January 23, 2010 - Day 166

Acrylic on 250lb Bockingford watercolor paper

Nothing to say again today.

January 22, 2010 - Day 165

Size Comparison


Acrylic on 250lb Bockingford watercolor paper

I have included the top picture to give a visual of how small these art cards really are. I was going cross eyed by the time I finished the lace on this painting! Thank God my hands were steady tonight or I wouldn't have been able to complete it.

January 21, 2010 - Day 164

Acrylic on 250lb Bockingford watercolor paper

In a lot of my previous paintings I have been experimenting with new styles or new subject matter. I have more to write about with those paintings because they are a learning experience and I want to share what I have learned.

Still life paintings are by far the easiest for me to create and therefore I don't have much to say about them. With today's painting the only comment I have is that originally the bowl was a creamy white color but the lemons didn't stand out enough because the color was too similar. I was surprised how much it changed the picture when I changed the color of the bowl to a very light blue. The background became a much warmer brown than what it appeared previously and the lemons really stood out as the focal point.

January 20, 2010 - Day 163

Acrylic on 250lb Bockingford watercolor paper

Too tired to write anything tonight except to say that I am liking this style of painting but I wonder if people wouldn't get bored seeing the same style of painting all the time. I think I would.

January 19, 2010 - Day 162

Acrylic on 250lb Bockingford watercolor paper

I had a couple of problems with today's painting. The first problem was that I wanted the background at the top of the painting to be much lighter than it ended up being. The second problem was that the coffee cup seems to lack crispness to it.

How do you like your coffee? I like my coffee crisp :D

January 18, 2010 - Day 161

Acrylic on 250lb Bockingford watercolor paper

Wow, I still can't seem to get the form of flower petals right! I thought it would be much easier painting this in acrylic rather than watercolor but it wasn't. Nothing else really to say about it.

I can't believe that I have been painting each day for 161 days and that it has already been 61 days of acrylics. It doesn't seem like it should be that long. Only 3 more weeks and I will have made it to the half way point.

January 17, 2010 - Day 160

Acrylic on 250lb Bockingford watercolor paper

Well, I think I have challenged myself enough for awhile. While it was a great experience to spend the last 17 days attempting to paint star portraits it was also becoming very depressing.

I took a look back over all my blog paintings and I noticed that I have not done any still life paintings with acrylics (outside of the Christmas themed ones). I also realized that my favorite paintings had high contrast with very dark shadows and very light highlights. This really isn't a surprise because I love the Baroque painting style called chiaroscuro used by artists like Michelangelo Merisi da Caravaggio and Giovanni Baglione.

Giovanni Baglione

Wikipedia: Chiaroscuro (kiːɑːrˈə.skʊrˈoʊ, –skjʊrˈoʊ, Italian for light-dark) in art is contrast between light and dark, usually bold contrasts affecting a whole composition.

Tonight I decided to start a new series of paintings in the chiaroscuro style. I haven't decided yet if the series will be all fruits and vegetables or if I will use a variety of subjects but the same painting style. I guess we will see tomorrow.