Scenic California -more studies

It is so great to be going back to our "workshop" every Tuesday.... actually Tuesday is the best day.... even in the Bible "it was good" mentioned twice on the third day  .... making Tuesdays very special.....

Continuing doing studies, small works, from some of the references that I got from the workshop....  trying to see the BIG picture  rather than the details.   have decided that beginning October, hoping that the weather will be less hot, to do more outdoor work.... although the scenery isn't that grand.... it will be an extra challenge...

I am working with B&W photos so I have do the coloring from my head which I found VERY difficult.... times like these I wish I had an pad to bring to class....it was difficult to see the nuances and I know photos can be deceiving .

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The second, a close of the rock and sea, wasn't going the way I wanted... hope to to get it back on track....

Johnny

Johnny was our faithful companion for almost 17 years. My husband brought him home from Tel ha Shomer Hospital where someone had left/deserted him when he was about 7 months... He was a German Shepard mix and wouldn't come in the house... probably because he wasn't allowed in the wards at the hospital... so he became our yard dog.  This past spring we had to put him to sleep.... he had a hernia near his anal area , which after getting advise decided not to operate... but he was getting very feeble...and when he went on a hunger strike and wouldn't eat even when we tried to hand feed him we knew we couldn't put off the inevitable...

I started these portraits last June and finished them this past week at my workshop... Johnny I do so miss you!!!  30 x30 cm Oil on gessoed cardboard and cloth [gessoed] stretched on kappa board..
These were also painted mainly using the palette knife.

California Coast Sketch

This is another try using grays ,,, workshop #24 Richard Robinson using photo #2 from his references of the California coast.  I am calling this a oil sketch rather than a painting. I did this at my weekly workshop using just a B&W reference print.... Small format 21 x 28 and not as free as I would like... oil on 400 grm  sketch pad.

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Felt it needed tweaking and debated whether to go back with oils or oil crayons... oil crayons won out.... 

Don't think it made much of an improvement!!!

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