Annette Bay Sheep

Whew, yes, I've finally finished this larger (for me its larger) painting that I had started around the first of December.  My goal was to finish it by the end of January and today I finished it enough to take a quick photo and post it. That was close ... tomorrow is February.

I still need to varnish it and do a little better job of photographing it, but for now its done and I can get started on a few smaller paintings I've been wanting to attempt.

Annette Bay Sheep, 24" x 36", oil on canvas,  © 2015, Nancy Van Blaricom

The reference photo for this painting came from one of our many boating trips to British Columbia.  

We had anchored in this little bay before but I had never noticed any animals, but, this time I noticed in the back of the bay a flock of sheep grazing.  I have always loved that photo and swore I'd one day paint it.   

Below are a few shots of the painting in progress:

Progression shots of Annette Bay Sheep

A Little Birdie Told Me ...

The other day while going through some paintings I had in the studio I found this one that I painted back in 2013.  Now, after finding it again, I think I would like to paint a few more of this cute little bird in different positions.  I like both the bird and the painting more each time I see them.

A Little Birdie Told Me,  oil on paper, ©Nancy Van Blaricom

Ohhh, goodie

Oh goodie, look what came in the mail today?
I have way too many art books, but, with all the rave reviews Carol Marine is receiving on her book I just had to have it. It looks amazing ...

:: January ::

January is more than half over and although I've been working pretty hard on a large project I'm not quiet ready to share it with you. So instead I'll share a few value studies I've been working on. I guess I'll never become an expert at getting my values correct unless I do more studies like these.

The top photo was done in oil and I got out my value scale and really looked at a photo, numbering them as I saw them. The second photo, the pencil sketch, I was feeling pretty good about until I compared it to the more accurate oil study. I think it might be hard to tell these are from the same reference source.

All in all, I'm hoping to do more of these studies and see if I can't improve my value handling better.

What about you, do you ever do value studies?

4" x 6"  value oil sketch on gessoed paper

2" x 2.5" pencil value sketch