Showing posts with label oil paintings. Show all posts
Showing posts with label oil paintings. Show all posts

Thursday, November 5, 2015

Draw Tyler


Copyright Michelle Taff
From my sketchbook - detail. Copyright Michelle Taff

For the last two weeks I've been really interested in drawing faces. It's a skill that doesn't come easily to me, and I've been saying I would practice more portraiture for a long time. Below are a few examples.

From my sketchbook - detail. Copyright Michelle Taff

From my sketchbook. Copyright Michelle Taff

From my sketchbook. Copyright Michelle Taff

From my sketchbook - detail. Copyright Michelle Taff.

The first two pages I drew from photos uploaded to the sketchy app. The second two, well they're everywhere. Enough said (unless you can't tell who they are...???).  I really like the idea of drawing political figures and also wish I had the skill to draw caricatures. Something else to work on. I will say, my faces generally look like human faces, but rarely do they look like the photo or the person I'm drawing. Plenty of work still to do.

But this week I got really into the idea of sketching my town, and started with a trip downtown, stopping at the Children's Park on the way. This is a really fun project but way more work than I anticipated. If I want to be accurate anyway. Hopefully I don't get sick of it. To keep from getting completely bogged down in the minutiae of drawing places I started a series of small works. This is something I can complete in a relatively quick time and will give me something to sell down the way.

From my sketchbook. Copyright Michelle Taff

From my sketchbook. Copyright Michelle Taff.

Small works.  Copyright Michelle Taff

Also I started back to work on a couple of paintings I started last month and then abandoned. They are NOT completed in a relatively quick time. They are mind-numbingly slow process works. But I can't seem to help but pick difficult subjects to paint. I guess I like the challenge. Here is a work-in-progress shot of Chinese cabbage. Pretty thrilling I know. But... the heart wants what the heart wants... 


Painting in progress. Copyright Michelle Taff

Wednesday, December 17, 2014

Painted Ladies



Fall semester is over but there is always more work to do on paintings. Even when you have a stomach bug. I needed to do touchups on these three but felt so worn out after a weekend of lying on the sofa watching organization videos on youtube that I couldn't even summon the strength to get out the easel. I just lined 'em up on the ground and plopped down in front of them. It's really only a matter of time before I have a major paint-spill incident. On the carpet. On the blinds. Somewhere.


Excluding the one on my lap in the photo above all these paintings are of hydrangeas. I'll admit I took a little license with the coloring but retained the general idea and the lovely crowded shape of this amazing flower. I showed one in the last post, but I'll post it again with her sisters.





Friday, November 21, 2014

Hydrangea



 This is one of three hydrangea paintings I've been working on this semester. This one is finished, drying and curing at the studio at school.  The others are done or nearly so and I hope to get some good pictures of them tomorrow. But I thought it might be interesting to see the stages of this painting - a little behind the scenes look.





This was a fun painting. I am absolutely fascinated by the natural world and the way God puts things together for us. This is a painting of gratitude. I'm totally hooked on flowers now. More to come!