Here we are, more than a week into the challenge! This first day was probably a stretch of the prompt, but aside from sitting outside and painting a literal structural, I tried to think of things that were structural. To me, origami always has a very structured quality about it. So I made some buffalo…
Author: Amber
September 2020 Strada Easel Challenge Days 1-3
I’m off to an interesting start with this gory skull painting. This painting kicked my butt! I’ve been painting with gouache for most of the year so switching back to oils was definitely a challenge. Note – no skulls where harmed in the making of this painting. I put Saran Wrap down before pouring red…
In Need of Inspiration
I don’t know what it is about this year; the residual trauma of 2019, the pandemic, or simply art block. It could just be that I don’t like painting people as much as I hoped I would. Maybe I just need a project, a focus, a deadline. Maybe it’s everything. It’s hard to know. Anyway,…
Mack’s Commission
I don’t accept commissions very often, but I’m glad I did this one. Mack was a police K9 that belonged to an officer in a neighboring community. Sadly, Mack passed away unexpectedly. So a few of the guys at my husband’s department decided to commission this painting as a gift to the officer. I don’t…
Classically Bad
Yikes! I really struggled with painting this week. This first painting was initially really off, proportionally. So I sprayed it with a fixative thinking I could seal off the paint underneath and just go over it without completely redoing the painting. Boy was I wrong. It turns out, once you spray watercolor paper with fixative,…
Framing Some Old Work
After buying a Logan mat cutter at the end of last week, I finally got around to cutting some mats. Last year when I started painting with gouache, I painted on some randomly sized tiny pieces of paper that didn’t fit in any normal frame sizes. I think I painted so small because I wasn’t…
A Million and None
Do you ever find yourself with a million things and nothing to do? I feel like this sums up my week. I’ve been really trying to save money lately which means little to no shopping. On the face that doesn’t seem so hard, but thinking and doing are two total different things. It turns out,…
Dressed in Blue
As I mentioned in my last post, I’ve started to use free reference images from Pixabay. My focus this week was on the female face and I had a little fun with some bright blue brush strokes. This week I also put more time into each individual painting and didn’t pressure myself to finish a…
New References
Painting this week really went great. I started out with another portrait, and struggled a bit. It turned out well enough that I’m satisfied, but I think I might revisit it in the future and improve on it. Looking at it now, some of the proportions are off as well as some features. This week…
Back to Work
Hello again. It has been a minute since my last post. After taking a few months off from painting I’m finally getting back to it. I didn’t mean to take such a large break, but the stress of everything going on was really taking its toll on me. Letting myself take a break was a…
Feeling the Burn
Sorry for the lack of a post last week. I burned the crap out of my foot and I was feeling a bit sorry for myself. Now a week after the burn, my foot is less painful and I’m feeling a lot less sorry for myself. It definitely helps that I can walk without pain…
Oh, These Strange Times
Homeschooling and yard work are consuming my life at the moment. Not a bad thing, just how I’ve been spending my time. All I want to do is be outside since the weather is getting so nice, but I’m essentially limited to the yard so I’m getting a lot done. Today I had my husband…