Zech

Words. Paintings. Pictures. Moving Pictures. 🌉 bridged from https://www.zechray.com/ on the fediverse by https://fed.brid.gy/

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Longform Stories

Morning Frost

I had the day off in early February a few years back, and decided to visit one of my favorite places to paint outdoors. Not to go out and paint this time, mind you. It was a calmer winter that year bu…

2h ago·2 min read·336 words

After the First Snowfall

The snow came a bit earlier than expected that year. I had planned to bike into work that day, but the roads were all slush so I brewed an extra thermos of tea, put on my best foul-weather boots, and …

1d ago·2 min read·268 words

Twilight Barn

Driving back country roads at dusk is a genuinely beautiful feeling. There's something about the way the fading light really simplifies the tones. Everything turns golden, then red, then blue. The sno…

2d ago·2 min read·291 words

I Thought it was Funny, so I Painted It...

I officially started my blog/newsletter on June 1st of last year. That means I've been doing this for a whole year now. I was trying to figure out what I wanted to do, or if I wanted to change anythi…

3d ago·3 min read·500 words

Digital Pansies Sketch

Nothing big today, just a digital paint-over of the pansies sketch from a few weeks back. Just playing with some of the colors. I really have nothing interesting to say about this one, and am gearing …

3d ago·1 min read·109 words

Sycamore Sketch

We went for a walk out in the woods this afternoon. Wandering down a dirt road along the edge of the woods, heard a woodpecker high up in a tree. We turned to find the Bird, only to really notice the …

5d ago·2 min read·220 words

Color Charts Day 2

I got through the second blue chart today. All that's left is green. I'm not really sure what to say about this besides that. I guess I could talk about paint application. With the color charts, it's…

6d ago·2 min read·249 words

Recipes vs. Chromatic Mixing

It's always nice to learn (or re-learn) a lesson. Today the lesson was about color mixing. There's all sorts of different levels of color mixing, but broadly they span the gamut from pre-mixing all y…

May 28·2 min read·364 words

Color Charts Revisited

I've been feeling a bit like I'm not as familiar with mixing greens as I'd like to be lately. And then two things struck me: that color charts are a great way of refreshing my color knowledge, and tha…

May 27·1 min read·175 words

Geranium Color Study

As I was doing this sketch, I was thinking that color studies can be helpful in understanding what you're studying by coming at the subject from a slightly different angle than the drawn sketch. You s…

May 26·2 min read·289 words

Peonies Oil Sketch

I really hated this as I was painting it. There's nothing like a floral/still-life to make me really question if I know what I'm doing. Upon reflection, I'm reasonably certain I just haven't taken it…

May 25·2 min read·266 words

On Composing Images

Sometimes these compositional sketches are fun to do simply to think about how to arrange things on the picture plane. I really like the power lines leading into the painting The trees form a nice bar…

May 24·2 min read·201 words

Geranium Consolation

Apparently I lied about painting the peonies today. My day ended up much busier than originally expected, and any time that I could've painted in evaporated. So I found this picture of some geraniums …

May 23·1 min read·195 words

Peony Update

Well, the first few peonies opened today. I have time tomorrow morning, so I'm hoping to get a quick sketch in. Hopefully over the weekend, I'll have more time and can squeeze a few more Peony sketche…

May 22·1 min read·98 words

Portrait Night

It feels like it's been a while since I've done a proper portrait painting. Probably since the face-off thing a few weeks ago. It felt good to get back into the portrait groove. Our model tonight was …

May 21·2 min read·203 words

Peony Update

The peonies have grown enough that they're finally succumbing to gravity. They droop a bit more each day. I think we're looking at end of this week or early next week for actual peony blooms. It's bee…

May 20·1 min read·185 words

Give me a Hand, or Two...

I woke up today and thought "It would be fun to paint some hands today...". Hands are generally pretty difficult - I think they're often more difficult than faces. So the odd bit of practice is always…

May 19·2 min read·244 words

Alva Sketch

It's been a few days since my last Alva sketch... Honestly I had no idea what to draw or paint today, so I defaulted to my favorite subject again. This one was just a quick sketch, taken from some pho…

May 18·1 min read·116 words

For the Love of Bikes

It was such a lovely day today - clear skies and warm temperatures! Hannah was out with friends for a girls day, so I hopped on my bike this afternoon and took a leisurely and extended bike ride for a…

May 17·2 min read·230 words

A Landscape Paid for in Blood

It was a beautiful morning and we decided to the extra-long block walk through the woods. The thought was that it's been cooler the past few days, and the mosquitoes might not be so bad currently. The…

May 16·2 min read·285 words

Pansies Background

I got the background a bit more finished today, which helps the painting look a bit more finished I think. Still just working on the obvious parts as they become obvious. I'm really wanting to start s…

May 15·1 min read·164 words

(Untitled)

I've been picking away at this painting doing the obvious things, like I mentioned a few days ago. But I'm finding that I'm feeling stuck. So after a bit of consideration today, I did what felt like t…

May 14·1 min read·96 words

Miscellany

Today's stuff is a hodgepodge of different things. I picked away at a few of the flowers from yesterday's painting, and then attended my first drink-and-draw session. It was a blast! It's a loosely st…

May 13·1 min read·85 words

Pansy Painting

Alright, I did a weird thing and actually did what I said I might yesterday - I painted a sketch of yesterday's pansies... I think I like it enough to continue on with it and see where it goes? I thin…

May 12·1 min read·100 words

Mother’s Day Pansies

we had my mom over for a Mother’s Day brunch this morning, and then game day. But the pansies we bought for Hannah’s mom were so pretty I couldn’t resist a quick sketch as well. I love how the purple …

May 11·1 min read·81 words

Peonie Update

An update on the Ponies by the front door: the ants are out. Last year I learned (it was probably Hannah - she knows all kinds of random stuff about things) that ants will crawl all over peonies befor…

May 10·1 min read·96 words

And We're Done With the Series

Got this last one finished today. I'm pretty happy with the whole series, and I'm hoping to not do it again for a while. I think I'll stick to one-off paintings for a while. One thing of interest I fo…

May 9·1 min read·104 words

Sunset Fields

Here's part two of my "Farmlands at Dusk" mini-series. Still a bit loose and sketchy, due to the smaller nature of the three panels, but I feel like the bits of detail I did include here are a bit mor…

May 8·1 min read·93 words

Farmyard at Dusk

Here's the first in my potential short series of sunset farmland paintings. I'm working on some 12"x16" panels for this series. The size is a frustrating one for me. I have to work pretty slowly to do…

May 7·1 min read·97 words

Farmyard Silhouette

Last week we were driving through some of my favorite SW Michigan farmland right at dusk. I snapped some photos as we were driving, and I'm currently thinking about doing a short series of these sunse…

May 6·1 min read·91 words

Dandelion Poofs

I got a chance to finish up the dandelion painting I started last Thursday. It was really just a matter of adding some details in the appropriate parts of the painting. Specifically the shadows of the…

May 5·1 min read·92 words

Barn on a Hill

I think I ended up doing a sketch of this one a few weeks past, but I'm not seeing it on here, and I don't know where it is. So I did a new sketch just for fun. Somewhere in our local travels recently…

May 4·1 min read·101 words

Landscape Composition Sketch

I've been doing a lot of portrait practice recently, so I mostly took the day off today, since I kinda got through the big portrait thing at The Box Factory last night. But I did snap a few photos whi…

May 3·1 min read·97 words

Face Off

Here's the result of my Face-off portrait. It was a fun evening. Getting to paint portraits from life with a bunch of other artists while hundreds of people mill around and watch is always a fun and c…

May 2·1 min read·91 words

Dandelions

I have this thing where I really don't like painting cut flowers - it always feels like painting something that's already dead and just doesn't realize it yet. It feels weird to me. So as much as poss…

May 1·1 min read·97 words

Portrait Practice

This coming Friday evening, 01 May, I'm participating in The Box Factory's annual "Face Off" - an event where about 15 artists paint portraits from life for about three hours and invite the public in …

Apr 30·1 min read·96 words

Irises

On our walk this morning, I saw my first Irises of the spring. That's not to say that they haven't been around already this year, but these are the first that I've consciously clocked. It's been a lon…

Apr 29·1 min read·95 words

The Fun Part

I kept putting the second half of this painting off today. When I finally worked up the executive function to get to the painting, I realized that past Zech had done a wonderful thing for present Zech…

Apr 28·1 min read·103 words

Peony Practice

I was making pizza tonight and looked out into the garden to see that the peonies are forming. They're probably a few weeks out yet, but it got me thinking that I should start prepping for my annual p…

Apr 27·1 min read·95 words

Lifeguard Post

Earlier this past week I found myself in downtown St. Joe waiting while Hannah was in a meeting. I took a stroll down to the pier to see what the beachfront was like. There were some big bulldozers cl…

Apr 26·1 min read·91 words

Some Alva Sketches

Hannah shared some photos she's taken of Alva over the past few weeks, and I figured it was about time to do some more Alva sketches with some of them. I did these ones in Procreate this evening while…

Apr 25·1 min read·103 words

Watercolor Starts

It's been a while since I've done a proper watercolor painting. I tried that Poppy painting a few months ago, but that was the first time in ages. So I thought that instead of using oils for the secon…

Apr 24·1 min read·97 words

Two Portraits

I got my first painting (see below) done at about the half-way mark of our portrait session tonight, so I relocated to a bit of a profile scene and began another one. The second one (above) turned out…

Apr 23·1 min read·102 words

Path Through The Trees Pt. 2

I got a good bit further on the painting I started yesterday. I'd say that at this point, the remainder of the painting is adding smaller touches of paint in specific colors to complete the effect I'm…

Apr 22·1 min read·98 words

Sun Dappled Path

I got started on the first of the two paintings I've got planned for this week - the sun-dappled path from Fernwood Gardens. I've got most of the base layer down after the first session. Right before …

Apr 21·1 min read·95 words

Another Future Painting

During one of our recent drives the last few days, Hannah and I happened to drive past one of our favorite buildings in the area. I think it used to be an old schoolhouse. They've done a lot of work t…

Apr 20·1 min read·103 words

Composition Sketch

We ended up at a local park/nature preserve called Fernwood two day in a row. Both were beautiful spring days, though there was a good 30 degrees of temperature difference between the two. Both days, …

Apr 19·1 min read·93 words

Pen & Ink

I did another quick sketch of one of the pear trees in the yard today - mostly because it was directly in line-of-sight this afternoon. I really love the "Y" shape the tree makes, and the graceful cur…

Apr 18·1 min read·99 words

Pear Tree Blossoms Pt. 2

I really wanted to start a new painting today, seeing as finishing paintings is boring... But I didn't have a fresh canvas ready to go. So I figured it'd probably be a good idea to finish this one tha…

Apr 17·1 min read·102 words

Outdoor Portrait

I prevailed on Hannah to sit for me on Portrait Day this week. Then I pushed my luck and asked if I could paint her outside. We got some chairs and I grabbed my painting stuff and we set up in the gar…

Apr 16·1 min read·99 words

A Second Attempt

So upon looking at yesterday's painting again today, I'm actually pretty ok with it. But I still wanted to try a second version of it. I got about as far on the second one as I did the first. So I thi…

Apr 15·1 min read·104 words

Composing on the Fly

In my continued effort to paint more outdoors this year, I stepped out into the backyard to pint the pear trees that are in blossom. I immediately lost focus and spent the entire time trying to compos…

Apr 14·1 min read·98 words

A Walk in the Woods

We went out for a walk in the woods along the creek this afternoon. It feels like spring proper is just about to start. Most of the trees are still bar, and we're getting the last of the early bloomer…

Apr 13·1 min read·91 words

3.5 Minute Alva Life Sketch

So perhaps it was more like five minutes, but still, that cat does not stay anywhere long, doubly so if he senses you watching him, as you need to to draw him from life. But it was fun to try and get …

Apr 12·1 min read·76 words

Low-key a High-key Painting

On our way home from getting groceries we took one of my favorite routes - especia lly in the spring. The apple trees along this stretch of road bloomed last week, but I got a picture of them at the t…

Apr 11·1 min read·104 words

Getting There

Another session on this painting today, and we're almost there. I've just got to put the finishing touches on Ceecee. And maybe a few more bits-and-bobs that I feel like adding in the moment. -ZR

Apr 10·1 min read·37 words

Portrait Practice

I think I may have been to four portrait night weeks in a row. That hasn't happened for a while, and I feel like the results of consistent practice are really speaking for themselves. -ZR

Apr 9·1 min read·37 words

The Big One

I got started on the full painting today. I'm pretty happy with the progress. And Ceecee's head/face look a lot better this time. Granted, that's because I haven't really tried to work on her head muc…

Apr 8·1 min read·98 words

Color Sketch

In preparation for a larger painting of Ceecee in the garden that I'm starting tomorrow, I worked on a color study today. Yesterday was the pencil sketch, today the color sketch. I'm thinking I've sti…

Apr 7·1 min read·95 words

More Cats

One of the cats from upstairs was in the back garden today on one of the retaining walls at just the right angle to catch the afternoon sunlight. It's a good enough scene I thought I might try to pain…

Apr 6·1 min read·94 words

Alva Napping

As I'm sure you know, when I'm not sure what to draw, I go flowers or Alva. And I sketched some flowers yesterday, so Alva it was. I sketched him doing his favorite activity - napping!

Apr 5·1 min read·38 words

Daffodil Drawings

I wasn't sure what to draw today, so I went with daffodils. I did that daffodil painting last week and still had a lot of reference handy in my photo roll. So a few quick daffodil sketches seemed like…

Apr 4·1 min read·47 words

The Tent

It seems like I've done a lot of portraits recently. No complaints really, I just try to keep things irregular. So I thought "let's do something different and paint a landscape". Nah, just kidding - I…

Apr 3·1 min read·93 words

Moar Poartrait

Tonight in portrait class we painted one of the artist regulars. He was kind enough to dress in very contrasty light/dark colors, which made me very happy. I love using the white collar of a shirt to …

Apr 2·1 min read·57 words

A Good Portrait Session

I got a chance to work on another portrait today. Very much a "working the lighter values on top of the dark values" sort of painting. I'm pretty sure I've said this recently, but there is something w…

Apr 1·1 min read·95 words

Daffodils

Today was an absolutely beautiful day. Nice and warm. No rain, either. So I wandered out into the back yard with some paints and did a small sketch of the daffodils. I'm not quite done with it, since …

Mar 31·1 min read·91 words

Cats Hunting

We caught the local cats hunting something in the yard a few days ago, and I loved the different poses they made as they stalked their prey. Probably a mouse or mole or something? It's fascinating to …

Mar 30·1 min read·84 words

Con-goer Portrait

I almost titiled this con portrait, but thought that might send the wrong message. I did this quick portrait sketch while playing a game at the game con we’re at this weekend. I was surprised to find …

Mar 29·1 min read·57 words

Portrait Sketches?

The last few days my portraits have looked like humans, but not like the specific humans I was sketching. I’m having trouble getting a proper likeness. I’m curious about why, but currently too tired t…

Mar 28·1 min read·43 words

Quick Portrait

I don’t have much to say about this one, other than that I was sitting reading a thing about how choosing to life the life that you want doesn’t really mean “change your life entirely to do what you w…

Mar 27·1 min read·96 words

Portrait Nerding

Alright, buckle up! I've got bit of technical stuff that I'm thinking about when it comes to portraits tonight. Firstly, of course, Wednesday night is portrait night... The big thing for me this sessi…

Mar 26·1 min read·98 words

Flowers and Weeds

So instead of finishing yesterday's flower painting, I decided to start a new flower painting. This is a scene from an overgrown patch of lawn at the house up north that I photographed last summer. I …

Mar 25·1 min read·97 words

Watercolor Poppies

I mostly paint in oils, but I do love a good watercolor, and there have been periods of time where my focus shifts to watercolors for chunks of time. I'm not sure if this is one of those times, but to…

Mar 24·1 min read·105 words

House at the End of the Road

I found this photo in my favorites file - It's a the view down the road to my grandfather's house. It's a really great memory for me. But this particular photo also has this great value structure. The…

Mar 23·1 min read·100 words

A Weird One

Here's a weird drawing day for you. I've got a show at The Box Factory this summer in July, and I'm starting to think about making frames for all the paintings. So to help me visualize and remember wh…

Mar 22·1 min read·98 words

Lily Sketch

I do love a good lily sketch whenever I'm having trouble knowing what to work on. I'm waiting on the most recent painting to dry a bit for some glazing, and am not currently sure what's next. So as I …

Mar 21·1 min read·82 words

Geese, or Possibly Cranes

Going for a walk earlier this week, we saw this lovely phalanx of birds flying south-ish. This time of year, it's not uncommon to see geese beginning their migration. But these sounded much more like …

Mar 20·1 min read·88 words

Art is Long, and Life is Short

I got to portrait class tonight. It was nice to get a chance to practice my current portrait methodology from life, though I'm not sure it shows particularly well. Just reinforcing the thought process…

Mar 19·1 min read·97 words

Day Three for Orange Trees

I'm gonna take a short break on this one for a while and let the paint dry pretty thoroughly. There are bits that I could pick at a bit more while the paint is wet and I didn't get quite as much thick…

Mar 18·1 min read·103 words

Orange Giants

I did a weird thing and actually carried through on my promise (threat?) to turn yesterday's digital color sketch into an oil painting. Well, it's not quite a full painting yet but I got the first pas…

Mar 17·1 min read·95 words

A Quick Landscape

I wanted a break from the portraits I've been focusing on, and I thought I'd like to do something with a bit more color today. So I found this photo from our trip up north last fall. The bright orange…

Mar 16·1 min read·96 words

Collaboration

Today was game day. And a good friend in the game group's birthday (two friends birthdays, actually). So we made a cake, and brought it over, and played games, and ate soup and sandwiches. And disasso…

Mar 15·1 min read·83 words

Old Guy Portrait

For this portrait, I went for an older bearded guy. All the hair tends to obscure some pretty difficult drawing - especially along the jaw line. And most of the facial features are pretty soft. The ey…

Mar 14·1 min read·95 words

More Portrait Practice

Still trying to get in portrait practice. This one isn't a particularly great likeness, but I'm really liking the softness in the marks, with some sharper accents in strategic places. And the focus on…

Mar 13·1 min read·94 words

More Portraits

It's been a week, and it's only halfway over. I had enough wherewithal to do a quick digital portrait sketch tonight - trying to keep reinforcing new ways of seeing and thinking about portraits. I've …

Mar 12·1 min read·93 words

Portrait Practice

The portrait practice continues! I found a good photo reference on Pinterest and gave it a go during painting class today. It was also a good chance to try out a few new brushes that arrived in the ma…

Mar 11·1 min read·95 words

ASDF Pt. 2

(Because I forgot to fix the title yesterday, so I'm sticking with it.) I'm liking where the painting is headed. I think it's about as far as I'm willing to take a spur-of-the-moment painting/sketch.…

Mar 10·1 min read·72 words

ASDF

A few days ago my phone populated this photo from - I think - Grand Mere. I kinda love the photo. It reminds me of some pastoral paintings from the turn of the last century. So I figured I'd start my …

Mar 9·1 min read·92 words

Alva, Again

I'm finding that there's not much more relaxing than a kitty drawing. I'm finding that cat paws in particular are fun. Perhaps it's just that Alva is such a walking flood-ball, and his paws are about …

Mar 8·1 min read·91 words

Fire Truck Sketch

We were supposed to go to game night tonight, and I was gonna press one of our unlucky friends into letting me draw them while we played cards. Right as we were getting ready to leave the apartment, h…

Mar 7·1 min read·91 words

More Portrait Work

I got home from portrait class last night and did some looking at one of my favorite artist's work because I was still feeling a bit obsessive about portrait work. Painting is really just learning to …

Mar 6·1 min read·90 words

Wednesday Nights...

As we all know, Wednesday night is occasionally portrait night. Tonight was one such night. I've been really enjoying getting two portrait studies done - first a 3/4 portrait, and then a profile sketc…

Mar 5·1 min read·91 words

This is not a Painting

I finally got myself to start painting again today. I guess I just need a bit of time to look through a bunch of art books for inspiration. So I got into a new painting, and it's going really well. On…

Mar 4·1 min read·106 words

Cabin Fever

Ok, so it's not exactly cabin fever, as I'm not stuck in the house, or on a sailing ship with a bunch of muppets or something, but I'm growing somewhat unsatisfied with the indoor painting life. And m…

Mar 3·1 min read·96 words

Parking Lot Nocturne

While the sun was still an hour from thinking about rising one snowy morning and a gentle covering of fresh snow blanketed everything, I glanced across the parking lot at the building across the way a…

Mar 2·1 min read·93 words

Old Schoolhouse

There's this tiny little... village(?) that we we drive through fairly often a few minutes out of town. It's a bit out-of-the-way, but we often find a reason to drive through it on our way to wherever…

Mar 1·1 min read·95 words

Alva Sketch

We were over at my parent's for dinner tonight and I mentioned that I wasn't sure what I was going to draw tonight. Mom said I should sketch Alva, and I figured it'd been a while since I'd done an Alv…

Feb 28·1 min read·105 words

Back to Flowers

I thought it might be fun to try a floral painting today, as a nice quick sketch since I don't currently have anything I'm preoccupied with. I've said this before, but I feel like floral paintings are…

Feb 27·1 min read·95 words

Spring Fever?

Perhaps I'm just stuck on yesterday's painting. But I've had trouble finding anything I wanted to paint or draw today. It seems that at this time every year I get the bug to go outside and paint. I th…

Feb 26·1 min read·98 words

Snowy Fields

My favorite part about a snowy Michigan winter is that it brings a linearity to the landscape. Trees loose their leaves, and all the lines of the trunks and branches are visible. Snow fills the fields…

Feb 25·1 min read·91 words

Color Study

I turned yesterday's composition sketch into today's digital color sketch. I think one of my favorite things about a grey day is trying to figure out where you can find color sneaking in. I love pushi…

Feb 24·1 min read·99 words

On the Beauty of Run-down Old Buildings

There's a section of our drive to and from the U.P. that takes us through a beautifully rural area of Michigan. Driving through it, you first note that the towns and buildings are getting fewer and fu…

Feb 23·1 min read·99 words

Last Page of the Sketchbook

I finished off the last page of this sketchbook with a quick sketch from our winter hike on Presque Isle today. I tried a single-line fountain pen sketch, where the pen doesn’t leave the paper and the…

Feb 22·1 min read·97 words

(Untitled)

Most of the snow has temporarily fled our corner of the state. So naturally we drove up to the U.P. for the weekend. The weather was surprisingly cooperative, barring a few rough spots near Gaylord an…

Feb 21·1 min read·81 words

Warped Perspective

I won the "get a random headache" lottery this afternoon, and it has put me in just the wrong mood to do much painting. I just couldn't quite manage the focus and attention necessary for a good painti…

Feb 20·1 min read·97 words

Portrait Night

I wasn’t sure if I’d be able to get to portrait class - it’s been a while since I’ve been able to make it. Fortunately things worked out for me to do so, and I’m glad they did. It’s always shocking to…

Feb 19·1 min read·105 words

An Evening Message About Morning Light

I'm either done with this painting or tired enough of it to stop working on it. My favorite adage about this part of the painting process states that paintings are never finished - only abandoned. So …

Feb 18·1 min read·97 words

Blue Shadows?

In the landscape, the bounced-light blue of the sky fills the shadows where direct sunlight cannot reach. One of the greatest things about the snow is that it really showcases this element. Alternati…

Feb 17·1 min read·90 words

Oops, I forgot to do Anything Yesterday

I woke yesterday morning to light filtering through the curtains onto my face. Then I rolled over and went right back to sleep. Yesterday was the first time in a good four months that we had a free, u…

Feb 16·1 min read·101 words

Pre-Dawn Visitors

My alarm went off at 5:00 - possibly because I hate myself but mostly because I like the quiet stillness of the morning before the sunrise. I proved to be awake enough to not trip over the cat in the …

Feb 14·1 min read·100 words

Winter Morning Through the Trees

It was cold enough that I could see my breath in the air - even in the car. The car took forever to get warm that morning, too, but by the time the heat finally melted the frost off the windows the su…

Feb 13·1 min read·100 words

Loose Master Copy

The end of a big project is often like the end of a good book - you're really happy to get to the end, but it's also a bit sad. There's a mourning period afterwards. Figuring out what your next steps …

Feb 12·1 min read·106 words

Winter Blues... And Oranges

I got to start something new! Full of promise and not full of portraits! I'm so excited. The beginning of a painting is always so much fun. In honor of getting to work on a new painting after forcing …

Feb 11·1 min read·101 words

Alright, That’s It, I’m Done

I'm not sure if I like these paintings or hate them anymore, but they're as done as they're going to get for now. They're submitted (for whatever good that'll do) and my desire to continue working on …

Feb 10·1 min read·90 words

Winter Sub Division

Seeing as I'm really trying not to watch paint dry, I've been trying to occupy my creative time with other projects. Today I spent some time working on the ideation stage of another winter landscape s…

Feb 9·1 min read·92 words

Backyard Tree-Lines

There's almost nothing I like better than a good tree. So I did a quick sketch of our friends backyard tree-line. There's this grouping of three most excellent trees right out their back window where …

Feb 8·1 min read·66 words

No Pun-adjacent Titles Are Coming To Mind Tonight.

I think I’ve generally finished most everything that isn’t going under a glaze layer today. Everything that I might want to apply a glaze to is furiously drying for Monday’s session. today was mostly …

Feb 7·1 min read·96 words

It's all coming together

The painting is finally starting to feel like it's all coming together very well. After my last session and the rage-painting session before that, I was feeling pretty down-in-the-dumps about this one…

Feb 6·1 min read·90 words

African Violet

I needed to let both paintings I'm currently working on dry a bit before returning to either of them, so today was a sketching day. Here's this nice little African Violet that I sketched today, in an …

Feb 5·1 min read·96 words