Puppy Love - Step Four

I continue to add detail, slowly building up colour and form primarily with thin washes and glazes using mat medium. I darken the background with a mixture of burnt umber and black to really punch out the foreground. Everything other than the bedding and pillows seems to really be coming together at this point. I am still undecided about what to do with the cushions in the background.

Puppy Love - Step Three

At this stage I begin introducing local colour throughout the painting. I wash in flesh tones on the face and arms of the sleeping girl. I begin accenting details on all three characters in the picture. Simple washes of colour are blocked in on the blanket and cushions behind the figure. I block in the hair with a wash of colour, then add initial detail with burnt sienna. I do the same with the puppy and the teddy bear, then concentrate on adding the most detail to the central character, the puppy.

The teddy bear leans into the picture and the girl's arm leads the eye to the puppy and then to the girl's face. The flow of the hair leads the viewer's eye to the cushions in the background. These cushions act as a 'backstop', leading the eye back to the teddy bear and the cycle is repeated, keeping the viewer's eye within the picture, always returning to the puppy and the girl's face.

Puppy Love - Step Two

Once the drawing is well fixed, I tone the entire surface with a thin wash of blue-gray acrylic paint, thinned heavily with mat medium and water. I add some slightly darker washes of the same colour, particularly in the bedding. Next, I begin building form and detail to the teddy bear, puppy and sleeping girl. The last thing I do at this stage is to block in the background with a heavier wash of burnt umber.

Puppy Love - Step One

I thought it time I posted another painting progression, since I haven't put one up for quite a while. This is a picture I am painting primarily for licensing. Companies pay me a fee to use this type of art to illustrate a product such as puzzles, calendars, greeting cards, soft goods, etc. for a specified period of time.

This piece is titled "Puppy Love". I started out by doing a detailed drawing on illustration board. Once I am happy with the drawing, I spray it with workable fixative, then seal it with acrylic mat medium. I also give the back of the illustration a quick application of mat medium to prevent serious warping as the picture dries. If you only paint on the face side of the board, it will often curl due to tension caused by shrinkage of the drying paint. An application on both sides of the sheet counter acts this tendency.

Weather's Changing

I don't paint much wildlife anymore, but at one time, the genre represented a large percentage of the paintings that I produced. When I was a child, birds were my passion, especially the ducks and geese that frequented the Thousand Islands region. I learned much about drawing and painting by observing them and then trying to capture their likenesses on paper or canvas.

The Lesser Scaup or ‘Blue Bill’, as many locals know it, is a diving duck that will feed and rest in the thousands along the lower Great Lakes and St. Lawrence River districts during the migration south each autumn. They nest in the Arctic but they will spend the winter anywhere from the US/Canadian border to as far south as Central America.

This painting shows both male (purple/black heads) and female (brown heads) of the species, on a beautiful autumn day, but ominous clouds are building, suggesting a change in the weather is coming.

This painting measures 16 inches by 20 inches and it is painted in alkyd on stretched canvas.

Golden Lake

I want to stay with the autumn colours for a while longer. This is a great time of year in the northern hemisphere. A day like the one in this painting is something to be savoured against the cold, barren days to come.

This scene is typical of lake and river country throughout Southern and Central Ontario, Quebec, and the North Eastern United States. The reds and golds of hard and soft maple, white birch, oak, beech and ash trees contrast beautifully with the deep greens of white and red pine, spruce and cedar.

I wanted to play up the crystal blue sky and fluffy white clouds against the strong yellow and gold of the birch and maple trees in the foreground. This is echoed in the shoreline foliage in the middle ground and again in the hazy distant trees in the background. The composition is designed so that the trees in the foreground lead the viewer's eye into the picture to the pines on the opposite shore in the middle ground. These trees, in turn, guide the eye back into the upper foliage of the foreground trees and back around once more. The ripples and abstractions in the water reflections give the painting a feeling of life and movement.

The painting is done in acrylic paint on stretched canvas. It measures 16 inches high by 20 inches wide.

Geraldine

I decided to stick with the boating theme once more, but this time it is an autumn scene, in keeping with the change of seasons. I am always amazed by how quickly summer seems to end and autumn begins with cool nights, changing leaves and shorter days. It is one of the nicest times of the year to be on the water provided the sun is shining and the winds are calm.

The Geraldine is a restored steam yacht, that is now on permanent display at the Antique Boat Museum in Clayton, New York. At one time, boats like this were common on the St. Lawrence River. In the background is a 1000 Island landmark, St. Brendan's Church, at Rockport, Ontario.

I started this painting as a demonstration at an art show. The painting measures 16 inches by 20 inches high. It is painted in alkyd on canvas panel. Prints are available.