# 10 Small Plastic Heart

I think the best time to use natural light from my window is early morning....That is also good before chores and other disturbing things,.....

This is a small plastic heart that is used to strengthen your hand muscles. fits in the palm of your hand
Neocolor l crayons A5 sketch pad about an hour maybe less...

# 10 Small Plastic Heart

# 9 Small White Jug

Real life sometimes gets in the way of well made plans...... on Wednesdays I usually travel to my daughter in the Jerusalem area.... come home on Thursday..... which is weekly shopping day... I know if I manage the time better I may be able to do sketches on those busy days.... but this week --nada... then cam Friday --morning cleaning and laundry and also had the the grand-kids for the weekend so there went 4 full days... I almost felt it was ages... Yesterday I made my light box... have to figure the lighting ... my small LED flashlight doesn't make much of impression... so I am using natural light from window or spot from desk lamp...

# 9 Small White Jug.... Cardboard covered with cloth - under painting acrylic almost black [chromatic]
Neocolor l crayons  about an hour.

# 9 Small White Jug 

Placement of the jug was too low... and a little lopsided!!!   

This small jug 8x10 cm is a souvenir from the spa town Baden Baden in Austria... used to drink the waters!!  

# 8 Red Grapefruit

When I spotted the grapefruit I really like the patterns it made... but not happy with the results... mainly too much overworking on the crayons.... decided to try on regular cut board without the cloth and it really didn't have the same tooth...

20x20 cutting board Neocolor l crayons. About an hour... Colors from the scan are way too bright

#8 Grapefruit

After posting on wet canvas Larry kindly offered some help and after I sent a photo,not exact, of the setup he showed me the area of color in a gif  image.

Reference Photo

Not the exact replica ... click on the image to view Larry's corrections...COOL

Tweaked Grapefruit

Tried to remove some of the paint but board began to fray so stopped... Not much I could do... took a photo this time so the colors are better but not exact...

Time to move on!!!

Lemon Tweaked

Tweaked the lemon... a wetcanvas friend ,Donna, made some suggestions... I had already done a bit on the piece but added some purple shading as she suggested and some behind the lemon as well... Waiting to see how Sandy made a make shift light box... really need that...

Tweaked Lemon

Time to move forward!!!

# 7 Lemon

Here is #7

Just a lonely lemon!!! Didn't realize how difficult to paint!!!
15.5x12 cm cloth covered board with chromatic black acrylic coat
neocolor I crayons done with natural light from window....

Tweaked

Think this will be the start of single objects then maybe small groups....
Have to remember my matra:
" Don't compare!!! Everyone starts at a different place and goes at a different pace!!!!"

#6 Fall Faces

A sprig of my dried sunflowers. 18x27 cloth covered board... CaranDache Neocolor I About an hour... Let it rest awhile and maybe do some tweaking...

#6  Fall Faces

# 5 Geranium Leaves

#5 Geranium Leaves

In my last post I mentioned collecting and preparing various formats for my almost daily paintings.  One format that I made was covering a heavy matte board with some left over unbleached cloth from my sewing days.
I glued the cloth using regular plastic glue... and kept them under heavy books to keep them from warping... then I laid down an acrylic paint .... could have used gesso but I am bit down on that. Anyhow I did my fifth painting on this format with crayons and I really loved how it took to the crayons.... not so happy with the painting... had placed a sprig of geranium leaves in a small jar on the sill.... but really didn't capture the translucency of the leaves....have to improvise on the background because my window has latticed shutters and a hibiscus bush in the background . Here are some photos... the photo of the leaves taken  way after the painting... the patterns kept changing... another problem......size 18x27 cm  Caran D'ache neocolor I


Now looking at the setup I maybe should have done this from a photo and the background sort of faded not too bad.... and of course not at the exact angle.

Geranium Setup

Back and Front of the Format

#4 Tissue Holder on the Window Sill

I am still hanging in there... spent a few days gathering all sorts of formats and preparing them for small oil sketches... Haven't brought out the paints yet.... at home I usually do pencil and crayon sketches in various sketch pads... but plan to work more in oils.... which I do in my weekly art sadna [workshop].

I want to express how very interesting the last webinar presentation was ... 120 paintings..... I don't take notes but I do make screen shots so I can view at my ease.... and yesterday I went over them with my painting pal Neomi explaining what 120 was all about... English isn't her mother language... so its hard for her to follow a lecture in English... although she did register.... so we went over the slides...

She was impressed and committed also to do 120... by January... I have not made that bold a statement.... in any case to make a long story short and stop rambling.... I showed her my improvised set up on the windowsill ... we both have very limited work space at home to do paintings... no studio ...mine is in my computer room... I cover the table with old newspaper etc..very small and cramped...,, so I placed my wooden tissue paper holder on the small peice of carton and showed her.... this morning as the sun was shining through and the holder was still on the sill. I noticed nice light patterns so with no ado did a crayon sketch in my A5 sketch book.

I am really inspired at Jeff's blog and visit there often.... read the articles why 120... and what I have learned... and most of all I enjoyed the article on digital starts... this article made me take a second look at the photoshop potential in planning out value maps and testing out various color palettes...

# 3 Cup with Spoon

Really wanted to paint in the day time but it just didn't work out... So this evening I put my little white cup on the window sill with a red paper background so I couldn't see the slats.  I placed my lamp to shine from the side.  15x 15 cm hard paper... wax/oil Carand'ache crayons with media .... I was interested in getting the shadow and luminescence of the cup.  The placement was much better than the honey jar because it was at  eye level.  Got mixed up with the bottom of the cup... crayons are very limiting,,, so before I change my mind.....

#2 Jar of Honey

After seeing so many beautiful works on the 120 thread on wetcanvas  my new mantra  " Don't compare!!!
Everyone starts at a different place and goes at a different pace!!!!" With that said here is #2.
This is really the first doing a live image and not from a photo.  It was already dark.... we've gone off daylight so at 6:30 PM its the middle of the night :(
This is a quick sketch of a jar of honey set on my table with light from a table lamp.  Crayon on paper.15x21 cm
Have to find some better tooth paper for crayon work.
Perspective is way off... had a problem with the viewing..seems each time I was viewing a different angle... will have to get that problem sorted out....

Today hopefully will try in daylight...

# 1 Amonene Crayon Sketch

This is more or less a crayon sketch for a larger work that I started in my art workshop. I will be doing a series, 4 for a start , of some Israeli wildflowers. The work will be on 40 x 40 cm stretched canvases in oil mainly using palette knives. One main reason for the sketches is that I usually don't paint in one session... wet on wet... my colors get muddy ... I really want to get to the stage where I know what colors I want and put them down once...

Main concerns will be color, shapes and tonal mapping. I will be doing some digital sketches and crayon sketches which I wet with medium to create a more painterly patches.

Done on heavy paper 15x15 cm using oil/wax crayons [Carand'ache]

1 Calanit

Anemone

120 Paintings

I am taking part in a webinar on painting on wetcanvas learning center. This webinar is being given by artist Larry Seiler. Last nights presentation was about the importance of doing 120 paintings in the period of a year.... maybe more... and to push yourself out your comfort zone to learn new methods... materials... and improve in those areas that we feel we need improvement.

It is the beginning of a new year [Jewish] and what better time to make a commitment!

So out with the paints... no excuses