Chambers Gorge Rock Pool "WIP" ten

Although not perfect the image for todays update is much closer to the real life colour of the Chambers Gorge Rock Pool, where as yesterdays was saturated with a lot of red.

Todays progress consists of more glazing over the still water along with grasses amongst the rocks. Also another layer added to the foliage of the trees in the background along with some timber. More flicks of colour were added to the mat of grass in the middle ground.

Strangely enough the more I do to this painting; another area then needs to be worked on. It is like playing 'catch up' at all times and yep that means I will be catching you with another post once more on this subject.

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technorati tags: oil, wip, grisaille, landscape, art, artist, landscape artist

Chambers Gorge Rock Pool "WIP" nine

Finely a long overdue update for you to scrutinise. Having never used this grisaille technique before I have to admit to being out of the comfort zone, especially when working on a painting of this size.

The addition of flora as well as glazes over the water area is now starting to really breath life into the painting that I can now see the long awaited finish line approaching.

The image colours are not quite correct with the reds coming through a little strong on the right as well the shadow colour in the rocks are brighter than they should be. In real life it does look much better but with a dark dreary day here for photos and wanting to post to my blog; this photo is it for today.

What next? More glazes along with flicks and dabs to refine areas that need attention, so until then I have plans for another update tomorrow..... grrrr and watch out who ever gets in my way of this happening!

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technorati tags: oil, wip, grisaille, landscape, art, artist, landscape artist

Horsing Around

Horse - Sketch
Copyright, Susan Borgas

The last day and a half I have done little painting. It isn't for lack of trying, just a lot happening in the background here that you guys know little about.

One thing that I was very happy with is a framing job that my husband and I did yesterday. Malcolm made the frame up and I did the mounting of the work. We also do my own framing as well and because I am so fussy we have had to learn how to achieve a professional finish to the job. As much as I would like to show you yesterdays finished framing job I don't have permission to take a photo so you are going to have to take my word for it.

As a landscape painter I do get very little opportunities to paint animals. To stretch my mind outside of my comfort zone, sketching an horse will certainly do that. Maybe I should concentrate on the family farms working dogs rather than a horse that we don't have so that I can study the animal a bit closer.


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technorati tags: sketch, sketching, draw, drawing, art, artist, horse drawing, horse sketch

Grisaille - What is it?

As some of you know I am working on an oil painting that is worked as a grisaille then glazes of transparent colour layered over the top. Because it is a landscape I am also introducing opaque colour as well with texture and the two seem to be work together; probably as the scene is water, smooth rock and native bush.

For those that wonder about the pronunciation of grisaille it is grizz-eye; French for grey.


The grisaille technique can be used in any colour that an artist wishes to choose although shades of grey or brown is more common. What you end up with is a monochromatic painting done entirely with a number of steps of values in one colour. This technique was common among the artists of the early Renaissance.

Using the grisaille technique the values are all worked out before any colour is added, not that hues are always introduced to the work. If you choose to go to the next step and add colour, the rest seems to take on a life of its own with changes happening very quickly because you don't have to concentrate quite so much on the values as they are already mapped out.

There are two artists at WetCanvas who's work I do admire. They are William F. Martin and Martin Clarke; both generously demonstrate there grisaille techniques on WetCanvas.

Samples of William's work in progress:

• Purple Iris

• New Rainbow Bridge

Samples of Martin's work in progress:

• The Shrine

• The Wrath of Grapes

I personally would like to study this grisaille technique in depth and if anyone has good links on this subject that they would like to share with me and my readers please leave them in the comments of this post. I have to admit I found searching the internet rather lacking when it comes to information on this subject.

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technorati tags: grisaille, grisaille technique, sketch, sketching, art, artist, draw, drawing, graphine

Sturt's Desert Pea - Sketch

This is going to be a very quick post because a short one is better than none at all, especially when this artist is up to her neck working in the studio.

While working on my Grisaille painting my mind is already planning the next painting. Sturt's Desert Pea has always been a favourite flower of mine and now that I am armed with a lot of reference photos; a few sketches will be put into action.

I had better get back to work, so until the next post...... be good!

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technorati tags: sketch

Thinking Blogger Award

Harriette from Artistic Musings has tagged me and because I do have blogs that get me thinking decided to play.

Note: I do not expect these bloggers to play along because they have either participated in tags before and there is only so many we can do. Also these blogger's are busy in their own right with tagging not perhaps fitting into their blogging routine.

Congratulations, you won a

• Darren Rowse - Problogger Darren's blog was the first RSS feed that I had listed outside of my artist listings. To this day Darren Rowe's blog is still one of my favourite reads with his typing finger always alerting my thinking brain of ways to improve my own writing, promoting my blog and generally a more professional approach to blogging.

• Alyson B Stanfield - Art Biz Blog Alyson is another blogger that any artist that is serious about their work should be reading. Alyson's posts will often give that much needed kick up the backside to get me thinking about what I should be doing as a professional artist.
  

• Making a Mark - Katherine Tyrrell It isn't unusual when I am looking for art related information, my thoughts go straight to Katherine's blog because so many of her posts really do get me thinking about the content that she provides. Many links to art related information, copyright information, blogging, drawing and so much more that makes me think so much more as an artist and blogger.
  

• Greywaren Art - Margaret Stiefvater Maggie is a no nonsense professional artist who injects her wicked sense of humour into many of her posts. Maggie has been a regular read of mine for so long now that I can't recall when I did start. Maggie is a very hard working artist and many times a post of hers has made me think about what road I want to take my own artistic endeavours.
  

• Dummies Guide to Google Blogger (Beta) Using blogspot/blogger for my blog I do like to tweak my template so that it looks the way that I want. This blog gets me thinking about adopting ideas that I see posted at Dummies Guide to Gooogle Blogger (Beta) to improve your experience when visiting my blog.
  

Should you choose to participate, please make sure you pass this list of rules to the blogs you are tagging.

The participation rules are simple:

1. If, and only if, you get tagged, write a post with links to 5 blogs that make you think,
2. Link to this post so that people can easily find the exact origin of the meme,
3. Optional: Proudly display the 'Thinking Blogger Award' with a link to the post that you wrote (here is an alternative silver version if gold doesn't fit your blog).

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• Take a look at my SnapShots Blog

• Arts and Stuff with Susan Borgas website

technorati tags: tagged, awards, problogger, art biz, blog, blogger, blogspot

Pastels

Something a bit different to what I have done in the past when showing you a 'work in progress' (WIP). These pastels that you see here are what I have used on Water's Path - Willochra Creek.

I Said I would post images of my pastels in this thread at WetCanvas so decided to post larger photos here on my blog because there is a limited size for the WetCanvas Forum to view and will point them to this post.

On completing the pastel work the first image shows the pastels that I was constantly picking up and putting down in a given day. They are resting on soft foam in a pull out drawer of my easel. The foam is also used to wipe the pastels against to keep my colours clean. These two images show you all the pastels for my last project that I did use.


I am right handed and this second image displays my pastels that are on a trolley to my right. Usually what I do is at the end of my days work, give a final wipe to the pastel on that piece of foam that you see in the bottom left and place in the plastic tray (recycled from supermarket) for a fresh clean start at the easel the next day. In other words there will be no pastels left in the drawer as you see in the first image. The white charcoal pencil was used to sign my name. The dark shape at the back is kneadable eraser, which I knead while working to keep my hands clean. It is also handy for erasing mistakes when I am working.

Now all I have to do is give a final clean to the pastels and place them back into their special boxes for another day when I start a new pastel project. First though I am going to finish the grisaille that I started some time back.

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technorati tags: pastel, pastel artist, art, artist, pastels