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Thanks much guy - my wonderful support group, YOU ARE THE BEST, fact is I did a Jillian Michaels DVD (can you say ouch!) and then yesterday I over did cleaning and then walked 3 miles.  Since I am getting old by the time I got to paint time the body didn't have any energy for Mohave Point.  But back to it today and am starting this new painting, part of my Spirit series called Running Horse. This painting has haunted me for more than 10 years.  Never could get it out of my head and certainly couldn't get it on paper.  My challenge here is to make the two key elements tie together for one cohesive image and not stand alone like two separate paintings.  Finally found a dynamic running horse, which I can convert to an indian war pony, running at an angle that I think I can connect it with my spirit Indian chief.  At least that is the game plan and we will see how it is going to come together. Since the challenge any oils I have done I am working with a pretty limited palette

Well finally got some sun today, not warmth, but light, so it is a good thing.  Had a nice chilly, brisk walk and some fresh air so am good to go. Here is an update on Mohave Point.  I am struggling with trying to get the right technique for the look I am going for and have ended up painting and repainting several times now so will continue to tinker on this one.  Think part of the problem is I have my mind working out another picture and, yep, you guessed it, I am so old now I can't do two things at once!!  Anyway, thanks for stopping by and hoping you have a great weekend.

                                                                       Raccoon                                                                           8"x10"                                                                             Oil Well it isn't normal to look out and see snow on the ground and roof - I know I am whining, but we are in the Deep South.  Apologize to those of you who have SNOW and COLD. but.... So got this raccoon finished today.  Am going to post him onto the PMP wildlife challenge and get some feedback from the folks there.  But think overall I am pleased with the way he turned out and even more pleased that working in oil is becoming more comfortable.  Stay warm all and thanks for stopping by.

Well finally warmer, but rain, drizzle and fog today.  What a winter and we got it easy compared to the Midwest and Northeast.  So this morning first up was the raccoon.  Am getting the hang of doing a layer and then letting it dry for a day or so and then going back in for the next rework.  Guess that is why the posts look so hodge podge because I am working on a couple of things at a time.  I know that the raccoon eyes are really, in life, much darker, but it just looked like two big black holes, so hard to get any character.  Had to look on the internet to find the structure of the raccoon  skeleton and eyes - never thought I'd find it, but there was quite a bit of information available.   Nothing like learning a little anatomy.  Surprisingly found they have slanted eye look with the outer skin creating the midtones to better define the eyes (who knew) so sure am glad I looked.   But think this still reads dark eyes while still being able to actually see them.  I might selec

  Will have to start this post again as I lost it mid stream GRRR.  Anyway, it is still chilly outside, but we dodged the bullets the last couple of days for sleet, ice and snow - just bone chilling cold.  Was supposed to get warm enough to go out today and I had my sights set on getting a walk in, but.... no sun so still pretty cold. Worked a bit this morning on the raccoon trying to get the eyes to pop out more, dreamed of a solution last night, so will post him when I get a bit more work done on him.  Am thankful for the internet as I think you can find just about anything on it.  Mike VI is resting on the board, I have been tweaking him - got to slap my fingers as I am tending to overwork him.  Going to let him sit and dry and hope to do the first coats of varnish end of next week, fingers crossed he will be dry enough.   So that leaves me with going back and working on the Grand Canyon.  This study was going to:  1) be an experiment in working with oil glazes, those will co

Today is a brutally cold day, woke up to feels like -3F degrees, know this isn't bad considering other states, but for us it is COLD and windy as well.  So good day to stay inside and start on my oil work studying.  Wanted to try another piece in the loose oil stoke technique since I don't think I have totally let go yet.   Then have some tiger eyes, which will be right up my alley, and this technique is very defined fur work and will be an experiment with acrylic base and oil glazing.  You can then help me decide which you like better.  I guess if I can learn them both, then the subject will determine how loose I can go. Well, decided if I was going to do wildlife I ought to try my hand at something other than big cats, so how about a raccoon.  Seen a few, know they can be nuisances but have such long flowing hairs.  This is a reference shot from PMP's wildlife challenge which I cropped down so I could get right in his face.  This is oil on a 8"x10" piece of

Well think I got Mike to a point where he just needs to sit for a few weeks now and thoroughly dry.  I want to be sure that the muzzle areas are real dry so I get the whiskers on.  I also would like to lighten up behind the ears so you see the dark outline and that will give them better shape.  I also want the ruff areas dry so I can put some more strokes on there - it is pretty thick right now so not sure if I can do that - but hoping in about a week I can do that and then let it dry another week before I varnish.  Now back to the Grand Canyon and figuring out what to do as an alternative to working with the oils.  Think maybe I'll try doing part of a vintage truck, which I got some shots of at our neighbor's house, in color pencils just for a slight break.  Just gotta love chrome!! Thanks for stopping by and hope you are having a great week.

This is the beginning of a study of Mohave Point, Grand Canyon.  Val mentioned working in oil on a small scale so I thought I would kick it up a notch as I wanted to do this picture in a larger size and maybe it is easier working with oil on a larger scale.  While I was thinking 20x20 on some canvas I got, this is actually6 16"x20" because I didn't have the courage to do it on the canvas yet.   I would like to do this without a lot of the details that I seem to get so caught up in and that appearedin my last Grand Canyon pictures. So it begins.  I think on this I am going to experiment in doing a combination of brush and palette knife work to see if I can get the technique back.  The rocks are made up of different strata so I want the layers look.  If the sky appears to be dark it because there was just a storm and the photographer caught the fantastic canyon colors, the sun coming out strong and two rainbows.  I am hoping that the transparent oils will make a nice fa

Well here is an update on Mike.  For those of you that already work in oils you know that you probably have to have several pictures in process because you have to let what you work on dry enough to go over it.  So promising myself to start the Grand Canyon today.  Because of the detail I am finding it hard to be as loose in this as I would like to be.  Aslo while he is white in much of his face I am going to have to go in and add in grays to show separations of the hair riffs to make it more believable.  I am scared that I am getting to points where I am beginning to over work him, so am going to try to make myself finish off the first coat and then go back and tweak the shadows.  Also this time I am not having any problem getting thick paint on the canvas so the dry time will definitely be longer as I am hardly using any Liquin at all on this piece. Thanks much for stopping by and hope you are having a great week.   We are going to go back into the deep freeze again so it will be

   Mike   8"x10" Oil Yep I am taking a bit of a breather after the challenge, but have been working on trying to get some technology things in place.  While most poeple say, this is easy, I am not the least bit computer intutitive so things like PayPal accounts and buttons take me a while to grasp and then be brave enough to try. But I have been painting, meet Mike.  He is the sixth LSU mascot which I am doing for a friend who is a huge LSU fan having gone to school there.  Mike is the only live college tiger mascot, is a Bengali-Siberian mix, and lives in a 15,000 sq ft condo enclosure complete with waterfalls and pool cared for by the vet program.  He is one pampered cat.  He has extremely light coloring, except in the muzzle area where all the color seems to be congregated.  I am trying to work in oil again and definitely guess that with oil you have to work in layers so that you can get it dry enough that you can put colo

                                                                       First Snow                                                                          12"x9"                                                                   Pastel/velour paper Well here is my snow leopard and they are absolutely beautiful animals, very well adapted to their environment.    This was my experiment dusting with pastels.  Can you say CHICKEN?  I have to tell you there was a huge hesitation before I did this.  I did take a picture of what it looks like without the snow and then took a deep breath and tried the two different methods.  One is to make pastel dust and then add water and put on using your finger to splatter off a toothbrush - didn't like that much, was too blobby, and I did get puddles on the surface.  Yes, I know it will dry, but ...   Then I just make pastel dust over the top of the cat and pushed in somewhat with a palette knife.  I don't think I want to move this t

                                                                         Thirsty                                                                           8"x10'                                                                             Oil Still trying to stay in the groove of finishing pictures in shorter time frames.  Funny in the challenge I didn't fear it wouldn't turn out, I just went with it and what happened, happened.  But right away, without the pressure I find myself being hesitant.  Got to remember it's only paper, mat or canvas and it isn't a gold brick I'm working on or with.  With each one of these I learn something else, liking some things about this and not others.  I find myself with flat brushes and think that I would prefer filberts and want to go back to smaller brushes that I think I could control.  Going from 5"x7" to 8"x10" doesn't sound like a lot, but I found it is a big difference. And one thing is

Well got so used to posting something each day, yesterday felt strange.  Since it is a big day here in the US, due to Super Bowl Sunday, thought I would post early.    Not only the Super Bowl, great commercials but also a new episode of Downtown Abby!  Does that equate to heaven for both boys and girls? As I said I want to continue to work in oils after gaining some confidence in the challenge.  So while I do have a pastel on the board also, a snow leopard, I am alternating with this piece.  Again my goal with oils is not to get too precise, but try to go with looser work and get used to bolder brushstrokes.  This is a beautiful piece of a tiger drinking, the photographer is Nicola at PMP.  Many have done this shot which shows much more background and water.  I decided to do a close crop (I think that is going to be part of my style going forward) and want to try to do a bit of an abstract background.  This again is the water mixable oils, small amounts of Liquin, and done on a pie