Reflection: Massing the colors

Now that I've regained my "mojo" back and felt like painting again, I started on my newest painting. This painting is based on the drawing study: Tree on the Pond.

As taught by my instructor, the first task was to tone the canvas. For this canvas, I wanted a muted color background so that my greens were not too bright. So, I toned it with a moderate orange (You can see a bit of the toning on the land to the right).

The next step is to mass the basic colors. I mixed a number of different greens and varied them with levels of grey. The first thing that I did was to lay in the mid-tone color of the center tree. Portions of the tree with be brighter/darker, but I was mainly laying down the mid-tone values for each portion of the tree.

I knew that the background would be more muted, so, I added the sky color to the green of the background and reduced the detail. In addition, for the background, I added more white to the base of the sky and added more blue to it as it moved up the canvas. For the foreground, I needed more detail, so the brush-strokes are more distinct and the land contains more yellow (using the warm color to bring it forward).

So far, it's a good start and gives me a good feeling about where to take this painting. Now, where do the abstract shapes come in? In the water. The goal for this painting will be to create as realistic of a landscape as I can, but the water reflection will contain a muted abstract shape of the main tree.

Drawing Study: Tree by the Pond

While working on some concepts for my next painting, I was intrigued by a picture of a tree that I took when I was at Lake Memphremagog, Vermont. There was this beautiful pond and had a majestic tree off to the side. Plus, as a change, I decided that I should try a landscape painting that did not add any abstract shapes. Rather, I'm going to use colors to differentiate it from the normal landscape painting.

So, as a first step and to continue my drawing practice, the first thing that I always do is a pen/ink value study of what I'm going to paint. This helps me organize my thoughts and, more importantly, determine what is going to be in the painting and what will be left out.

Although I love using lots of bright colors and intermingle them, the basis of my paintings is always the abstract shapes and their values. The rule that I always follow is: If the drawing looks good and I get the values right (so that the viewer can recognize what is going on), then the painting should look fine.

Finished Painting: What Makes a Mountain

"Shaping of a Mountain" is an original 16" x 22" oil painting created on a 1" stretched, high-quality canvas. The painting is presented as unframed (Sides are painted).

The concept of this painting was based on defining the basic components for the shaping a mountain. These components were defined as three basic parts: ground, water and air. The ground component is the mountain itself and the platform that it rests on. The air component that shapes the top of the mountain is the wind and the clouds. The component for shaping the base of the mountain is the surrounding lake. The "Shaper" is represented by the abstract shapes and interacts with all of the base components to alter the mountain.

All Artwork is copyrighted to Doug Hoppes Studio and is not to be copied or reproduced in any form without the permission of the artist. Sale of this item does not transfer its copyright.

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Drawing Study: Rocky outcropping

As I'm still studying water, today's drawing is based on a bay that friends and I kayaked into (San Juan Islands) for lunch. The place was gorgeous.

On the left, we see a large outcropping of water as it descends into the bay. Behind it, we see the trees. Since we are near the shoreline, we see more of the reflection of the rock into the water. Most notably, though, is that the shadow is more prevalent than the actual rock features. This was due to the fact that the water was not perfectly still.

Overall, I'm pretty pleased with this drawing. The rocks definitely have that "jagged" look and the water seems to do a good job mirroring the rock above it.

Drawing Study: Treeline and water

This was a pretty quick drawing that i did of some trees by the water. The main reason for studying this was that I am currently doing a painting and wanted to see how water recedes in the distance.

Some things that I learned: 1) The water ripples are larger and more distinct when they are closer to you (this I knew). 2) The water gets much lighter as you go into the distance. So, it may be dark blue/green near you, but as it recedes, it's more of the color of the sky. 3) For shorelines that are close to you, you will get the reflection of the item on the water. For shorelines that are farther away, the sky color reflecting on the water will wash out any land reflection.

Watching the Clouds - Original Oil Painting

"Watching the Clouds" is an original 12" x 16" oil painting created on a 1" stretched, high-quality canvas. The painting has been securely varnished and is presented as unframed (Sides are painted).

The concept is based on seeing images in the clouds. When we were kids, we could spend hours watching the clouds and telling our friends what shapes we see. It was a simple way of passing the time, while letting our imagination expand.

All Artwork is copyrighted to Doug Hoppes Studio and is not to be copied or reproduced in any form without the permission of the artist. Sale of this item does not transfer its copyright.

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Encroachment - Original Oil Painting

"Encroachment" is an original 16" x 12" oil painting created on a 1" stretched, high-quality canvas. The painting is presented as unframed (Sides are painted).

The premise of the painting relates to a tree having a nice warm day and basking in the sun. However, the material world and nature itself, in the form of storm clouds, abruptly changes the situation. The dominant forms of the storm and the shapes try to overshadow the tree, but the tree remains resolute. It is only a matter of time for the storm to overtake all.

All Artwork is copyrighted to Doug Hoppes Studio and is not to be copied or reproduced in any form without the permission of the artist. Sale of this item does not transfer its copyright.

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Failing to Blend - Original Oil Painting

"Failing to Blend" is an original 16" x 22" oil painting created on a 1" stretched, high-quality canvas. The painting is presented as unframed (Sides are painted).

The concept arose from thinking about how corporations try to blend their structures in with the surrounding landscapes. The basic method is to place a lot of trees in front of the building. However, due to the unique colors and sharp lines of the structures, they never truly blend in.

All Artwork is copyrighted to Doug Hoppes Studio and is not to be copied or reproduced in any form without the permission of the artist. Sale of this item does not transfer its copyright.

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Time for a Change - Original Oil Painting

"Time for a change" is an original 22" x 28" oil painting created on a 1" stretched, high-quality canvas. The painting has yet to be varnished and is presented as unframed.

The concept of this painting was based on showing the tree how it went from its youth (represented by the stronger colors and fuller state of the other trees in the background) to a more interesting and unique tree (represented by the lighter tree in the foreground). Although the tree does not contain the stronger colors of its predecessors, it has a wonderful uniqueness due to its shape and color vibrancy.

All Artwork is copyrighted to Doug Hoppes Studio and is not to be copied or reproduced in any form without the permission of the artist. Sale of this item does not transfer its copyright.

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Nature Meets Technology - Original Oil Painting

"Nature Meets Technology" is an original 14" x 18" oil painting created on a 1" stretched, high-quality canvas. The painting has been securely varnished and is presented as unframed (Sides are painted).

The concept arose from thinking how machine-made items are always present in the world around us. In some cases, the architecture has a strong presence. In some situations, Nature and Technology blend extremely well.

All Artwork is copyrighted to Doug Hoppes Studio and is not to be copied or reproduced in any form without the permission of the artist. Sale of this item does not transfer its copyright.

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Leaves in the Arch - Original Oil Painting

"Leaves in the Arch" is an original 24" x 28" oil painting created on a 1" stretched, high-quality canvas. The painting has been securely varnished and is presented as unframed.

Based on a series of drawings representing the mixture of the natural world and the man-made world, "Leaves in the Arch" represents the character of how people accepts the gifts of nature for our own use.

All Artwork is copyrighted to Doug Hoppes Studio and is not to be copied or reproduced in any form without the permission of the artist. Sale of this item does not transfer its copyright.

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Chaotic Order - Original Oil Painting

"Chaotic Order" is an original 16" x 22" oil painting created on a 1" stretched, high-quality canvas. The painting is presented as unframed (Sides are painted).

The concept is based on watching waves. When you first see waves, there doesn't seem to be any rhythm to them, at any given time. However, the waves are reacting to the land around it. After a while, you realize that the land has a rhythm to it, the water has a rhythm to it, and the man-made shapes have a rhythm to them. All mirror one another.

All Artwork is copyrighted to Doug Hoppes Studio and is not to be copied or reproduced in any form without the permission of the artist. Sale of this item does not transfer its copyright.

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Drawing Study: Cup on the side

Another drawing of a cup. I've got a lot of these around the house. This decorative tea cup was one of my wife's, Melissa, grandmothers and was passed onto Melissa. The cup is the standard thin tea cup that people held with the pinky extended.

While drawing this teacup, I used the basic procedure of drawing the full rounded ovals and then erasing the portions of the oval that is covered by another nearer object. This technique seems to work pretty well as my ovals are starting to look more appropriate and rounded.

The hardest part of this drawing involved the inside of the teacup and the floral design. The inside of the cup seems to be a bit flat. I'm going to have to study the cup more and determine what makes it look rounded.. I think that it has to do with the rounding of the shadow curves, but not quite sure. This also holds true with the design. On the saucer, there is a design of a flower, but nothing on the flower indicates that it arches upwards. I'm going to need to just draw the plate without the cup and see how the flower is drawn.

Overall, the parts that I like about this drawing are the shape of the cup/saucer, the shadows of the cup on the saucer, the tabletop/background, and the base of the cup. I thought that they were adequately done. The parts that need work are the shadows inside of the cup (too flat) and the flowers on the saucer (too flat).

Still Life: Caving Helmet

For last night's still life, I decided to work on painting my caving helmet and carabiners. The reason is due to the fact that the simplicity of the helmet is offset by the difficulty of the mass of carabiners. In addition, I like the concept of painting a not-so-clean object and seeing if I could get the textures correct.

Overall, I'm pretty pleased with my effort. As usual, I toned the background and then drew the general shapes using Terra Rosa. From there, I massed in the basic colors for the objects/table based on where my light was coming from.

For instance, after defining the grey/black and white areas of the helmet, I knew that the light was coming from over my left shoulder. So, looking at the helmet, this told me that the brightest part will be above the left light and then gets darker as the helmet moves away from me. So, the brightest area had more pure titanium white and I added more shadow colors/wall colors as the helmet receded.

In addition, I knew that the yellow of the lamp on the left, being in the front, towards the light was brighter than the lamp portion in the back. Therefore, the front lamp contains more purer colors and the back one contains some color of the background in it.

The hardest part of this painting was the carabiner. With Karen's help, I was able to see how to do it. The basic technique is still massing. The darker part of the caribiner is darker than the background. By adding the highlights, the grey object now reads as metal.

Overall, I'm pretty happy with this painting. I achieved the "dirty" feel of the helmet in 3D space with duct-tape on it.

A Better Cup

Well, the last drawing of my coffee cup was pretty poor. But, you can't ignore it when something goes wrong. If it's wrong, determine what you did wrong and correct for it the next time.

So, time to tackle the drawing of the cup again. This time the results turned out much better. Why? Because I first drew the basic structure in pencil.

When drawing ovals, it's always easier to draw the full oval and then erase the portions that are covered. For example, the rim of the cup, the inner circle of the saucer and the outer circle of the saucer were drawn as overlapping ovals. Once the proportions were correct, then the area of the ovals that was hidden by the cup was erased.

Once I had the basic outline drawing done and defined the shadow areas in pencil, I just started shading. An important note is that, like painting, I cross-hatch areas of shadows rather than actually drawing distinct lines. This leads to a more even flow on the shadows.

Overall, this cup turned out pretty well. However, one drawing of a cup does not mean that I can draw cups well. Time to do it again and change the angle.

Lopsided Coffe Cup

Well, since my last still life painting of the jar was not very good, I decided that I really need to work on getting the drawing of oval objects correct. An intriguing oval object that is immediately at hand is the coffee cup on a saucer. Depending on what your angle is, you get a different form of the oval each time.

Well.... this was not good. The nice part of working in pen is that you can't correct your mistakes. At best, you have to figure a way of working them into the drawing. Okay... well, the best thing that I can say about this is that it definitely is a cup on a saucer. There is definitely a three-dimensional aspect to it.

However, the major issue is the ovals. The top of the cup is too rounded. The oval should be flatter. The right side of the cup is too straight, whereas the left side is too rounded. The shape should be the same. The back left of the saucer is too rounded. It should be flatter.

More work to do.

The beauty of working with still life objects in your house is that you can immediately see problems. When doing landscape, you have to worry about perspectives, value control and having too much to deal with. With internal still life, the object is simpler, but, in addition to the perspective and value control, the drawing HAS TO BE RIGHT. It's easier to tell that a cup is wrong as opposed to a tree branch.

Drawing Study: Trees and Rocks

As part of my ongoing study for painting the landscape, I've realized that I need to practice more of my drawings. It's been a while since I've just been playing with pen-and-ink.

Tonight, I did a study relating to a small little waterfall over some rocks. In the background is a series of trees and some fallen branches.

Still Life: jar and fruit

Well, last night class resumed again and, boy, am I out of practice with doing still life/realistic objects. Although I've been painting regularly, the stuff that I paint is all out of my head.

Last night's still life was to examine reflection in metallic objects. I did not achieve what I was trying.

Things that went well. I think that the massing of the shapes to create the fruit and the jar are good. The jar definitely looks like a realistic object. The table top and background worked out well and accentuate the jar/fruit nicely.

Okay, enough of that. Now, what went wrong. The very first thing that went wrong was the shape of the vase. It's not smooth and circular. Definite drawing problems with it. The handle is good and the opening on the top looks good. The body of the jar definitely does not have the rounded feeling. The base is definitely wrong with the right side being misshapen.

The fruit looked better than I thought. Although the darker fruit does not look like cherries and the strawberries somewhat resemble strawberries, I can do better.

The main issue (and the one that I was working the most with) was that the reflection on the jar does not look metallic. There is no shimmering surface. It looks more like a painted clay jar than a silver one. I'll have to do this again and try to see what I was doing wrong. At this time, I'm not sure. I think that it has to do with the sharpness of the reflective shape and the greytones.

Not bad since I haven't done a still life for a month, but definitely not good. More work to be done. I'll have to get my still life setup done at home so that I can practice some more.