Update

I looked at this painting after not seeing it all day and thought it was too pink. I tried to create more depth in the structure which I feel I achieved but it appears I lost the direction of the light source. Here's where I'm at now.

I'm getting kind of bored with this but feel I learned from the experience. As far as coming up with an image I can call a painting I don't see it at this point in time. May wind up painting over it.
       Well I kinda painted over it. Some of it. Will play with it some more when it dries.

"With every mistake"

To quote the line from a Beatles tune "with every mistake we must surely be learning". After my ballerina fiasco (which I shall return to) I realized I needed to learn more about glazing and layering. This next endeavor was just an experiment. I started with no real direction and looked at a blue board for 2 days before adding any more paint. What do you do with a blue board? Make a sky.
         I bought some Liquin (origional) after seeing it used on youtube. I had some blue paint on the palette and decided to see how it felt under the brush. I liked it. I let it dry and decided to try a pre dawn sky. Probably beyond my ability level at this point, but If you don't try you'll never get there. The paints I am using are the cheapest things I could find. Can't really afford to experiment with artist quality paints. When my ability reaches artist quality then maybe I will spring for better stuff. This is on a 8x6 Canvass board. This first one is where I just added some cloud shapes. I also darkened the sky at the top. The bottom of the canvass shows the color that covered the entire board.

 

 I let that dry overnight and wend back in with some purple pink and yellow so thin you could hardly see it after it dried but you can still see some shape defined.

I also tried to lighten where the sun would be below the horizon. I let that dry overnight again and went back in with some more pink, lavenderish purple and whiteish pink and got to here.

I am still over blending but all in all I am seeing the effect I am looking for. I had to do something about that straight line on top of the bottom cloud. It's still wet here, we'll see how it looks dry.
     As far as the Liquin goes I like it. It allows you to paint wet on wet if you like and it dries in 24 hours (at least for me). It allows you to go back in after a short time and add color without the fear of blending and changing colors on the canvass. It also stretches how far your paint goes which is another plus if you have a limited budget.

Update

I have put some paint to my ballerina. I went a little head strong into this and wanted to dip my feet into the 7 layer technique. I know I am doing it wrong but am going to see it through anyway. I did a burnt umber wash and got this.

I did the second layer and got this
.

I added a wall but made it too high which I realized on my next layer which came out like this.

 I realized I had lost the perspective and also started losing the face. She also started to look flat so I lowered the wall and arched her back a little more and added a hint of a face and got this.

This is where it will stay for a while until it dries and I can do a grey layer. It is interesting so far. I hope it doesn't get away from me so to speak. I probably should have had the image in front of me the whole time. I will when I resume the task.

Pushing My Limits

I always had the attitude that you should know what your limits are. Then go beyond that as much as you can. It's the only way to raise the bar. This next post is doing that in a big way for me. Having done primarily landscapes in the past I have avoided the human form because they usually look horribly disfigured. I mean, Picasso would even shake his head. I am going to attempt a human form of a ballerina stretching. Having done martial arts in the past I can appreciate the  preparation involved just to get ready to practice. They move with such grace and have to be so strong. It's beyond most peoples imagination. Here is the ink sketch for a start.

A little tweak

It showed up more purple than it was. I smoothed some brushstroke marks and added a rear leg and a highlight to the rear leg. I also smoothed and reduced the light on the table top. Now I'll call it done.

Sometimes...

Sometimes it's better to just let it go. I normally like to have an image in mind before I start to paint. I was going to do a still life with a vase of flowers but just started throwing paint on the board. This is what came out. I like the effect but the execution could have been better.

I'm Back

I haven't done anything since before the holidays but I have been busy. I found The Carter Method in my search for self education back in November. Purchased artist quality paints, made my shadow box for my first still life and finally settled on a subject for the set up. I have 2 canvasses stained and they should be dry and ready to go now.
       I purchased a cheap set of oil paints to play with the wet on wet technique and am starting to practice with the one stroke technique again in acrylic. Oh yeah, I started drawing again too. I have been trying to draw a human looking face that doesn't look like it is the result of a jolt from a cattle prod. For only my 2nd serious attempt I am comfortable with the results while there is room for improvement. Rome wasn't built in a day. I started it while waiting in a doctors office. I wanted to use the time productively. I had to leave the magazine there with the ad I was using. I searched it out on the web and continued it last night while killing time in a hotel room. Again trying to be productive with slack time.  It isn't done but here it is.