Winnie

Here's Winnie again, after the glazing. The color is a little bit closer to the real Winnie's color.

Westie

I've been trying my hand at glazing again. This is a painting that I did some weeks ago. I added a light glaze, and I like the effect. I decided to add several layers of glaze to the painting of Winnie (below). Winnie is a black dog, and I think the glaze will help. I'll post it once I've completed the glazed layers.

Winnie

This is Winnie - isn't she cute? She's a black lab/border collie mix if I remember correctly. Her portrait is my co-worker's gift to his wife for her birthday. I know she doesn't know about this blog, so I'm safe in posting it.

My birthday is coming up, and I received a fabulous birthday gift from my spouse - not only did he get me the Photoshop Elements software that I've been whining about, he also got me a Mac Pro computer! I'm in hog heaven! Getting the computer up and running was a snap, but getting PhotoShop loaded was a pain in the you-know-what. I've spent the whole afternoon trying to get that sucker onto the computer. It's finally done, so all I have to do is learn how to use it. I used PhotoShop on this painting, and it certainly makes a difference.

Winnie's owner is a PhotoShop wiz, and we worked a trade - a painting of his dog for lessons on how to use PhotoShop. I can hardly wait to learn about all the bells and whistles. I hope they will like the painting.

Chat

Most of the time I'm pretty unhappy with my paintings. I see so many things that are wrong. It's pretty discouraging and sometimes seems like there is no progress. Yet with each painting session, I learn something new. I know that through constant practice and focused repetition, eventually I will get better.

I'm reading an excellent book by Stanford University psychologist, Carol Dweck, Mindset . I learned about this book from my favorite blog, Learning to See - A Journey Back to Painting. The premise of "Mindset" is that talent isn't innate; it's something that is achieved through diligence and hard work.

The wonderful and liberating idea is that we aren't helpless and hopeless - we haven't been consigned to a set intelligence or a set talent. Success is in our hands and within our control. A good reason to keep painting!

Henry

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Henry is another little kitty from one of the humane shelters in Oregon. I couldn't resist painting those sweet eyes.

Open Studio - Sean

This is the portrait I worked on in Open Studio last evening. There is quite a bit of glare on the forehead area. I may try to photograph it again tonight once it's had a chance to dry a bit.

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I was having great fun painting this cat until I accidentally dropped the panel face down right on top of my palette. Grrrr! I don't anticipate that I'll make that mistake again!

Figure Study

This is the figure study from last night's open studio. This is a two session pose so I'll most likely work on this again next week. I struggle with values.