How to Paint a Cloudscape and Cityscape

There is nothing more beautiful in nature than a colorful sky at sunset or at sunrise.  Also what is beautiful is a city skyline at twilight and a towering thunderstorm looming a city.  In this blog I discuss how I painted a cumulonimbus cloud with an anvil top near city buildings.

I started this painting like most of my paintings with an underpainting.  I used a yellow ochre wash to accomplish this.  

Here is a view of my glass palatte a palatte knife and the colors I mixed.  I used phthylocyanine blue, sky blue, medium red, medium gray yellow ochre, flesh, and white.  I blocked in the sky using a #5 filbert brush. 

In this stage according the picture above I blocked the the sky in.  I used a liquitex slow dry medium to retard the drying process.  For the dark cloud color value I used a mixture of sky blue, medium gray a small amount of medium red. 

Here is the image of the painting before I altered the clouds and building.  I was not satisfied with the form of the cloud at the time they looked a little flat.  I reworked the clouds using a #4 round brush to blend and block in the form.  I premixed all the values of color for the clouds and applied the paint. 

For the cityscape in the foreground I used medium red, phthylocyanine blue and burnt umber.  I look at this cityscape in the fore ground and I said to myself, "It looks flat".  As a result I gave it a 3 dimensional perspective by mixing titanium and black to produce a gray hue.  I applied paint along the side on the right of the tallest buildings.  

Finally, for the reflective light I mix orange and yellow ochre and I used titanium white for the highly reflective light from the sunset.  I did this by using a #4 bright brush and a #2 liner brush. 

"Twilight Strike" done in acylic on stretched canvas @ 16"x20" DWeaverArt © 2018

Thank very much for reading this blog post I look forward to sharing with you more of my process and creations.  Please message me if you have any comments or questions about this painting through email at deeweaver15@gmail.com or share your comment below.  Thank you

Process of Still Life Painting Pear and Apple

Last week I started on another still life painting.  I was inspired on a new technique to shift in a different direction in the way I paint.  I wanted to expose more of my brush strokes in my painting.  I am still learning how to paint more in a impressionistic style with  the use of broken color.  I took an old soft pastel painting I did and changed the back ground color.to more of an aqua blue. I did not use a palette knife, instead I only used a flat brush and a liner brush for details.

In the first stage I diluted brown wash of acrylic to tone the paper.  The paper is a Canson mixed media.  I used a flat brush to produce the line drawing of the forms.  I also establish the shadow maps for the dark values to be blocked in later.

In stage two I continued to use a flat brush however a had more brown paint than water in the mixed to get a darker value for the shadow zones.  Also I establish the highlight zones by allowing the lightest value to be left exposed.  At this stage not only a dark value is blocked in but also a middle value is blocked.

In stage three I premixed my paint into 4 groups blues, reds, greens, and light values of brown. I always use a palette knife to mixed my color out.  I'am using glass to mix my colors on and lay out. 

Stage four I started to add color to the background using the blue values I had premixed earlier.

Finally I added more color the values of green red and browns. 

 "Pair & Apple © DWeaver Art are completed done in acrylic 6 x 6 on mixed media Canson paper.

How to make a Seascape Painting

This is considered a seascape according to the type of painting it is.  However, this is actually a lake painting. It is a painting of a lake in North Alabama called "Cedar Lake".  I was inspired to paint this painting from a photo sent by email to me from a friend who fish on this lake.  It is a very beautiful place.  As you can see it was taken at sunset.  I altered the painting from the original photo reference to have a reflection of sunlight that is more exaggerated.  I wanted to capture the ripples of the waves in the lake and used the sunlight as a point of emphasis or focal point in the composition.  Also it is a painting in an abstract color scheme from reality.

I started with a value sketch from my sketch journal.  I only used 5 values of gray to accomplish the sketch. I used a mechanical no.2 pencil in graphite.

Next, I toned the paper with a brown or burnt sienna color.  I diluted color or paint with water to achieve a lighter value and used less water in the color to get darker values. I used a large flat brush to tone the surface evenly all over to get the lightest value.  Then I used a smaller flat to draw and block in the darker values.

I used the color green blue yellow and white to premix the colors.  I use a glass palette because it cleans better when I finish painting sessions.  I use a rounded end metal palette knife to mix the hues or original colors. I add blue to darken the greens and I use white to tint or lighten the colors.

Here is the finished painting very small in size 4x4 done in acrylic of Cedar Lake

Abstract Painting done in Acrylic

  

"Two Players" is a abstract painting done in acrylic using a palette knife and sponge © DWeaver Art

Abstract Painting in Series Cadet Blue

"Ocean 1" 6 x 6 done in acrylic with flat brush and palete knife on Canson Mix Meda Paper © DWeaverArt

"Ocean 2" 6 x 6 done in acrylic with flat brush and palete knife on Canson Mix Meda Paper © DWeaverArt

Abstract Paintings in Series #2

It has been quite sometime since my last blog post till now.  I am happy to be back posting now.  This is my latest in a Series of Abstract paintings I call  "Distinzione"  This is the second series of abstract paintings.  I am looking forward to posting more abstract painting series in the near future.  I hope you enjoy this series of abstracts.

You are probably wondering why I call this Series "Distinzione".  I entitle this series Distinzione because of the contrast of vivid colors of high intensity.  I also used the cool color aqua blue and warm colors of red orange and yellow in the composition for contrast.

Each painting was done simultaneously using painters tape and measured out 4x4 inches each.
I also used a palette knife and round brush to apply the paint.

The frame is 11 x 14 with an opening of 10.5 x 13.5 and a mat opening of 4 x 4 inches done in acrylic paint.
If you are interested in purchasing "Distinzione" then please email me deeweaver15@gmail.com  Thank you for your visit to my site.

Acrylic Painting of Palm Trees

Between the Two Palm Trees 

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I was originally inspired to paint an abstract in this color scheme.  The process involved a sable brush, sponge and pallete knife. The colors I used for this painting was: black, white, green, light brown, blue, and yellow. This painting was created sometime last year in 2014.
As I stated earlier I started out with an abstract in mind but during the process I changed my mind.  I just did not like how it was develeping. I left what I had on the canvas and took a break, while on break I decided to do a beach schene in some what of an abstract style concering the sky.

As you can see when I started out with the painting my dominate color was yellow.  This eventual turn into the background forming the sky. I mixed some green and white into the yellow.  I acheived this by spraying some water on to the yellow painted surface for the sky. Then I followed up with a sponge that contained a mixture of green and white to create the clouds.  I dabbed the canvas repeatedly over the areas where I wanted clouds.

Next I focused on the water. I mixed blue and some green to acheive a seawater likeness. Later I added waves.  I accomplished this by using a sable brush which is designed to blend paint. I only used the tip of the edge of the brush with white paint.  By doing this is gave the painting a sense of depth or distance. I used the wet on wet technique to blend the seawater color tones with the sable brush in a horizotal motion.

The beach and palm trees were last in the process.  For those who do not know when you paint a landscape you always work from background to the foreground in the composition.  I used a palette knife to apply the paint to create the beach and palm trees.  I mixed black and green to get a very dark green. Also a used paint medium called Liquitex mattie super heavy gel and add it into the paint to thicken it.  By doing this it created texture which you can see in the beach and palms.  When I finish it I look at the painting and there was something missing birds so a just added some birds into the sky and this completed the painting.
This painting titled "Between the Palm Trees" are available in prints at www.fineartamerica.com  If you are interested in the original then please email me. Thank you.

SHAPE AND TEXTURE USED TO DIVIDE COMPOSITION

My Thoughts on "Splash"

I love creating abstract art.  It truly allows me to express my thoughts and ideas through the means of painting. This piece I entitled it "Splash" came from an inspiration to produce a design which uses shape to separate color with texture.  The blue depicts the water the gray the sky and the blocks of color represents a collection of buoies in aqua and yellow.  I purposely selected yellow in this piece to provide a redirection of the eye to move away the main focal point. Some of the materials I uesed was a palette knife and sable brush.  Also I used achieve the impesto appeareance for the blocks of color dividing the water from sky Liquitex matte super heavy gel.