Spanish Revival (Hendry Co. Courthouse)

It was planned to paint it last weekend, but because of the old barn painting, it was postponed till today. Actually I had been looking forward to doing this lanscape for quite some time with my passion for stylish Mediterranean architectures. Before I went there, I had only one concern. I always hate to paint landmark for its own sake and the painting ends up like an illustration in a tourist brochure. I'd like to see landmarks in their natural state, that is, mingled with something else naturally instead of like the only thing left after an earthquake. You know what I mean. When I got there, I was so happy to see the beautiful oaks by side of the building and they shaded part of it from the morning sun. At the same time, they also let it have some bright spots through the cracks in the foliage, that added variety to the view. I parked my car at the Chamber of Commerce and began to walk around the intersection to find the best view. In the end, I went across and painted it from the parking lot of a bank (Gosh, I forgot its name). Hope you like the painting.



Ink Wash

Since I did a lot of paintings in water-based media such as watercolor, gouache before, and acrylic, I was excited about the assignment of ink wash in drawing class. That's why I didn't wait till next week to do the homework. Personally, I like "line over ink wash" better than "ink wash over line", because the former is subtler in transition. See the following:

 

 

Musicians

(ink wash over line)

Dancers

(line over ink wash)



Life Drawing

Today in Professor Schwartz' class we did a couple of gesture drawings as a warmup, followed by a full-lengh life figure drawing. I used soft pastel. Usually I couldn't do too much details with soft pastel, so I drew it pretty fast. After the first 20 minutes, I basically had the outline down and, by the second 20 minutes was over, I got tones on already. I shouldn't have dragged that long and could have started a second drawing but, regretfully, I didn't. I knew I overdid it, which wasn't very good. To my surprise, during the break when Mr. Schwartz began to critique students' homework, suddenly he asked one of the students to take my half-completed drawing off the easel and bring it to the front. Then he asked every student to come to my drawing and, pointing to the shoulder of the figure, explained how trasition in drawing shoudl be conducted. I felt very much flattered especially when those young kids wowed. Only I knew that it could have been much better that what they saw.

We have an interesting assignment for homework this week: Line over Ink Wash and Ink Wash over Line. Also we'll start to draw full-length costumed figure next week.



My Neighbor Chez

 

 

I have been enjoying doing landscapes recently. The day before,  I ran into my neighbor Chez when he was walking his dog. I felt he was kind of paintiable, so I offered to paint him. He nicely accepted. Today I set up by his pool side to paint him. When I was finished, Chez was surprised that I could have accomplished so much in about three hours. of course, I appreciated his compliment, but I knew I could have done it faster. I experimented a little with color, especially in terms of cool colors vs. warm colors and learned something, but I could have been cleaner with strokework. 

 

 



Old Barn

Originally I planned to go to La Belle this morning to paint its old courthouse which was what the locals called Spanish Revival. I drove by it a couple of years ago on my way to Orlando. Its architectural style was pretty impressive. At that time I only felt it had a whiff of Mediterranean flavor with its square clock tower but didn't know it was Spanish style. When I hit SR 80 (Palm Beach Blvd.), I noticed the old barn, which was plain but, together with the van, trailer, organge grove, etc., they made a harmonic variety of objects giving me a peaceful feeling in spite of the noise on the road. I had already passed the spot, so I made a U-turn, left my car on the road shoulder, and started to paint the barn. Before long, one of the owners of the house came out to see me paint. Mrs. Howard was very friendly and told me the story behind the barn. It was obviously not utilized these days, but long ago, her grandfather used the barn and the red shack next to it for chicken business.

For the 8 x11 piece, I spent only an hour and a half in addition to setup and cleaning toward the end of painting. As you may tell, I used the palette knives more often than usual and I found the use very effective. Hope you like it.



Paintings of Yesterday and Today

 

Yesterday I went to downtown Fort Myers to paint street views. As you may tell, it is the entrance to the courtyard which is the weekend art walk hot spot, where you can find bands and restaurants. However, when I got there it was raining. My choice was limited. I set up under the awning across the street. Halfway into my painting, the sky suddenly cleared up. The view was totally different. I tried to make adjustment but I knew it didn't go as I liked. On my way back, I passed Ortiz Blvd. and noticed the construction site at the intersection for a new gas station with the huge red gas tanks and cranes. I told myself I would come to paint it the next day. It turned out OK. See them for yourself.

Street Entertainer (Homework for Drawing Class)

 

 

The instructor required each of us make a three-tone soft pastel drawing of  a figure "in environment". Usually I can do a single-tone drawing pretty quick. For myltiple tones, if possible I always try to avoid including black because it may kill the tone color if it doesn' t go with the color. Therefore, I ended up making a soft pastel painting instead of a drawing. As you can tell, I used quite a number of colors. Hope you like it.