03T12:24:00.002+08:00

I just saw Google Art Project on Marc Dalessio's blog - it looks fascinating.

Take a virtual, 3D tour of any one of more than a dozen galleries/museums around the world.

It might take a bit of getting used to but if you've ever navigated Google Street View, you'll pick it up pretty quickly. Just click a museum link, choose to Explore then mouse around a bit, click on direction arrows, click on distant rooms or paintings, click on + signs, move the zoom slider in the bottom corner and eventually you'll find yourself staring at a close up of a masterpiece.

If you're the nervous type who's bamboozled by all this technogologicacal stuff, then there's instructions and videos to get you going if you click on the "Learn more" link.

I suspect people with a slow internet connections might experience some difficulties.

Looks like I can cancel that world trip I was planning now.

Digital landscape animated

2011-01-23T20:32:00.001+08:00

I thought I'd have a go at animating the step-by-step digital painting process from my last post.

Here you go. Click to see it larger.

How to: Digital Landscape

2011-01-22T22:30:00.003+08:00

Here's a step-by-step breakdown of how I approach a digital landscape painting like the one I did this morning.

For this painting, I used a cartoony cross-hatch brush from Chris Wahl.

For this brush to work to full advantage, you need a pressure-sensitive stylus and Photoshop (other software might also do do this). The default settings for the brush work beautifully as the cross-hatch pattern randomly rotates as you paint. All I change is the brush size and sometimes I turn Other Dynamics - Opacity on or off. I do most of the painting with the Opacity setting on so that a light touch produces a translucent wash. This makes it easier to build blends and allows for a little variety within major tones.

Step 1: Rough outline to locate main shapes. Since this painting was right out of my head, with no visual reference whatsoever, some things will change as I progress.

Step 2: Rough in undertones. Lighter and cooler in the distance, darker and warmer in the foreground. I adjusted the mountain shape so it would fully contain the main tree. I use a fairly large brush here to get the surface covered.

Step 3: Add weight to all tonal areas. I use some of the sky colour in the mountain colour. I do this by painting a transparent patch of the sky blue over the purple from Step 2. Then I select this colour with the eye dropper and apply it across the area. This helps to "absorb" the mountains into the atmosphere, especially the more-distant peaks.

I introduce highlights in the background and mid-tones in the foreground. I re-establish the main tree and distant trees and some minor detail is added to indicate a fence and track. I've also introduced a foreground shadow being cast from a tree off to the left somewhere. This small detail instantly adds depth - plus I like shadows falling across white sand tracks!

Step 4: Highlights are added to the foreground and middle distance. I've strengthened the track and foreground fence posts. By this stage, I'm adjusting the brush size up and down as I work on different areas.

Step 5: I decided to change the shape of the main tree as the earlier shape looked a little "weak". I've also marginally brightened the sky and added my digital signature.

(Imaginary landscape 2. 1500x1000px digital. © Andy Dolphin)

Step 6: Finally, I flattened the whole image, boosted the saturation a little and tweaked some minor details here and there across the whole painting. I could have adjusted the saturation with an adjustment layer instead of flattening - but I didn't.

There is a about 30-40 minutes work in this. Note that at 1500 pixels wide, this image would only produce a high quality (300dpi) print about 12cm wide! If I wanted to do anything serious with it, I could work at this size up to around Step 4 then increase the resolution before continuing with detailing.

Half-awake digital landscape

2011-01-22T15:03:00.000+08:00

I had a bit of a sleep yesterday afternoon, after having a tooth pulled. In those moments before I woke up, properly, I saw another landscape image. I tried to focus on it to see if I could commit it to memory.

I should have got up there and then and captured the image as soon as possible, but I was still feeling a bit sorry for myself and went back to sleep. Anyway, I decided to drag it back out from the depths of my memory and here's what I ended up with...

(Imaginary landscape 2. 1500x1000px digital. © Andy Dolphin)

This is nowhere in particular but I think if I headed out around the Stirling Range, I'd find something pretty close to it. Don't forget to click the image to see it at full size.

I painted this in Photoshop using a tablet and stylus. I only used one brush which I downloaded from Chris Wahl's blog. I used the same brush in my previous imaginary landscape digital painting.

I painted this one in layers so I can upload the various stages as a mini digital painting tutorial. The basic approach is the same as I use for oil painting - under-paint in shadow tones followed by mid-tones then highlights.

Revision

2011-01-20T21:56:00.006+08:00

Sometimes, despite best efforts, some paintings just don't work. With plein air paintings, the chances of "failure" are much higher as paintings are executed quickly in changing light conditions.

I have quite a collection of paintings that I don't let out in public. Every once in a while, I review them and see if I can recover the feeling that made me want to paint them in the first place.

Here are two such paintings, although you only get to see "the after shots".

(Wansborough Karri. 20x24cm oil on board. © Andy Dolphin)
SOLD

This small painting was done in the studio but executed quickly, like a plein air painting. It is based on a piece I did a few years ago. The original lacked a significant warm-cool contrast and therefore failed to portray much depth or the warmth of the sunlight. This little painting was done with a view to doing a larger piece.

(Kitchen, Arthur River. 20x24cm oil on board. © Andy Dolphin)

This was a little plein air painting I did back in March of the historic Mount Pleasant Inn kitchen at Arthur River.

When I first painted it, the sun disappeared for quite a while and I lost the light that had initially attracted me. As a result, all my tones drifted toward the centre and the painting lacked punch.

Last week I took another look at it and increased the contrast on the building, darkening the shadow side and boosting some of the intense light on the red brick wall. This instantly lifted it so I continued on, making the front row of trees darker to bring them forward from the distant trees. A bit of warm colour was added to the dry foreground grasses and it was saved.

In this case, I painted right over the original because the foundations were okay. It's a risk, because it could all go wrong then you've lost the lot, but it is a huge time saver. This one too might be used as the basis for a larger painting. There are a few exhibitions coming up and I need some paintings bigger than 20x24cm.

Plein air summer

2011-01-13T14:41:00.002+08:00

I was invited to this year's first Porongurup art picnic yesterday and decided, this time, I'd do a painting rather than sketches.

We met at the old Woogenellup bridge and I wandered around for half an hour or more looking for something to catch my eye. It's a very interesting place with the abandoned timber bridge sitting alongside a concrete river crossing and culvert. The bridge itself is slowly returning to nature as the timbers rot and grasses and saplings take hold. Much of the area immediately surrounding the bridge is overgrown with grass and scrub.

I chose a spot at one end of the bridge where the post-and-rail fencing ends atop a grassy ridge. The evening sun was shining through at a sharp angle offering interesting contrasts of warm and cool tones.

The colour of the light changed dramatically during the forty minutes or so of painting time and I battled to decide which colours to follow and which to ignore. I ened up with this...

Original, on-site painting

I didn't mind it as an on-site exercise but it lacked punch, largely due to my colours drifting too much toward greys. There was no sunlight shining on the fence or grass by the time I was finishing.

I reviewed the painting this morning and decided to try and give it a lift. Step one was to scrape it back with a palette knife...

On-site painting scraped back ready for retouching

Scraping back an oil painting leaves a clear image in thin, smooth paint.

I reworked almost every part of the under-painting as I wanted to soften the background tones, pushing them back in the process, and strengthen the foreground. Here's where I ended up...

(Post-n-rail. 20x24cm oil on board. © Andy Dolphin)

It's still a fairly loose study but the finished painting has much-improved tonal contrast, helping the fence stand forward from the distant trees. There is also a more distinct warm-cool contrast between foreground and background.

I also added in a post on the far side of the track. I'd noticed this as I was finishing the original but I was too busy to add it in. It's barely noticeable but adds some dimension to the timber structure.

This was an unusual subject for me as I most-often seek out wide vistas, but I enjoyed the challenge.

Summer daze!

2011-01-06T14:03:00.001+08:00

Summer finally hit the Lower Great Southern this week. On Monday the thermometer settled somewhere around 35º C by midday and the wind was full of attitude. So naturally I decided this would be a good time to go outside and paint.

I plastered myself with sunscreen, donned my hat and headed about 1km down the road from home to a spot I'd noticed the day before. Something about this scene, a place I've driven by almost every day for over seven years, caught my eye.

I set up my easel in the ditch on the side of the road and if the gusty wind and searing sun weren't enough of a challenge, I soon discovered that I'd left my palette knife and one of my brushes at home.

I use a palette knife for scraping excess paint from the brush during painting so not having it with me meant wasting more paint and time than usual as I struggled to keep my one main brush clean. Still, I persisted and here's the result after about half an hour, during which my easel almost collapsed after a particularly strong gust of wind...

(Hot & windy. 20x24cm oil on board. © Andy Dolphin)

Later on, I headed back to the Porongurups to have another go at a spot I painted the day before. I had much more time to work on this one and as a result, I've added a little more detail than usually appears in my plein air works. The downside is that the light changes considerably over an hour so it's possible to end up with two or more paintings in one as the light on the foreground doesn't necessarily match the light on the background which is usually finished first.

In this case, the shift in light wasn't too dramatic and I used the extra time to capture some of the detail in the mountain range. I wouldn't usually do this with distant objects but I couldn't pass up the opportunity while the range was lit and not shadowed by clouds.

(Summer track, Porongurup. 30x20cm oil on board. © Andy Dolphin)

The real thing...

2011-01-03T11:55:00.003+08:00

Following on from yesterday morning's imaginary digital landscape painting, I present you with "the real thing".

I headed out yesterday evening and after driving around for and hour or more, I headed to a spot that catches my eye every time I drive past it. Yesterday it reminded me of my morning's efforts so I decided to capture it in oils.

(Porongurup track. 20x24cm oil on board. © Andy Dolphin)

I was rushed due to fast-changing light (the sun had as good as set by the time I stopped) and clouds rolling in but I caught some of the feeling. I might head back there again today, a bit earlier this time, and see if I can do better.

Imagine

2011-01-02T13:47:00.003+08:00

I woke up this morning with a landscape image in my head. This almost never happens to me so I got up and had a go at reproducing it in Photoshop.

I quite like it...

(Imaginary landscape. 1000x717px digital. © Andy Dolphin)

I've spent quite a bit of time recently driving around the Porongurups and this image is heavily influenced by the region although it is nowhere in particular. I've resisted the temptation to saturate the colours as the paddocks are quite bleached at this time of year.

I created this in Photoshop using one custom, cartoon-style cross-hatch brush I downloaded from Chris Wahl's blog. Click on the image to see its effect in more detail.

Thanks for making the brushes available Chris.

Clear evening sky

2010-12-27T20:38:00.003+08:00

Christmas eve was warm and incredibly humid around here. In nearby Albany, the moisture hung like a veil of smoke over the city through to the early afternoon. I've never seen anything quite like it before.

Since the evening sky was looking clear, I headed back to the scene I painted a few days ago when it was overcast.

(After Harvest 2. 20x24cm oil on board. © Andy Dolphin)
SOLD

Although I stood in virtually the same spot to do this second painting, I decided to zoom in a little more on the tree. Overall this painting is much warmer but there's still not much detail in the mountains due to the haze. On a clear day you can usually see trees and rocks up there!

As I was painting, I could see the colour changing. The blue was leaving the sky and the mountains as the haze became warmer and heavier. Even the feature tree started to lose its colour and contrast. When I was happy to call the first painting finished, I grabbed another board and captured a quick impression of the same scene before last light.

(After Harvest 3. 20x24cm oil on board. © Andy Dolphin)

This one was fast - about 15 minutes in total. It's turned out just a little bit grey as I didn't have time to clean my brushes or palette but the general feeling is there.

I might have to keep heading back to this spot in different weather conditions and different times of day.

Hope you had a great Christmas.

Artist Tips #2: Painting from photos

2010-12-23T22:01:00.003+08:00

Photos seem like an easy starting point for landscape painting and the advent of consumer digital cameras has made photography more accessible than it's ever been before.

Photographs serve as convenient reference material that allows us to paint when we simply can't - or don't want to - get outside. They are also a handy way to produce a lot of paintings from a trip away.

But photography is not without its problems.

We have a much greater range of tone and colour perception than film or digital cameras do and when we view a landscape, our eyes are constantly adjusting to account for light and dark areas. As a result, photos can rarely match what we see in real life.

To understand one of the biggest problems of relying on photos as a basis for painting, take a look at these two photos...

This scene was quite dramatic to look at but neither photo captures it as I saw it.

When I took the photo on the left, I exposed it for the sky. This makes all the dark areas in the land mass much darker than I perceived them. The photo on the right was exposed by first pointing the camera toward the tree line then pressing the shutter button half-way before recomposing and taking the photo. This opens up the aperture (or the digital equivalent) and gives me detail in the darker areas but blows out the bright areas in the sky. It's almost impossible (for me anyway) to successfully expose both areas in one photo to appear the same way we perceive it with our eyes.

Knowing this happens, I often take several photos, exposing each one differently so I'll have reference material for all areas if I decide to paint from photos.

Although it lacks some of the luminosity I experienced, the left-hand photo does a pretty good job with the clouds and sky colours. The right-hand photo captures some of the depth and detail in the land and tree masses but the sky would be virtually useless as a painting reference unless you have a great memory or are happy to invent colours to give it some life. A lot of photos like these probably never get turned into paintings and we might find ourselves wondering why we even took them (I've got boxes full of such photos from the days of film).

If I painted this scene en plein air, the finished painting would combine elements of both photos and would also likely include more warm-cool contrasts and aerial perspective. Getting the same result from "average" photos takes experience, guesswork, luck or imagination.

If you have access to photo editing software and know what you're doing, it's possible to adjust some "average" photos to more-closely match the scene as you saw it with your eyes.

This is the left-hand photo from above but I've used a curve in Photoshop to pull some weight out of the darkest areas whilst leaving the light and mid tones virtually unchanged. Then I adjusted the saturation a little to push a bit more life into the colours, especially the warm highlights in the sky. It still falls short of the scene as I remember it, but it could form the basis of a painting.

If you love doing representational art - where the things you paint are actually recognisable - then the next time someone says "why don't you just take a photo instead?", you can explain how a painting is so much more personal and how a good painting is vastly superior to the average photo. In the meantime, getting out and studying how light truly effects what we see, even taking notes, will make your photo-based paintings more successful.

Humid!

2010-12-23T21:11:00.001+08:00

The sun is still playing hide and seek with us but temperatures are on the rise. The last few days have felt like it was going to rain but it just isn't really happening. This, combined with the warmer days, means humidity! I love days like this - it feels like there's a thunder storm around the corner.

On the way home from my day job, I pulled into a rural driveway and did a quick painting of the sky before sunset.

The tones need a little adjusting but there's potential to turn this one into a larger painting.

After packing up, I encountered this sky a little closer to home...

Rest assured the photo doesn't do it justice. There were different clouds shapes and colours in every direction and the heat and humidity were still electrifying. Just my kind of evening.

PS. I just checked the weather forecast and the Bureau agree there could be thunderstorms.

Clouds!

2010-12-19T14:07:00.008+08:00

I looked outside at 6am and the place was glowing, with strong sunlight streaming through the trees. So I got up, had breakfast and coffee and prepared to go painting. By 7am I was in the van but the sun was nowhere to be seen.

I decided to go out anyway in the hope the clouds would break up as the sun rose higher. I headed out to the Porongurups and the cloud cover got heavier until, eventually, it started to rain.

I pressed on regardless and the sun kept teasing me with hints that it might break though anytime soon.

I drove around Porongurup for a while before noticing a setting that looked like it had been designed by a landscape artist. The tree was the "perfect" shape (a lot of gum trees are a bit on the ugly side) and the backdrop, with a cloud draped over one of the Porongurup Range peaks, was magical. The long dry grass in front of the dark silhouette of the tree sealed the deal for me.

Everything was still basically shades of grey but the cool dark tones of the mountains and trees contrasted nicely with the warm straw stubble in the paddocks.

I decided I'd have to paint it - sunlight or no sunlight.

(Almost finished)

The lack of harsh light meant that I was able to take a little more time painting as the colours barely changed the whole time I was there.

The muted colour also meant I could use a limited palette - Ultramarine, Crimson, Yellow Ochre and Australian Red Gold plus white. I could even have got away without the Oz-Red-Gold but I quite like using it in mixes.

I can't recall the last time I did a landscape without using any cadmium colours - this might be a first!

(After Harvest. 20x24cm oil on board. © Andy Dolphin)

I'm really pleased with this one and I think I might do a larger painting from it.

Latest paintings

2010-12-18T16:07:00.002+08:00

Here's the Porongurup landscape painting I did a couple of days ago. I've popped it in a frame for you.

(Knights Road, Porongurup. 20x24cm oil on board. © Andy Dolphin)

Here's another one of the Porongurups that I did about four days earlier.

(Woodlands Road, Porongurup. 20x24cm oil on board. © Andy Dolphin)

The top painting was done using a chisel-edged synthetic brush while the bottom painting was done with bristle brushes. Click on them both to compare the different finishes.

Both paintings were done en plein air but I must confess to making a few adjustments to the bottom one in the studio ans the light was fading fast when I painted it.

Another sunny day - sort of...

2010-12-16T20:25:00.003+08:00

There were fluffy clouds around all day today but it was warm and sunny for the most part, making it the second sunny day so far this summer.

I headed out to the Porongurups this evening and found a pleasant spot off the side of Knights Road, looking south toward the mountains. The cloud cover had increased and there were a lot of cloud shadows, especially on the distant hills, but the foreground was bathed in sunlight.

I set up and started painting, taking careful note of the major shadows cast by the foreground and mid-ground trees. This was to prove prophetic as the clouds soon rolled in and before long, nothing was in sunlight. I continued painting with an image firmly in my mind. It was quite pleasant as things don't change much when it's cloudy - but I needed to be careful to not go painting too much detail in the shadow side of my main tree (shadow areas become more detailed in the absence of bright, direct light).

Eventually the sun peeked through for a few minutes and I took this opportunity to put highlights on the main trees and some of the sunlit grass.

After I took the photo, I made a few more additions and adjustments, including reworking the clouds which looked too heavy and somewhat dull.

I stayed fairly true to the scene before me. The only "major" change I made was to turn the two foreground trees into just one as they were almost in line from where I stood to paint. I also made the mountains slightly taller so they didn't "kiss" the top of the that tree. Compositionally, it's best to have edges either overlapping or not touching at all rather than just touching.

I used just one square, synthetic brush on almost the entire painting. It's a brush I've owned for years but I think this is the first time I've used it - I usually use square or filbert bristle brushes. The synthetic brush is more pliable and cleans much more easily than the bristle brushes. I think I'll be using it again for my plein air work.

A sunny day at last!

2010-12-16T13:26:00.001+08:00

The first 11 days of summer were, to say the least, somewhat heavily overcast around these parts. I ventured out once or twice to see if anything paintable grabbed my attention but I really am driven by sunlight and shadows so never got my brushes wet.

Finally, on day 12, the sun shone with a vengeance. With a huge blue sky and the temperature hitting the low thirties (Celsius), painting was back on the menu.

For weeks I've driven past a WA Christmas Tree on the side of Albany Highway and kept telling myself that when the sun came out, I was going to paint it. It was frustrating seeing it every day under grey skies. They're still spectacular with their near-fluorescent yellow-orange flowers but I wanted shadows. I took a few photos when the clouds were a little thinner but they were less than inspiring.

When the sun finally did make an appearance, I headed straight to this tree.

Albany Highway carries some large trucks and plenty of traffic, all doing 100kmh-plus, so I didn't really want to stand my easel on the edge of the road. Instead, I parked my van in a driveway across the road from the Christmas tree and set my easel up in the passenger seat. I painted for half an hour - and it was the most-uncomfortable half hour I've suffered for a while! But at least I got my painting.

(Nuytsia by Highway. 20x24cm oil on board. © Andy Dolphin)

It's only a quick sketch really but I'm happy with what I've captured. My main interest was the contrast between the ultra-warm sunlit flowers and the cool-dark greens of the shadow side of the foliage mass.

I'd previously given this panel a red tone that you can see peeking through all over the painting. I used a limited palette of five colours to help speed things up a little.

A herd of cattle wandered into the scene when I was half-way through painting. They hung around for a long time and it took a lot of effort not to add them in.

The Christmas trees are putting on a good show this year and I hope to capture a few more in paint before the flowering season ends.

Gallery run

2010-12-11T21:40:00.022+08:00

My wife and I did an 800km round trip today to deliver the following paintings to two wonderful galleries...

BORANUP GALLERY, Margaret River, WA

(Forest Road. 33x46cm oil on board. © Andy Dolphin)
SOLD

(Survival. 54x30cm approx - oil on board. ©Andy Dolphin)

(Shoreline. 54x30cm approx - oil on board. © Andy Dolphin)

SOLD

GOLD 'N GRAPE GALLERY, Pemberton, WA

(Summer's Eve, Porongurup, 2010. Oil on board, 70 x 37cm. © Andy Dolphin)

(Stirling Evening, 40x60cm oil on panel. © 2010, Andy Dolphin)
SOLD

If you find yourself in the south west of WA, take the time to visit these galleries. They have much to offer and you could easily spend an hour or more just browsing each one.

*Note: Due to the variability of browsers and monitors and the vagaries of photography, colours are not guaranteed to match what you see on screen but I have adjusted to be as true as I can make them.

Plein air time again!

2010-11-27T21:42:00.004+08:00

It's been a while since I managed to get out and do a plein air painting - I tried last week but it wasn't to be. I threw my gear in the van and set off about town, looking for something "easy" to do, to get myself back into the swing of things. It was a hot humid day with thunderstorms a distinct possibility. As it happened, the thunderstorms never came but the clouds did.

I found some interesting spots but without sunlight they just didn't grab me enough to justify getting my brushes dirty. So home I went.

Today, however, was warm and sunny - windy too but with clear skies as far as you could see. So off I went in search of something new. I think I found it, on a back road/track, just north of Narrikup.

This mostly-gravel road has a few interesting sandy sections that give the landscape a very different feeling, somewhat like "warm snow". The shadows have a purply-grey coolness about them with stark warm highlights in areas where the sun breaks through. I enjoy painting sandy tracks more than gravel ones. They "feel" more natural somehow.

This section of track featured a WA Christmas Tree (Nuytsia floribunda) which stood out like a beacon against the other trees and scrub. It begged me to paint it.

It's early in the flowering season yet for Nuytsias, but this one was a little ahead of most in the region. I'll have to remember to take another look in a couple of weeks as there are still a lot of unopened flowers on it.

(No, I didn't stand in the middle of the road while painting.)

I had to work fast on this one as I could see the light was going to change dramatically. Not only did the track fall almost entirely into shadow, as you can see above, but the sunlight warmed considerably, giving the green-grey shrubbery a warm orange glow.

Plein air painting... you don't have to be mad, but it helps.

Alf Stewart digital sketch

2010-11-16T21:20:00.002+08:00

I started this one a couple of months ago. With a feature-loaded face, I thought Australian actor Ray Meagher would be an easy person to caricature but I found him incredibly difficult and my efforts either looked grotesque or like portraits.

So here's a not-so-caricatured-portrait sketch of "Alf Stewart" from Home & Away.

Any caricaturists reading this - have a go at Alf and let me know in a comment how you fare.

Created with a Wacom Graphire 4 tablet and Photoshop CS.

Gerard Henderson digital caricature update

2010-11-11T14:49:00.002+08:00

Still working on this. I have to be careful not to adjust things so much that it ends up looking like a portrait instead of a caricature. I think I'm near enough that I can start adding some colour...

...and here he is with a bit more adjusting and some basic shading.

See the earlier stages at - Gerard Henderson digital caricature

Gerard Henderson Digital Caricature

2010-11-10T21:21:00.004+08:00

I caught The Insiders on ABC TV on Sunday morning and got the urge to have a go at doing a caricature from the screen. I grabbed a biro and scrap of paper and began doodling quick sketches of Brian Toohey and Gerard Henderson. The efforts weren't great (time was short) but gave me the urge to try and do a finished caricature of Henderson.

I was struck by his pouty expression which deserted him only momentarily during the broadcast.

Online photos of him are rare but I'm going to see how I go. Here's an initial sketch (about ten minutes work) based on a combination of photo reference and my Sunday morning sketch. It looks a little like Rupert Murdoch at this stage.

Here's a follow-up sketch. About another 20 minutes work here and it's starting to look a little less Murdoch and a little more Henderson.

Artist Tips #1: Media

2010-10-14T16:46:00.011+08:00

In my lifetime, I have painted with darned near everything meant to be used as paint. I've used automotive lacquer, industrial enamel, vinyl paint, fabric ink, dye, water colour, gouache, pastel, acrylic and oil - and probably a few I've forgotten about.

These days I paint exclusively in oils but they do have the issue of the foul aroma and messy clean up with turpentine so it's understandable why a lot of people don't begin their art journey with oil paint.

A lot of beginners do seem to start out with water colour and I've never really understood why. Other than the ease of cleaning up, since water colour remains water-soluble so will always wash out of brushes, I'm not certain why it enjoys such mass appeal to people starting out. Water colour washes are transparent so once a mistake occurs, it's virtually impossible to fix as it continues to show through subsequent layers. Even after decades of using all manner of media, I shy away from water colour as it requires an organised approach for the best results. It actually adds a level of difficulty that beginners don't need.

Gouache is basically water colour with chalk added. It shares the benefit of easy-clean-up but because it is far more opaque, it is somewhat more forgiving than water colour. However, because it always remains water soluble, heavy handed attempts to re-work existing layers of paint can soon lead to "mud". Still, I'm tempted to give gouache a serious go one of these days.

In my opinion, acrylic paints are among the best media for beginners. There is a range of opaque and translucent colours and they wash up with water but dry waterproof. There is a huge range of additives which will extend the qualities of acrylic paints. There are thickeners that allow for heavy impasto work, reducers that add water-colour-like qualities, retarders to slow the drying time, crackle mediums to make instant "ancient" paintings and more.

So when I first started in fine art, acrylic was my medium of choice. I'd used hundreds of litres of the stuff as a muralist and signwriter so I had a firm grip on its strengths and weaknesses, including the fact that a lot of colours will dry significantly darker than you might expect.

Acrylic paints certainly aren't without their problems and the worst one will bite every acrylic painter one day. The fast drying time, combined with acrylic's waterproof quality, means that your brushes are in constant peril. If you put a brush down with paint on it - and forget about it - then that brush might well be destined for the bin. There are cleaning products that will help recover such a brush (methylated spirits will do it if you catch the problem early enough) but it will never be the same.

IMPORTANT: Sable brushes and acrylic paint should never share the same space unless you're meticulously organised, or rich. I'd recommend some of the vast range of synthetic brushes for most acrylic work.

In my experience brushes have to be regularly flushed in a large jar of water while painting and thoroughly cleaned with soapy cold water (not warm or hot) when finished.

For the plein air (outdoor) artist, acrylics pose another problem. Any slight breeze, especially on a warm day, will constantly dry the paint on the palette. It's a genuine frustration on the worst days as it starts to feel like you're painting with clay, or sand.

To get around this problem, I made myself a non-drying palette. This is very simple and worked better than I'd anticipated.

I used a clear plastic kitchen container about 25-30cm square and 5-7cm deep. I cut a chamois-like dish cloth (the soft, slightly-furry kind) to fit the bottom of the tray and a sheet of grease-proof (baking) paper to sit on top of this.

I carried water in a large bottle and added a little to the tray before starting to paint. The trick is to get the cloth just wet enough that no water is slopping around. Then I'd set out my colours on the baking paper. The sides of the container help to reduce the effects of a light breeze and the wet cloth keeps the paper palette cool and moist. If things got too messy, I'd tear off a new sheet of paper (I carried a small roll with me) and lay it over the top and keep painting. On very hot days, a spray bottle is a handy addition to help prevent the whole thing drying out.

When I was finished, I'd pop the lid on the container and the paint would still be useable when I got home. The paper palette is disposed of and the cloth rinsed out and dried for next time.

IMPORTANT: Don't leave the wet cloth stored in the sealed container. I learned that rule the hard way - it isn't pretty!

I used jar colours, rather than tube colours because, at the time, they represented much better value. The problem is that it's easy for things to get messy if you work directly from the jars. One day you're going to dip the blue brush into the yellow jar then kick yourself silly. Also, every time you open the jar, you expose the paint to fresh air and I've found that the paint can thicken over time and there is always an annoying buildup of dried paint on the jar thread - and it seems to like jumping into the jar at every oppoortunity.

To solve this problem, I purchased a couple of dozen small squeeze bottles. I scooped colours into separate bottles with popsticks then resealed the jars. I even made some pre-mixed colours which was often a great time saver. Old film canisters offer an alternative (if you can find them these days). They weren't quite as handy as the squeeze bottles but were excellent if I wanted to use large washes as I could add a retarder medium and water to the container and use them almost like ink.

I haven't used these bottles for years but many still have perfectly useable paint in them. Of course, if you're using tubes, a lot of these problems are already solved for you. My only suggestion there would be to squeeze the tube before putting the lid back on to minimise the amount of air inside.

In my early days, I painted exclusively on quality canvas boards. They made life easy. These days it seems like every second shop is selling either canvas boards or stretched canvases for next to nothing. It would be hard to beat them for learning with.

So there's my thoughts on acrylic paint, the perfect beginner's medium - well, it was until they invented water-mixable oils... :)

Ellis House Community Art Centre

2010-10-13T22:14:00.006+08:00

The year was 1999 and at a tender 38 years of age, I joined the Bayswater Art Society. Since the early '80s, I'd worked as an airbrush artist decorating custom painted vehicles, an illustrative signwriter painting massive murals on city buildings and billboards and later, through to the late '90s, as a graphic artist and illustrator. In all that time I never really tried my hand at painting for painting's sake, it was always a commercial enterprise where the client dictated the subject.

I still recall the night I went along to my first art society meeting. I sat outside in my car, watching people arrive as I tried to decide if this was for me (I don't like change, and this was something new). Eventually I convinced myself I had to see what it was about and I ventured inside. I was warmly welcomed by the members and thoroughly enjoyed the night, which included a demonstration by a practising artist.

I also met Derna Johnson, a wonderful artist especially renowned for her paintings of fairy wrens and poppies and a pocket rocket of a lady who soon took me under her wing and guided me through the Western Australian art scene. In my early fine art days, she would critique my paintings for me and it was always valuable advice. As I began to develop my own style, Derna steered me toward worthwhile exhibitions and galleries. She also introduced me to the WA Society of Arts where I met more amazing artists. Before I knew it, I was being invited to stand in front of the membership of both societies and demonstrate my skills! I hadn't envisaged any of this just a few years earlier when I tossed up if fine art was for me or not.

I owe a huge part of my subsequent art success to Derna's inspiration, encouragement and guidance.

When I left Perth in 2003, Derna had just taken on a project for the City of Bayswater to turn historic Ellis House into an art centre. I doubt anyone at the council could have foreseen what lay in store but they were in for a treat. Derna is visionary and doesn't do things by halves.

Built in the early 1900's, Ellis House is located near the Swan River at 116 Milne Street, Bayswater. It was the first dairy farm in the Bayswater district but by the mid 1990’s it had fallen to neglect and vandalism. In 1995 it was refurbished by the City of Bayswater and later they publicly invited ideas for future use.

My wife Janet and I dropped in to see Derna and a few of my old art friends during a trip to Perth a few months ago and it was clear that she and her band of volunteers have created an icon, a paradise. Ellis House today is a thriving art centre with ongoing exhibitions and a growing membership of artists and friends. It is an eastern suburbs hub for artists and art lovers and just a delightful place to spend time. If you're in the area, or have the time to get there, go and take a look, you'll be glad you did.

(Photos courtesy of Ellis House)

Earlier this week I received a couple of emails from Derna and discovered that she's been undergoing chemotherapy. My heart sank but in typical Derna style, this was an enthusiastic message of her good health and projects she's taken on to help other cancer sufferers. Derna always knows how to make lemonade out of lemons.

I called and asked her if she could have a chat with her doctor and get him to extract just a little of her drive and enthusiasm, then bottle it and market it. I want to be first in line.

One of Derna's projects is a list of tips for chemo patients, drawn from her own experiences of learning the hard way. I've asked her if I can share it with my readers and hope to put it here soon, once she's ready for it to go public. I don't think she'll mind if I share the first and possibly most important tip with you now though:

"Trust your doctor and his medical team, they know far more than we do, a whole lot more!"

Thanks Derna. Look forward to seeing you again soon!

Knockout caricature

2010-08-26T14:13:00.000+08:00

When I'm not painting or blogging, I am the production manager at the Albany & Great Southern Weekender newspaper. Today, one of my caricatures adorned the front page.

Wilson Tuckey had been the political representative for the federal seat of O'Connor for thirty years. It was considered one of the safest seats in Australia until boundary changes were made prior to last week's election. As a result of those changes, The Nationals' Tony Crook became a legitimate contender for the seat. Following a notable pre-election battle, Crook eventually won the seat after preferences were distributed.

As with my other caricatures, this one was done in Photoshop CS using a Wacom Graphire4 tablet & stylus. With relatively short notice, and with Mr Crook not previously being a well-known face, I'm really pleased with the way this one turned out.

Nuytsia floribunda: Oil painting

2010-08-20T21:04:00.000+08:00

My most recent oil painting.

This was based on a digital painting I did a few weeks ago.

Everyone's an art critic!

2010-08-20T14:18:00.003+08:00

Dirty Harry, a saltwater crocodile at Crocosaurus Cove in Darwin, was shown my recent caricatures of Julia Gillard and Tony Abbott.

It's hard to read a crocodile's mind so I don't know if snapping at Julia was a tick of approval for my digital painting technique - or a scathing critique.

Perhaps he found the complementary juxtaposition of the flaming red hair and neutralised green background just a little too contrived.

Okay, so it wasn't really an art competition. The real story is that Harry was asked to predict the outcome of this weekend's federal election, using two of my caricatures and some chicken carcasses.

It seems he took a liking to Julia's carcass.

The ABC has video here.

Blog Frog: Digital painting

2010-08-08T17:56:00.002+08:00

Another digital painting. This little guy (or girl?) is one of up to 30 green tree frogs that live in our backyard pond. They are so comfortable there that you can get within 30cm of them to take photos.

Millie: Digital painting

2010-08-05T21:03:00.001+08:00

Another digital sketch. This time it's one of our four pet lambs, Millie.

Nuytsia: Digital painting

2010-07-29T21:54:00.002+08:00

Caricatures are great for exercising observation and hand-eye coordination but I only do them for fun. My real love is the Australian landscape.

Tonight I was flipping through some old photos and found one of a WA Christmas Tree (Nuytsia floribunda). It was essentially and abstract rush of bright oranges against near-neutral blues and greens. I had to do something with it.

Here's the result of about an hour and a half's painting in Photoshop.

I think I need to try it in oils now.

Tony Abbott: Digital caricature

2010-07-26T20:03:00.007+08:00

Following on from my Julia Gillard caricature, and with the federal election now in full swing, I thought I'd better post an updated Tony Abbott caricature.

See my first Tony Abbott caricature

Twilight in the Bay: Oil

2010-07-22T20:57:00.000+08:00

Here's one I did a couple of weeks ago.

You can get a little background on this painting in the following articles:

Perfect plein air afternoon
Preliminary sketch

Army Art 2010

2010-07-22T14:05:00.002+08:00

Army Art is an annual charity art exhibition featuring the original works of invited artists from around WA.

This year's exhibition will be held at Leeuwin Barracks, Riverside Road, East Fremantle on Saturday and Sunday, 15th & 16th of August. All exhibited work will be for sale and part proceeds will benefit the Recreation & Sport Network.

I will have several pieces there and am looking forward to catching up with lots of artist friends I haven't seen since leaving Perth over six years ago.

Herefords: Oil painting

2010-07-19T20:44:00.007+08:00

Along with all the digital fun I've been having, I have been doing a little oil painting lately.

Here's the step-by-step process of my latest painting based on a digital painting I did a couple of weeks ago...

This is the digital painting that served as a starting point. Since the computer is nowhere near my painting room, I used an earlier oil painting as a reference whilst painting and only occasionally looked back at the digital picture to see if I was heading in the right direction.

A quick layout of the major shapes and undertones (shadow tones). The paint was thinned a little with turps and whisked on with a pastry brush.

Starting with the sky and working down the painting and from background to foreground, I begin working over the painting with thicker paint. I'm still focussing mainly on shadow tones though I've added a subtle highlight to the distant hills.

After all the major shadow tones have been reworked, I apply heavier layers of local colours.

Once I had the bulk of the painting "feeling" about right, I scraped out the areas where the cattle had to go using a small, dry filbert brush. Then the beasts were added using the same process - undertone, midtone, highlight. Once they were in place, I worked back over other areas, softening some detail and adjusting colours until I declared it finished.

In many ways the finished painting is quite conceptual compared to the near-literal interpretations of scenes that I usually paint. The primary focus throughout was to keep the majority of colours controlled in such a way that the "red" herefords almost glow in the evening sunlight.

Note: The photography on some of these is a bit sad. Sorry.

Julia Gillard: Digital caricature

2010-07-18T19:26:00.006+08:00

Looking around the web I found very few caricatures of our new Prime Minister, Julia Gillard. Those I did find focussed very heavily, and unsurprisingly, on her red hair and somewhat prominent proboscis.

For several weeks I've been attempting to capture her in a caricature without going for the obvious profile shot with the exaggerated nose as the focal point. Despite what this news story might imply, there's more to Ms Gillard than her nose.

Here's my latest attempt...

Here's a slightly revised version. Play 'spot the difference' if you like...

Bones: Digital caricature

2010-07-16T23:22:00.002+08:00

Following from my previous sketch and mono caricatures of Emily Deschanel and David Boreanaz (Bones & Booth), I spent this evening adding colour to my "Bones" caricature.

For this caricature, I added colour over the previous greyscale image. I thought this might be faster than colouring from scratch but now I'm not so sure. I spent a lot of time fighting the "dirtiness" of the grey. Next time I have a greyscale image, I think I'll only use it as a reference.

Image made completely in Photoshop CS using a Wacom Graphire4 (4x5") tablet.

Bones & Booth: Digital caricature

2010-07-14T15:22:00.001+08:00

I did a caricature of David Boreanaz (Agent Booth) a few nights ago and one of Emily Deschanel (Temperance "Bones" Brennan) last night. Here they are as a "couple".

The styles differ very slightly as I'm still coming to terms with both caricaturing and digital painting but I think they're recognisable.

Sketching Bones

2010-07-12T23:02:00.002+08:00

Once again it's time for something different.

This time it's a quick digital sketch of Emily Deschanel, better known as "Bones".

Stirling Evening

2010-07-12T21:22:00.001+08:00

Here's one I did a couple of weeks ago and finally got around to photographing.

This is based on a plein air piece I posted back in May which I imaginatively titled "Driveway with trees" and a digital painting I did the following week which I more cleverly titled "Driveway with trees - digital painting".

At 60cm wide, this one is quite a bit bigger than the plein air piece and took considerably longer! As with the small painting, I used a fairly limited palette on this one to ensure colour unity throughout - though it wasn't as limited as the four colours I used in the plein air painting.

Digital sketch: Herefords

2010-07-01T19:09:00.001+08:00

I bashed out this little digital sketch tonight in Photoshop. It's based on a section of an oil painting I did a few months ago.

My daughter informs me the cattle are Herefords.

I'm hoping to do a 25x35cm (10"x14") oil painting of it this weekend. This was a dry run.

Pop Caricature

2010-06-20T21:42:00.001+08:00

I have been doing some oil painting but nothing to upload yet. So for now, I'll leave you with this digital caricature.

If you don't know who it is then either I've missed the mark or you're over 16.

Still Life: Fallen Apples

2010-06-17T22:00:00.002+08:00

Here's one I did a couple of weeks ago but never got around to posting until now.

Wilson Tuckey - Digital Caricature

2010-06-08T21:17:00.005+08:00

This one was a lot of fun.

I'm messing with different styles as I do these. This method takes a little more work because it lacks the hard black outlines so details have to be "painted" in - but it does give a very nice result.

Kevin Rudd - Digital Caricature

2010-06-06T19:44:00.009+08:00

And now for something completely different.

I used to do a little bit of caricature during my time as a commercial illustrator but nothing too fancy. I haven't done any for a very long time, until this week.

Last night I tried doing a self-portrait caricature, with mixed results (according to my family). So tonight I had a go at our Prime Minister (update: ex-Prime Minister), Kevin Rudd.

This was done entirely in Photoshop. It's an interesting way to work and I might do a few more of these for fun. Maybe I'll work my way through parliament.

LATER...

I couldn't go to bed without doing a caricature of Rudd's parliamentary opponent so here's one of the Federal Opposition Leader, Tony Abbott.

SEE ALSO:
Julia Gillard caricature

Preliminary sketch

2010-06-03T19:34:00.002+08:00

I don't usually do preliminary colour sketches. I either work directly on site or from pencil sketches done from digital photos.

But I'm planning a large painting based on two paintings I did a couple of weeks ago near Princess Royal Harbour in Albany. The first painting was done en plein air and the second was a digital piece done using a photo of the scene, borrowing much of the colour scheme from my memory.

I want the large painting to have the flavour of the digital painting. I was concerned about getting the hues right since it is very warm with a pinkish sky and rich reddish-brown trees. The brightest highlights are yellow hues.

So before committing to the full sized painting I decided to test my colour mixes out on a small colour sketch.

With this piece as a reference I have a strong starting point for the larger work. I hope to do that one next week.

Still Life: Red & Blue 2

2010-05-17T19:22:00.005+08:00

Following the success of Red & Blue #1, I used the same props and 4-colour limited palette to do a second still life.

Oddly, this one threw some unexpected challenges at me. I had essentially completed the painting but for some reason, I could not get the small vase to look right - despite painting it twice. Once again it was looking like I should take up golf instead (do all artists think like this?).

I knew the composition worked and I was happy with the overall colour concept but the vase had to go. So I grabbed a painting knife and scraped off the vase and background. I never used to do this with my disappointments - I just "added them to the pile" - but if the overall composition is working, scraping is a very useful technique.

A few swift scrapes across the surface with the long side of the knife leaves an impression of the image behind in the primed surface, even on a smooth panel like this one (primed MDF). The ghosted image acts as an underpainting so from this point all attention can be focussed on colour rather than layout.

I took a photo of the setup and did a 20 minute painting in Photoshop.

This was enough to convince me I did have some vague idea of what I was doing - I just had to make the paint do what I wanted it to do.

So the next day I took to the painting again and I think I got it right this time. Phew!

Golf can wait until another day.

Still Life: Red & Blue 1

2010-05-14T18:58:00.005+08:00

After playing around with Photoshop and making a small still life digital painting of an apple last week, I decided it was time to bite the bullet and give real still life another go. It's been a long time since I've done it.

I had to search around for a working lamp and clear a corner to set up a basic shadow box (actually a towel draped over an old easel and a bunch of storage boxes stacked to make the table top with a piece of clear acrylic on top for a reflective surface).

Then I had to decide what I was going to paint. This is where I usually stop because nothing seems remotely interesting. I sorted through some junk I bought three years ago - for doing still lifes - and found a wonky ceramic vase. I snipped some bright red chrysanthemum flowers (lucky Mother's Day was last Sunday) and set them up under the lamp.

It didn't look too bad so I grabbed one of my primed 20x24cm canvas panels and began.

Here's the result after a couple of hours. Click for a bigger pic.

A few minor things bug me, mostly related to the process, but all in all I'm pretty pleased with it. With winter only a few weeks away, I think I'll be doing a bit more of this.

I used a limited palette of ultramarine, crimson and cad yellow light. This was fine until I came to put the bright red highlights on the outer florets. Mixing crimson and yellow just didn't cut it so I put some cad scarlet out and used that for the warmest reds. Still, four colours plus white is limited by most standards.

Perfect plein air afternoon

2010-05-09T17:48:00.005+08:00

I left my "day job" early on Friday afternoon and set off to find something to paint. The heavy cloud cover we had earlier in the day had cleared leaving almost cloudless blue skies, no breeze and warm sunshine.

I drove toward Albany's Princess Royal Sailing Club, checking out every little side street that looked like it might get me close to the water. Eventually I found the perfect spot - a spectacular view, quiet street and almost 100% shade from a small tree.

It was around 3pm when I started painting. This meant the light wasn't going to change dramatically but it also meant the light was a little cool. I anticipated the light getting warmer as the sun lowered and I began painting with a rough compositional wash of Australian red gold to get rid of the white gesso.

The yachts at the sailing club seemed like an obvious focal point but the water was mirror-flat and the reflection of the distant trees was what really caught my attention so that's what I was going to focus on. The boats can wait until another day.

Wary that a breeze might come in any time and change everything, I made sure to get the reflection worked out before I spent much time on other areas. The sky wasn't likely to change much and the trees would just get warmer but with the sun over my left shoulder, the shadows wouldn't shift around enough to worry about.

I was standing on the verge beside a suburban street and soon attracted the attention of local residents who walked over and chatted with me as I painted. Some artists are put off by this but I quite enjoy the interaction. I used to be a signwriter and soon got used to people wanting to ask questions as I painted shop windows and walls. Traditional signwriting (with paint, brushes and a mahl stick) is just one of those things that attract the public's attention - especially the mahl stick for some reason! It often seemed that every third person would ask "what's the stick for?" I often joked about getting a t-shirt printed on the back with a picture of a mahl stick and the words "it's for resting on!" The other public favourite was "why did you bother laying out where the letters should go if you're not going to follow your layout?" Never a dull moment.

Plein air painting seems to share that public fascination so it's worth coming to terms with it if you're going to paint in public places - of course it helps if the painting is going well at the time and if the people are pleasant and don't tell you your initial wash in doesn't look the right colour or something.

Sorry, drifted off track a bit there. So anyway, people were watching and chatting with me while I painted but I was especially surprised when it turned out one lady in the growing group already owned two of my paintings! We'd never met before and she had no idea who I was until she mentioned "Andy Dolphin" in conversation. Small world. Cue Twilight Zone theme music now....

To top it all off, I was happy with the image I'd captured and the real scene took on a whole new quality as I was packing up - one of those fleeting displays of subtle pinkish-lilac light that we'd all love to capture if we could paint fast enough. It lasted less time than it took to pack up but I snapped a photo of it for future reference. The breeze still hadn't come in by the time I drove away.

I'm going back one day and see what else this spot has to offer. I wonder what the odds are that I'll get another sunny afternoon with no breeze? It was a perfect afternoon.

Here's a bonus picture. It's another digital painting done in Photoshop. This is pretty much how I recall the colours as I was packing up my painting gear. Click on the image to see an almost full-size version.

More digital painting

2010-05-08T23:18:00.002+08:00

After my digital apple painting from a couple of days ago, I thought I'd try a digital landscape painting in Photoshop.

I've tried painting landscapes in Photoshop before but without much joy. This time I approached it just like an oil painting. I laid down a warm undertone across the whole "canvas". Then I sketched in a simple composition then placed my major dark tones using a coarse, square stipple brush with opacity and dual brush pressure settings.

Then I adjusted shadow colours and laid in the local colours. There was quite a bit of to-ing and fro-ing from here with small adjustments to shadow colours and tones.

I used the smudge tool with a size and pressure setting to apply a cross-hatching finish that gives the piece a pastel feel, I think. I may have overdone it a little but I'm just trying things out here to see what works and what doesn't.

To do this sort of thing you need a pen and tablet to access the brush pressure tools. It is also far easier to draw with the pen than with a mouse. It becomes quite natural very quickly. I have a small Wacom Graphire 4 tablet and Photoshop CS on a G5 Mac - I don't use a mouse for anything.

Click on the image to see it at full size.

I did a limited-palette plein air painting of this scene last week but this digital piece was done from a photo with a bit of artistic licence thrown in as the photo didn't really do the scene justice and my plein air piece was from an hour earlier when the light was cooler and the sky still blue.

This tiny digital painting took longer than the original plein air piece - about two hours. With both paintings to work from, I think I'll do a larger oil painting soon.

Digital painting for fun...

2010-05-06T22:10:00.001+08:00

I've been reading a lot of Carol Marine's excellent art blog lately and am inspired by her fruity still lifes in oil. Tonight I discovered Michael Naples' blog and was captivated by his still lifes too.

Then just for fun I opened Photoshop and started messing around, showing the kids some of the brush tools and the effects that can be achieved with them.

I very rarely do still life (I think I've done five in ten years) but I ended up with this apple painting, done without reference. I'm pretty pleased with it.

Canola Shadows - finished oil painting

2010-05-06T13:15:00.003+08:00

Here's the finished piece from yesterday's article "Up-sized canola painting".

At my wife's suggestion I added more detail to the foreground. This is always a bit of a juggling act - adding enough detail to keep it interesting but not so much that it becomes a focal point. As such I've kept the detail deliberately soft and unsaturated. Still, it's difficult to go back in on a painting that you considered finished.

Here's a close-up of the focal tree. As often happens, now that I've seen it cropped like this I see potential for a whole new painting.

Up-sized canola painting

2010-05-05T17:53:00.008+08:00

I posted a step-by-step mini demonstration of this small studio study back in early March.

This week I decided it was time to do a bigger - and wider format - version of it.

Working on a 70 x 37cm double-primed MDF panel, I laid out the basic composition with a thinned out mix of ultramarine and crimson. Even at this very early stage there's a sense of distance and sunlight.

Next comes the washing-in of undertones with thinned colour and a one-inch pastry brush. After all tones are washed in I soften them with a gentle swish of the cleaned pastry brush.

At this stage things should hold together well through squinted eyes. If nothing is wrong compositionally and if all tones sit well with each other, preserving a sense of distance, I begin laying down final colours. I work from the sky down, moving "forward" through the landscape increasing colour saturation and contrast as I go.

In this case I felt the highlighted strip was too low as it ran almost centrally through the image space. Click on the image and squint at it to see what I mean. So I adjusted all the undertones upwards a couple of centimetres (about an inch) before moving on to the final painting process.

Here's the finished piece. I deviated a little from the smaller study. The biggest difference, other than the wider format, is that I kept the sunlit strip of canola a cooler yellow. It's pure cadmium yellow light over a neutralised green. I'm happier with this because it's how I perceive it when I'm driving around in spring. The shadowed canola is also a less saturated green to increase the impression of it being in the shadow of a cloud rather than a different crop.

The major theme of complementary blue and yellow is still there. The distant blues help to make the sunlit yellow appear even brighter than it would be without it.

It's at this point that my wife takes a look and offers an opinion. She likes this one - except that she thinks the foreground needs a little more detail. Now it's at this point that I disagree with her and tell her it'll be fine. Then, two days later I look at the painting again - and decide that it needs a little more detail in the foreground. Sigh.

My wife's happier with it now so I'll post the finished, finished painting in a day or two when it's dry enough to photograph again.

Available works

2010-05-03T21:04:00.003+08:00

I've received an email enquiring about what works I currently have available as those on my website are mostly sold.

I've been working on a new website for a while now - it's one of those do it yourself tasks and I tend to get bogged down in the nitty gritty of HTML and CSS and exactly what shade of grey a particular part of the page should be and what links I should include in the main menu and so on.

So in the meantime I thought I'd post a few of my available works here.

Also available are the two shed paintings I mentioned last week in my "Highly Commended" article. Just drop a comment here if you'd like to know more. I currently have a larger version of my Sunlit Canola painting sitting on the easel. That should be available soon too.

Many of the small studies I've blogged about here are not currently intended for sale as they are personal exercises and may be used as reference in future studio works.

*Note: Due to the variability of browsers and monitors and the vagaries of photography, colours are not guaranteed to match what you see on screen but I have adjusted to be as true as I can make them.

More autumn plein air landscapes

2010-05-02T20:55:00.007+08:00

Thursday started out a little cloudy but by midday there was barely a cloud to be seen. It was also setting up to be a warm autumn afternoon so I threw the gear in the van and headed north toward the Stirling Range, the only thing in WA that looks like a stereotypical mountain range and home to Bluff Knoll, the highest peak in the southern half of the state.

At about 2:30pm, after lots of stops to check views and take photos, I happened upon this spot. It's not the most spectacular view but there was a shady spot off the quiet road where I cold stand comfortably and I wanted to experiment with a limited palette so I wasn't too fussed about finding "that perfect composition". I wanted something simple.

The palette for this painting was just three colours - French ultramarine, Australian red gold and burnt sienna plus titanium white. In hindsight it was an odd choice of colours because burnt sienna is essentially a dark red-orange and Australian red gold is basically a translucent yellow-orange. So I had two oranges and a blue to work with.

Burnt sienna was going to have to act as my "red" and Australian red gold as my yellow. As strange as the choice of colours might seem, I did consider the scene before me when making my selection. There were no strong, saturated colours. It actually worked pretty well, all things considered.

I must confess to scraping the top half of the painting when I got home, and repainting the sky and mountains a little lighter than I had on site. It happens like that sometimes. But I stuck with the same three colours.

This part of the Stirling Range is known locally as The Sleeping Lady, but only when viewed from roughly this angle. If I've captured it right, you should be able to see how it got that name.

I had a lot of trouble taking the photo of this painting. No matter what I did I got reflections. Sorry.

When I was done, I continued heading north-east, roughly parallel to the range. By now the sun was getting lower and things were looking more interesting. I found my second painting waiting for me a few kilometres up the road.

I also used a limited palette on this painting but I added cadmium scarlet since the sunlight was going to warm things up quite a bit. So I had French ultramarine, burnt sienna, Australian red gold and cadmium scarlet, plus titanium white.

As predicted, the sunlight was warm and became warmer as I painted. I had a small battle deciding whether to keep adding warmth to the painting until I reached a point where I couldn't go any warmer without re-painting the sky and distant mountains.

The limited palette has its benefits and drawbacks. On the plus side, it cuts down on dithering over which colours to mix which helps to move things along a little faster. The aim is not so much to match exactly what you see but to focus more on tonal variations and warm versus cool. The limited palette also results in a more cohesive painting where all colours in the finished painting share common ancestors.

The downside is that some colours that might look important in the scene, such as warm, glowing highlights, might be impossible to mix even closely from the colours on your palette.

So if you're a colourist a limited palette might drive you nuts but if you're a tonalist it can be a joy. I'm usually somewhere between the two as I do aim for strong tonal contrasts but love to push saturated colours in sunlit areas. But the limited palette method will definitely be getting a workout from time to time in my plein air work.

Highly Commended

2010-04-28T00:39:00.003+08:00

This weekend's trip to Williams was to pick up two paintings I'd entered in the 2010 Gateway Expo exhibition. The theme was "Rustik Memories" so naturally I sent shed paintings.

When my wife unpacked them today, she discovered a 'Highly Commended' certificate on 'Shed in Spring'! I had no idea as the exhibition had finished the day before I went and all paintings were packed ready for collection.

Highly Commended - Williams Gateway Expo, 2010)

SOLD

I love this detail section, especially the subtle simplicity of the house in the background. That warm glow on the posts, with the strong reflected light, is really what this painting is about. (My apologies for the reflections in the dark areas of these photos).

This shed has provided me with two paintings so far. For years I drove by it almost every day. It always caught my eye and I photographed it a few times from a distance, in different light, and stopped on the side of the road once and sketched it. Eventually I did a painting from one of those photos, with my sketch as additional reference. Later I went and found the owners (they don't live in the house right behind the shed) and asked if they'd mind me jumping the fence and taking more photos. 'Shed in Spring' is the result, painted from one of those photos.

You can see the first painting I did of this same shed in my opening blog post. Despite the main subject being the same, these are two very different paintings.

It was lucky I acted when I did as the owners have since removed all the old fencing and painted the entire shed in Red Oxide. It just isn't the same any more.

This is my second 'Highly Commended' this month. My 'Shed in Summer Light' received the same honour at the Mount Romance Centennial Art Prize in Albany in early April.

(Shed in Summer Light. 70x37cm oil on panel. © 2010, Andy Dolphin
Highly Commended - Mount Romance Centennial Art Prize, 2010)

I posted a step by step for this painting in the early days of this blog.

Williams Cottage

2010-04-26T21:58:00.006+08:00

Here's the painting I did yesterday.

Now, before you ask, no the title doesn't need an apostrophe. The cottage is in a town called Williams, it isn't a cottage belonging to William. Okay?

This one took about an hour. Other than the loss of light due to clouds, half way through painting, this was a pleasant experience with very little of the tension that can often creep into plein air works.

Although there is less spectacular light, shadow and atmosphere, I find paintings done nearer the middle of the day more relaxing than than those done at the beginning or end of the day when shadows and the colour of the light change dramatically by the minute.

The interesting challenge with this one was that the cottage is barely noticeable in reality. It faces roughly south so I doubt the sun ever lights up the front. There are trees along the roadside at the front of the property so I'm sure a lot of people drive by without seeing it. I had to decide whether to try and enhance the cottage a little and make it a feature, or to leave it subdued as just a part of the overall mass of shadow tones.

I opted for the latter as I think it feels more abandoned this way, almost as if it's hiding, forgotten. I didn't want it to be "pretty".

Did I mention that I used Australian Red Gold in every colour mix in this painting? It was a joy.

On the road again...

2010-04-25T23:09:00.003+08:00

I had to drive to Williams again today to pick up two paintings. It's 200km one way.

Luckily, the weather was beautiful; another clear autumn day. I arrived there around 1pm, did what I had to do, ate a bit of lunch, drank coffee, did a quick sketch in the car park at the roadhouse then headed toward home.

Before I even left the Williams townsite, I decided to take a detour and just out of town, two minutes down the road in fact, I found an old, abandoned cottage surrounded by overgrown trees and backed by a timbered hill.

At least, I'm pretty sure it's abandoned.

I did a quick pencil sketch while I decided if I should stay and paint it. It was already 3pm and I still had a two hour drive home and kangaroos tend to cross the road as the sun sets.

Once the sketch was done I'd convinced myself it was worth setting up the easel. There was an inviting shady spot and it was a fairly quiet road so I had no excuse not to give this one a go.

Looking at the photo above, it looks like I've painted the blue sky in. I haven't. That blue on the canvas panel is just the natural light on the white gesso. That's how blue shadows are! The photo below was taken immediately after the one above - both are at the same stage, including that warm bit of tree on the far right that I ultimately decided to leave out. Even here there's a hit of blue in the sky but that's because I didn't colour correct it enough to completely remove the blue tint.

There was a definite warmth washing through the whole scene so I gave the canvas panel a quick wash with Australian Red Gold and Burnt Sienna. Then I went in with a simple wash of basic undertones using enough turps to keep the layer thin. It was warm so I expected this would dry as I continued painting. I feathered the underpainting with a clean pastry brush to knock off any thick raised edges and to blur it so it didn't start to "lecture" me on where things should go.

I bought my tube of Australian Red Gold (ARG) years ago - I can't even remember when but I suspect it was more than six years ago - and I've never once used it in a painting until today. Since I had it on the palette from the first wash, I decided to use it in my mixes.

ARG is a translucent yellow very much like rich, dark honey or treacle. In a pile it looks brown but spread thin it glows a vibrant golden yellow. I was amazed by the colours I got when mixed with my usual palette. Mixed with white it looks edible!

Here I've started to go in with final shadow tones. My main interest is keeping my dark and mid tones distinct and grouped. Even the silver roof of the cottage is a part of the shadow area. The red brick wall is a bit bright and saturated here. If you squint at the above pic (click for a bigger image) you'll see that the red jumps out too much from the dark trees either side of it. And it glows almost like it's in sunlight so it needs darkening and neutralising with a bit of ultramarine blue and ARG. I need to play warm darks against cool darks. This is one of the biggest challenges we face when painting en plein air (along with snakes, biting insects and clouds!).

The sky is mixed from ultramarine, white and ARG. The distant hills are mostly ultramarine and ARG with a little crimson thrown in the neutralise it (make it more grey, less saturated) then lightened with some of the sky mix. A little more white and ARG was added to suggest sunlit tree tops with the whole area kept soft to stop it coming forward.

From here on I was concentrating so much on painting that I forgot to take photos. Sorry. I can tell you that, quite unexpectedly, clouds rolled in and I lost my light. Bummer. Luckily I had a firm image in my mind from doing the sketch and there really weren't many sunlit areas anyway (it was really lucky that I had a mind-image because the photos I'd taken before I started are awful so I wouldn't have been able to use those to complete the painting).

The biggest problem now was that without the harsh sunlight, the shadow areas suddenly had detail. I could see all sorts of tones in the dark tree on the right, for example, that I couldn't see when the sun was out because the paddock was so bright. I was careful to ignore shadow detail as I soldiered on.

I left the foreground until last because the warm under-painting was a reasonable approximation of the final tone and colour. Then, just as I was painting it, the sun came out again - sort of...

Farmers like to burn their paddocks in autumn and it became apparent that someone was doing that nearby. The air was now filled with smoke and this gives sunlit areas an unnatural orange tint. The light was a useful guide for finishing the painting but I had to ignore the colours.

I'll post the finished painting tomorrow.

Working fast again

2010-04-19T21:47:00.005+08:00

Firstly, here's the first painting I did yesterday. I've popped it in a frame for you. I had this frame made just for this purpose - it's a great way to "test" paintings. Sometimes they look much, much better in a frame and sometimes they confirm my worst fears. If they look good, then I can go ahead and get them framed properly.

I've done the same thing after painting demonstrations but it's usually best to wait until the paint's reasonably dry or it can get messy.

After I'd finished that one there was still a good few hours of sunlight left so I drove around looking for other subjects and taking lots of photos. I eventually found a spot where I could park the van and stand in its shade (I'd had enough direct sun for one day).

She's 25 years old but she still has her uses.

I was in two minds whether to paint here or not as the light was still fairly white so there wasn't a lot of colour on the mountains or the paddock stubble. But the atmosphere behind the distant trees, and the fact I had a shady spot, made the decision for me. Still, there wasn't much time left now before the sun would set so this was going to be another fast one...

This is what I ended up with before the sun went down and the whole scene was cast into shadow. The colours aren't great, partly because of the rush and partly because I couldn't clean the brushes properly from the earlier effort so there's a bit of green in everything.

Even so, I'm happy with the overall sculpting of the mountain and that major shadow that first attracted me. With this, a photo of the area and maybe another visit on a similar day, I think there's potential for a reasonable sized studio painting.

I put my brushes down and looked behind me. This is what I was missing...

Rest assured the photo does not do it justice. I drove home, into the sunset.

Still Autumn!

2010-04-18T21:35:00.008+08:00

Sorry, I got distracted by snakes and lizards on my last article. This time I'll stick with painting, I promise.

This spot is between Mount Barker and Porongurup and is a dry creek bed for most of the year. Here it passes through a culvert under the gravel road.

I parked the van off the road - because there was room for a change - and set myself up in the creek bed. I was particularly interested in the dark shape formed by the shadow on the tree and cast on the grassy bank to the left. The culvert "tunnel" added interest.

It was around 1pm, warm and with virtually no cloud so I used a turpsy wash to place the first dark tones in the layout as I knew I wouldn't need to rush like I do with evening paintings. The sun was high and bright so the shadows and colours weren't going to change much for a while.

Major dark tone placed.

The sky is done and all major shadow tones are in place.

I've gone back into the dark tones of the tree, adding a little variety to the shadow areas refining the shape ready for the highlights. Some highlights have been placed in the distance and left foreground. I still need to do highlights on the tree, creek bed and grasses on the right. There was an interesting variety of greens and earth tones to deal with here. It's a constant process of comparing the relative temperatures of similar colours.

An hour has passed and it's virtually finished at this point (click pics for a bigger image). The two sunlit rocks near the tree's shadow in the painting are now in actually in the shade of the tree in the background. I'd taken careful note of them when I started as I knew there was a chance this would happen - and I wanted them sunlit. The concrete face of the culvert has done the same thing as the sun has crossed to road since I began. Again, I took note of this early on. I left the tree until last because I didn't expect its shading to change much - and it didn't, phew!

I added and adjusted some minor highlights before I packed up. I'll post the painting photo as soon as I can shoot it properly.

I left this spot and continued driving around as the weather was still terrific. I took a lot of photos of other places, many of which were in places where standing and painting would be dangerous. The roads around here a pretty quiet but the trucks are big and the speed limits high.

I did eventually find somewhere to stop and paint. I'll tell you about that and the spectacular sunset that followed next time.

Autumn! Snakes!

2010-04-18T21:02:00.003+08:00

When people tell you that Australia is just filled with a long list of animals that are waiting to kill you, one way or another, venomous snakes feature prominently on that list. One of those is the tiger snake.

I've seen more than my fair share of tiger snakes this year. We've had at least two hanging around our chook pen for most of summer - and possibly a third under our front door step. When out taking photos a couple of months ago, I heard the nearby grass rustling and looked down to see a metre-long snake heading straight toward me. That same day I saw another crossing the road. A few weeks ago I saw one just up the road from home and another on a track not far from where I'd just been painting. I don't know what it is but something's going right for tiger snakes.

My biggest surprise, however, came just a few night's ago when I nearly stepped on this guy - or girl...

This one is just a baby, about 30cm (1') long and it was sunning itself near the end of the day. Remember to click the pics for a bigger image.

When I'm out looking for interesting painting spots, a good deal of my thoughts are about snakes. I'm not "scared" of them as such (I quite admire them in fact) but you need to be aware they're around from spring through autumn. A few years ago one glided right by me as I was half-way through a painting!

Autumn weather in the Lower Great Southern region of WA can be close to perfect. Today was just such a day with clear blue skies and warm sunlight. And reptiles like warm sunlight...

This is a Goulds Monitor and he was sunning himself (or she-herself) on the side of the road. It remained in this position as I rolled the van slowly forward, with the camera held out the window. They are amazing looking creatures but don't usually hang long enough to get this close. This was yet another reminder that I was going to have to think about tiger snakes today as I went in search of painting subjects.

A little further up the road my mind was back on painting and I found my first subject for the day. I'll start a new article to deal with that one.

More plein air

2010-04-13T17:39:00.007+08:00

When I first took up oil painting, ten or more years ago, I used to paint on site, or "en plein air" quite regularly. On family holidays I'd be up before dawn looking for that "perfect sunrise". Over the years however, I ventured out less and less. preferring the relative comfort of the studio. It's not that I didn't enjoy painting on site but I like to paint sunlight and too many cloudy days started to frustrate me. Plus, a digital camera to capture hundreds of photos when the sun did shine made indoor painting a much easier option.

My aversion to poor weather changed when I saw Marc Hanson's blog. Marc is an avid outdoor (plein air) painter and heads out in sun, wind, rain and snow - sometimes at night - in search of his next painting. It was Marc's April Marathon from last year, where he planned to do four paintings a day for the whole month, that inspired me to get back outside and back to basics. It also gave me the final push to start this blog, something I'd planned for a while.

So for the last two months I've been getting out as often as possible with a view to finding something to paint, regardless of the weather. It's difficult shaking off the "must be sunny" shackles but I'm determined to do it. And that's just as well because the weather, as I've mentioned before, has been incredibly varied lately. (On that note, I'd be surprised if we don't have some wild weather again tonight or tomorrow).

The experience so far has been amazing. I've painted in sun and rain and once or twice I thought the easel might blow over. I've been out during an electrical storm and have stared at a huge variety of clouds in differing light conditions. More importantly, I've been painting things I've ignored for a long, long time.

Like this one, a place I drive past almost every day...

I captured the basics but the the clouds swept in front of the sun shortly after I began painting so I'm going to go back on a clear evening and I'll try again.

Here's one I did early last week, on the same day I did my digital painting, "Clouds over the Stirlings".

I was particularly interested in the gentle zig-zag shape formed by the clouds. As I was close to finishing, the clouds warmed up considerably as seen in the digital painting. Then I was applying some patches of colour to the land area when I realised it was so dark I couldn't really tell what colour I'd mixed, so I packed up and went home.

A few nights ago I was out and about and once again the weather was offering me challenges with clouds everywhere and rain sweeping through every half hour or so. This was not the sort of weather I would usually have even considered painting in but I went looking to see what was on offer.

After driving around town, and seeing some of the darkest clouds I've seen for a while, I found myself back on top of Mount Barker Hill. With it's 200º views, and being a one minute drive from home, this has been my favourite painting spot so far throughout this exercise.

I've painted my share of clouds lately and on this one I took a different approach, in the hopes of getting everything I need in place before it all changed - and things can change surprisingly fast when you don't want them to. Usually I work each main colour area, one at a time as I would with a landscape. So I'd apply the dark greys then mid greys then, oops, it's all changed and I have no idea where the sunlit bits fit in or what they actually looked like.

This time I used a "paint by numbers" approach. I quickly outlined the major shapes in a blue-grey colour then scribbled a bit of the final colour into each area without filling it in. The land was just given a rough blue-green colour without much concern for final accuracy. I put a few small colour notes where I wanted the sunlight to hit the ground.

Then I worked the sunlit area of cloud to give it an overall warm white before re-working the shaded clouds with their final colours. Even though these clouds had long-since moved on, I was able to look at other, similar clouds for information to assist with final details. Other than the sunlit areas moving around, the land had barely changed so I was able to finish this fairly easily.

With a few compositional modifications, this has the prospect of being done as a much larger painting.

Most of what I've done this last two months has been just for my own benefit. It's invigorating to "get out amongst it" and even if the paintings are not "winners", each one has been worth it just for the experience of doing it.

And now for something completely different...

2010-04-09T19:31:00.004+08:00

I rarely do paintings of buildings that aren't in a state of ruin. I love rusty old sheds that look like they'll fall over in the next strong wind but I generally steer clear of solid buildings.

I was driving around town on Monday evening and noticed the strong, warm light of the setting sun lighting up the Mt Barker railway building. The station was glowing! Yes it was a solid building with no rust in sight but in a painting like this the building isn't as important as the abstract patterns of tones and temperatures and that's what I wanted to focus on.

As usual at this time of day, I was going to be pushed for time before the sun set.

I was especially captivated by the interplay of warm and cool reds so that was where I started (I wanted to say "the juxtaposition of warm and cool" because that makes any critique so much more "arty", but I'll avoid it for now). I quickly laid out the main outline shapes then worked on the sunlit face, trying to get the tonal balance correct here. Then I worked out from here, filling in the shaded roofs, walls, lawn, path and shrubbery. The sky, a hint of background buildings and a few flicks of the foreground trees were the last thing I added on site. By now the sun had gone but I wasn't finished - I was missing some of the sunlit areas.

Luckily I had taken a photo of the scene before I started so once I was home I brought the image up on the digital camera screen and used that to add some final details. I hadn't added that strip of sunlight on the floor so the photo was invaluable for placing this correctly. The photo also helped to clarify a couple of confusing shadows that had shifted quite a bit as I was painting so a couple of touch ups and I was done for this sketch.

This painting was done on a canvas panel. I've made a few of these up by gluing pre-primed cotton canvas to my pre-cut MDF boards. I used white PVA glue and finished the canvas with a fresh coat of acrylic gesso.

Next time we have a good clear evening sky, I think I'm going to give this location another go - but starting just a little earlier.

The station is no longer used for its original purpose. Restored in 1997, the main building now houses perhaps the best tourist information centre in Western Australia. The railway itself still operates but only for long, heavy haulage trains that pass through without stopping, on their way to deliver grain to Albany Port.