Tour of Chicago

This past weekend I hosted a WDE (weekend drawing/painting event) at WetCanvas.com

Hosting a WDE involves selecting a group of photos that can be used as references for drawing and paintings. An online, international group of artists, then makes art using those reference photos.

It's a lot of fun to see which images are the most popular and how people have used them for paintings.



I put my collection of photos together as a tour of Chicago. I had a lot of fun making the tour. And then seeing everyone's art.

I did a painting of the Cloud Gate sculpture (aka “the bean”) in Grant Park. ”) It is a sculpture shaped somewhat like a bean and has a mirrored surface.

I’ve seen paintings that other local artist’s have done and I really wanted to try it.

Morning Reflections, Oil Pastel on paper, 8x10"

I was quite pleased with the skyline reflection in the shiny, metallic surface.

Although the reference photo had a lot of people in it, after I put this couple in; I liked the intimacy of the two people sharing a private viewing of the city skyline. And so I left it just the two of them.



But paintings don't always turn out well. At least not at first...

I started this of a group laughing in an outdoor cafe. But it just wasn't working. The colors were coming across too harsh and clashing. The whole thing just didn't feel right. So I will put it away for a while and come back to it later.

Café Scene –May, oil pastel on paper, 8x10”, unfinished

An Award Winner

Just received word that my painting
 "Waiting for Sushi"
 received an Honorable Mention in this year's
 Oil Pastel Society members' show!

That makes 2 years in a row and I'm going up against a lot of professional artists. So it's a pretty big deal.

That news makes up for not getting into the Atlanta mixed-media show that I submitted to. They only chose 91 pieces out of 546 that were submitted. So by not getting in, I was probably in some very good company!

But then judging art is so subjective. It is very dependant on the styling and tastes of the show's judge. Many artist who submit to juried shows say that what gets turned down by one judge at one show can win an award at another.

And "Waiting for Sushi" did just that!

Oil Pastel Sketches

Here are some sketches done with pen and oil pastels.






Taste of Sketching
7/1/06 10:53pm
07/01/2006

Went to the Taste of Chicago and tried to do some sketching. I felt so self-conscious. These sketches were all done in 10-15 minutes each. My models kept moving on me.

Quick Sketching in Oil Pastel

This week I tried quick sketching with my oil pastels and a pen.

These are about 8x8" and each about 20 minutes. These are from this week's WDE on WetCanvas.com

It's funny I started quick sketches using oil pastels (OPs) and didn't like the lack of detail in something done so quickly. So I tried watercolor but must not have figured out how to use them properly because all I seemed to be doing was mixing colors and wiping the small palette in the travel kit. Not enjoyable and I used too much water so not strong enough colors. Okay, so I moved on to watercolor (WC) pencils. didn't have to do much mixing because I had a large number of pencils. And because I used very little water, the colors were nice and saturated. But it still lacked detail. At that point I read a book about sketching with WC pencils by Charles Evans. He alway goes into his WC pencil sketches and punches them up with pen. That finally gave me the combination of detail and saturated color I wanted but the sketchbook paper wouldn't stop warping from the water used!

So I decided to try the pen with a much lighter, looser approach with oil pastels. And surprise, surprise! My favorite painting medium just became my favorite sketching medium.

I'm finding this whole circling back to where I started as rather funny!

I liked my experiment with brush-tipped pen and Oil Pastel so much that today at lunchtime I went out and did a 10-minute plein air sketch.

I used VanGogh OPs which are harder sticks. It was only 70F today but the car was in the sun so the OPs sitting in there got warmer than that. But still they were fine to use. Did not seem to soften at all.



Okay so here is the sketch. Kind of loose is what I was striving for.

This was done on the ground of the building where my wedding reception will be. I did simplify a bit and remove the busy road behind the bushes! Hey, artistic license or bride's prerogative, take your choice!

Plein Air Paint Out - Chicago

Oil Pastel Society - Chicago Chapter

On Saturday, May 20^th, seven oil pastel artists met to paint plein air together. We met at the Riverwalk Park in downtown Naperville, a western suburb of Chicago, IL.

This was the second meeting of the Chapter and  first time a group of oil pastel artist had gotten together to paint.

We had great weather and lots of fun. It was interesting to see the different set-ups each person used. We spread out over 2 blocks to paint for about 2 hours.

Here are some photos of everyone painting.

 

Here we all are doing an impromptu show-and-tell while we wait for our lunch table.

And here is my effort for the morning:

Since I had coordinated the event, I did some walking around to see how everyone was doing. This is about 1 &1/2 hours and I'd say it is maybe a little more than halfway done.

I think I'd like to use this and photos to start a new painting. After looking more at the "real" fountain, I think I need to mutely paint what is behind it and then overlay the water highlights.



We had so much fun that we are going to try scheduling another paint-out soon.

If you live in the Chicago area or plan to be visiting, please join us!  We will post the time and location of our next paint-out on our chapter blog:

http://ops-chgo.blogspot.com/