Three digital comps

Digital Sketch-hill

Digital Sketch-city1

Digital Sketch-city2

Digital Sketch-hill
Digital Sketch-city1
Digital Sketch-city2
digital, iPad Brushes app

Here are 3 more digital value comps. I am frustrated with the resolution of the these. I am not sure if it is the Brushes app, which is the second version, or my old iPad. What has happened is the resolution just went kaput! I noticed it while doing these and became annoyed that they now have those jagged edges especially noticeable in the diagonals and smaller details. So disappointed!
It only shows up in the second Brushes version and not the first version which I still have.
Yep, I need new tools.

Other than that I enjoyed doing these three. They seemed to just fall out of me onto the digital 'canvas'.
The hill is based on a local hill here in San Pedro but done from memory and modified. The two cityscapes were done from my imagination.507,508,509

Nocturne from Marker Sketch

"Suburb Nocturne"
watercolor on paper, 2016
4" x 7" (10.16cm x 17.78cm)

Marker sketches
black markers
sketchbook 6" x 8" (15.24cm x 20.32cm)
Not for Sale

Here's a small watercolor from my marker sketches and another imagined nocturne landscape.
You can see the marker sketch original post here.
I am working from the marker sketches as an excuse to experiment in a variety of paint applications or treatment of the medium, taking my cue from the manner in which I drew with the marker.
The marker sketches were experimental in themselves and often were dictated the complexity of subject, my patience for careful study vs quick sketch and even by my mood at the time.

I am back to posting on a regular basis again so stay tuned. For now I will be posting these watercolors from the marker sketches.492

A Watercolor and its Marker Sketch

"Tree w/ Lightning"
watercolor on paper, 2016
4" x 7" (10.16cm x 17.78cm)

Marker sketches
black and value markers
sketchbook 6" x 8" (15.24cm x 20.32cm)
Not for Sale

A watercolor painted from one of my marker sketches, original post here.
Most of the marker sketches were done while sitting in my booth at Laguna Art-A-Fair the last two years.
These sketches allow me to draw from my imagination. It is drawing for the simple pleasure of drawing.
I also enjoy the marker because it is so direct and forces me think ahead while still having the freedom to let it flow onto the page. It is very much like watercolor since you must plan on preserving the light areas and whites of the paper.
As you can see the watercolor is stretched out horizontally from the marker version. Having done the marker sketch first allowed me to see the proportions and make adjustments before the painting. I decided it needed to be more elongated for its simple composition.
Maintaining the value pattern was important and in this one, the textural quality of the tree.491

Marker Demo Drawings

Here are some marker sketches I did for the demo at Blick Art Materials in Fullerton.The purpose of this demo was to show how to layer bright colors over a value marker sketch.
I used the Blick Studio Markers set of twelve which are mostly bright colors over the warm grays set of twelve (9 values + 3 black markers in the set) for a 10 value scale as well as the Blick Studio Brush Markers set of 24 which has the same colors as the bright set plus some non-bright colors.
I had several papers to demo. These here were done on the Canson Pro-Marker Layout Paper.

Markers are similar to watercolor in their transparency so are easily layered. The benefit with starting with the value sketch first is you focus on the design then add color.
The sketches with color are all value underneath. I started with a page of the value sketches then added color for the demo leaving some to show the difference.
It is fairly easy to knock down the saturation of most colors by coming back in and adding more of the value marker on top. If you compare the yellow in the bottom page middle sketch to the untouched bright yellow of the top page bottom sketch you can see what I mean.

I like working with markers for preliminary sketches and thumbnails for their immediacy to get right into it with any mixing of paint colors and sometimes you need to strike while the iron is hot.
Another aspect I like is as you really wet the paper with the marker over and over it will take on the look of watercolor somewhat with that characteristic blotty puddle we associate with watercolor.
See bottom page middle sketch.

Markers are not just for tight advertising and design renderings. They can also be used in a more painterly organic manner.429,430

Art-A-Fair Santa Ana River 6

"Santa Ana River 6"
oil on panel, 2015
16" x 9" (40.64cm x 22.86cm)

While researching an illustration for a magazine I visited an arroyo at the northern rural end of the Santa Ana River in San Bernardino California.

This has expanded my Santa Ana River series to include more classic natural views in addition to the southern urban versions where the river meets the ocean. This one from the middle of the river as it passes through a shadow.309

Art-A-Fair Tumbleweed Hill

"Tumbleweed Hill"

oil on panel, 2015

16" x 9" (40.64cm x 22.86cm)

Here's another currently hanging in my booth at Art-A-Fair.
This landscape is more prickly than the others, a reflection of much of Southern California's desert and savanna flora. Dry climate brush.

I was drawn to the textural qualities of this landscape, the bristled tumbleweed orbs and their march up the hill, the leftward thrust of the foreground vegetation and path and the raking light of late afternoon.308

Art-A-Fair Above the Hazy Arroyo

"Above the Hazy Arroyo"

oil on panel, 2015

16" x 9" (40.64cm x 22.86cm)

New landscape(s), new format.
I have 3 new landscapes at Art-A-Fair right now and 2 others on the easel.
I am trying various palettes on these, from my usual palette to more earthy (like this one) to higher chroma and various combinations of those.

This atmospheric conditions provided a good excuse for high contrast between foreground and background, with the middle ground in between but closer in value to the background. Within the foreground and middle ground the value shifts are subtle and the color saturation turned up, especially in the foreground, for that deep rich tone. Fore and middle grounds having a mixture of warms and cools and set against the more neutral background so it's not so singular or flat in approach.

Thick air you can see.
Above the lush arroyo on a warm hazy October day.
A great view that opens up to the dry hills and distant mountains. The sun fighting through the haze to seep into and warm the landscape.307

Art-A-Fair Landscape (Tree Trunk)

"Landscape (Tree Trunk)"

oil on panel, 2015

7.5" x 10" (19.05cm x 25.4cm)

Here is another painting currently hanging in my booth at Art-A-Fair.

Lately I have been trying out a higher chroma palette (again). Over the years my palette has gone back and forth like most artists.

While researching an illustration for a magazine I visited an arroyo at the northern rural end of the Santa Ana River in San Bernardino California.

This landscape was at the outer edge of the arroyo just above the river.
What caught my eye was the lively configuration of the trees and the surrounding vegetation. Using a slightly more saturated palette than I usually do  added to its animated character.306

Art-A-Fair Arroyo Landscape

"Arroyo Landscape"
oil on panel, 2015
6" x 8" (15.24cm x 20.32cm)

Art-A-Fair is underway now with this being the first weekend. The grounds look spectacular thanks to the volunteer staff that put a lot of work into every detail. There are countless other jobs we don't see, like promotion and administrative, done by the volunteers that go back months, long before we exhibiting artists show up.
So thanks to all!

Here is one of my new paintings currently hanging on my wall.

While researching an illustration for a magazine I visited this arroyo at the northern rural end of the Santa Ana River in San Bernardino California. Down in the arroyo it is like being in another place.
In our otherwise dry savanna climate it feels like an oasis teaming with a variety of lush green trees, vegetation and wildlife year round.304

Lone 2 - Dockside Red Shed

"Dockside Red Shed"
Watercolor on paper, 2015
15" x 20" (38.1cm x 50.8cm)

Here's a recent watercolor of an old shed in a marina in the LA Harbor. It is similar to this one in it's rendering, although it is a more tightly packed composition, and this one for the lone idea behind it.
I was drawn to not just the shed, I love corrugated buildings, but also the small palm and the two backlit plastic barrels for their luminosity.
Besides adding some shape variation to the composition they countered the predominant rectangular forms with cylindrical and radial (round or circular) forms. Just enough to break up a static composition.

The palm leaves fanning out in the lower left corner and the short retaining wall lead nicely to the barrels and shed, the power lines reinforcing the diagonal compositional thrust from lower left corner. Without that everything is horizontal and square and dull.

After those initial observations that first get my attention, when I sit down to paint I always realize the other artistic decisions that must be made before I put paint to paper. That for me is the real content, the design just aids in making it work.

I have to identify what I was seeing and decide how to portray those impressions through paint.
It's not always automatic.
What I was really seeing was not just the shed itself but how it sat by itself on the large dockside slab, isolated from the rest of the buildings.

The warm bright slightly overcast sky and simplified foreground communicated that idea of the isolated shed and also helped ease its busy liveliness. A nice clear blue sky or clouds would not have done that. Pretty blue skies generally say happy or pleasant, clouds say another depending on how they are portrayed, a dark sky says something else. But a bright nearly colorless sky doesn't draw attention to itself and in this case this reinforces the lone subject.

Since all the vibrancy takes place across the center in the shed itself its shadow needed to belong to it and differ from the barrels and palm shadows. So it starts green at left and after turning the corner is warm blue.

I also decided that since the shed had such a strong red color and aged patina showing the rippled surface of the corrugated metal was not necessary this time... it was busy enough.302

Accepted into "Splash 17 : Inspiring Subjects" !

"E 4th St, Bridge"

I just received the great news that my painting "E 4th St. Bridge", which I mentioned earlier here on my blog, has been accepted into "Splash 17: Inspiring Subjects", the annual watercolor book published by North Light Books.
As follower's of my blog already know I am always inspired by industrial subjects and my city of Los Angeles. All cities have their own great landmarks and little treasures and I love seeking out the ones in my own. I have seen paintings of the 4th St. Bridge before but I hope that by focusing on the section that splits to E 4th Place I caught a unique view that has not been painted too often. I loved this view for its dramatic composition.

Since I have been super busy preparing for this summer's Art-A-Fair and with so many other projects happening all at once this kind of news is a boost to my weary bones, sore back and tired eyes. Exactly the shot I needed right now!
From the way things have been going so far it looks like 2015 will be a high watermark year for me, even with our extreme drought!  ; ).

Santa Ana River 5 Vespertine painting

"Santa Ana River 5 (Vespertine)"
watercolor on paper, 2014
6" x 18" (15.24cm x 45.72cm)

This is my painting for the article "The River in Me" by Susan Straight for Orion magazine. See previous post.

The client wanted to see more color than my more urban versions of the river to communicate the lush verdant arroyo and river banks of the author's essay.
If you are not familiar with Southern California's landscape much of it is either desert or savanna, dry most of the year. But the river basins are teaming with green lush vegetation and wildlife year round.

I was happy I visited the site because I learned that at this time of day with the river sitting down in the arroyo the long streaking shadows are gone as the sun drops behind the hills but there was still plenty of light in the landscape.

We originally talked about showing some evidence of the manmade as you can see in the some of the sketches in my previous post but we arrived at this one (sketch 3) and I was happy with it.
When you are down in the arroyo, although there is some of the manmade, you do feel like you are away from the city and the final painting reflects that as well as that same feeling in much of the article.
What did remain was the distant dry desert mountains of Southern California in the background.297

Santa Ana River 5 Vespertine sketches

"Santa Ana River 5 (Vespertine)"
pencil on paper, 2014

This is a recent commission for Orion magazine. Today the thumbnail sketches, tomorrow the painting.
My art is featured in the current January/Feburary 2015 issue.

I was contacted by the magazine after they found my Santa Ana River series while researching an article for their magazine. The article titled "The River in Me" by Susan Straight is about the authors experiences with the northern section of the Santa Ana River here in Southern California.

After some emails back and forth I decided to visit the site in person. The northern section of the Santa Ana River is more rural or natural than my more industrial/city versions I had done previously and I needed to get a feel for it so I could be as true as possible to the site and especially the author's vision of it.

I did some value thumbnails and sent these six for approval.
We decided on number 3.

Vespertine refers to the hour before sunset, not quite dusk or twilight. Poetically it is the magic hour.
While visiting the site I made it a point to really pay attention to the quality and the amount of light and I was surprised how much light is still in the landscape that final hour, more than I expected, much more than dusk but still a different quality than earlier in the afternoon.

As part of my research I took photos of course and although I originally planned to do color sketches on site. Once there I changed my mind.

The alternative was to simply stop and pay attention, make mental notes or write down thoughts. I have found I will remember more when I make it a task in itself.
Photos are good for the technical information and on-site sketches are only good to a point when it is late and the light is changing by the minute. We can get caught up in making the sketches and miss a lot of change. I might get down a color sketch or two but I gained much more by simply observing then committing it and trusting it to my memory.295,296

E 4th St. Bridge

"E 4th St. Bridge"
watercolor on paper, 2013
10" x 15" (25.4cm x 38.1cm)

Happy New Year!

I recently submitted this painting for Splash 17, the annual book on watercolor.

The solid but well aged E 4th St. Bridge near downtown Los Angeles, a concrete arch bridge built in 1930.

This section is referred to as the 4th St. Bridge split, where it splits south to E 4th Place. It is on the western side of the Los Angeles River and viewed from under E 4th Place.

Often when I paint an older structure I show it as it is today. Here I anchored it in the present by adding the orange fluorescent traffic cone and post.294

Watercolor Landscape - Old Tree

"Old Tree"
watercolor on paper, 2014
9" x 13" (22.86cm x 33.02cm)
For Sale at DAILY PAINTWORKS, CLICK HERE

Direct link to painting here

A simple watercolor of an old tree hemmed in by lush green healthy ones. They seemed to be huddling around it, as if in a protective manner. I simplified the dark mass of trees to better play-off the lines of the foreground.

I also liked the shapes of this landscape, the troughed out foreground and the odd irrigation pipe loop so I painted it. That's it.290

Watercolor Landscape - Palm Grove

"Palm Grove"   SOLD

watercolor on paper, 2014

9" x 13" (22.86cm x 33.02cm)

This palm grove near home made for a simple subject but challenging compositional design. Its simple design motif of the palm tree shapes could too easily lead to a boring design of repetitive shapes.
The right cropping and ratio of positive to negative shapes is what makes it work. The only trees shown in their full outline are the yellow green ones which are not big within the overall composition.

I took a more graphic approach for this watercolor using value for atmospheric depth but ignoring the rule of warm foreground to cooler bluer colors (only) as the landscape recedes, except for the distant tree line of blue and purple.
I like to test various ways of depicting distance and here I put the coldest color, blue, in the foreground, a blue green in the near middle ground, changing to a yellow green in the far middle ground. The far background falling into the cooler range of purple and blue.
The alternating cool, warm, cool still does a good job of showing distance - cool foreground, warm middle ground, cool background.
The color saturation and intensity falls somewhere in the middle of the scale but is low chroma.
I like to do simplistic studies like these to work out ideas for the more involved paintings. That way I am not committing huge blocks of time only to find out it did not work.289

Road w/ Pipeline

"Road w/ Pipeline"
oil on panel, 2014
6" x 9" (15.24cm x 22.86cm)
For Sale at DAILY PAINTWORKS, CLICK HERE
Direct link to painting here

Here's a landscape not far from home. It's an unstable area under constant land movement as it slowly slides into the Pacific Ocean. Because of this the pipeline must be above ground and the road requires year round maintenance. After a rain the road can get cracks and vertical drops of several inches overnight.

To make for a better midday painting and give the hillside a dark richness and I dropped in a soft shadow from passing overhead clouds. That also made for a better separation of foreground and background.288

Summer Fog

"17th St. Fog"
oil on panel, 2014
7.25" x 9.25" (18.415cm x 23.495cm)

Here is my painting that will be featured at 
Segil Fine Art Gallery in Monrovia California for the "Home, Sweet Home" Show 
(Note: As of this posting the show dates listed here on my blog are correct and have not been updated on their website). 

Opening reception is Saturday, July 26th, from 5:00 - 7:00 pm.
The show opens to the public on Saturday, July 19th.

This is a gothic farmhouse style home in my neighborhood and I have had my eye on it for a while now. This show's theme was the perfect excuse to finally get around to painting it.
But rather than do a straightforward blue sky painting I decided to add the incoming coastal fog. This is a common sight along the coast in the summer and looks like this on those bright sunny days when the marine layer is stirring about.

It rolls in, partially burning off, lingers around and does a good job of suppressing the blazing summer heat, especially when there is no real breeze to help keep it cool.287

Cuts Like a Knife

"Burnscape 10"
oil on panel, 2014
6" x 8" (15.24cm x 20.32cm)

This a recent painting from my Burnscape series which has been dormant for a while.

Burnscape Series - Living in Southern California and seeing so many wildfires it would be easy to focus on the destruction. My attraction for the burned landscape isn't for its destruction... but instead how it modifies the landscape, turning it into a charcoal terrain... it is rebirth, the way Mother Nature intended.
It is how She manages her jurisdiction, by controlling dense undergrowth. We usually get in the way.
Man has traditionally prevented fires, the growth becoming so thick that when fire does occur it is devastating. Another topic on the Man vs Nature theme.

This one is similar to my "Burnscape #4 (Charred Pine Stand)".
Trees are meant to survive natural wildfires where the brush is low to the ground, the fire sweeping through too quickly, and frequently enough, to wipe them out. These pines were burned too much to survive.
Here I included the dirt road which stands in stark contrast to the blackened soil and slices through the landscape like a knife.286

Click the Series-Burnscape label to see them all.

Catalina Pacific Concrete - Ruins Study 15

"Catalina Pacific Concrete - Ruins Study 15"

watercolor on paper, 2014

5¾"  x 7¾" (14.605cm x 19.685cm)

For sale at Daily Paintworks, CLICK HERE

Studying more of the shapes within the overall mass as I have done in study 13, study 12, study 11 and study 2. Of course I could say that is true on all of them since you really can't ignore shape but these four I was focusing more intently on the debris atop the main structure.

This one, 13 and 2  I was also really looking into the shadows. There are so many great jagged puzzle pieces within the shadows that even with a predominantly horizontal composition and rectangular form, and I am referring to the upright structural nature of the architecture in its blocky squareness, it is secondary to the dynamic and lively action of its torn and shattered appearance.

There is some anguish in the shredded metal of the tank as it reaches up and back upon itself. Sort of like a fist cursing its demise.

The more I do of these, the more I see.284