Blue Water

One of the things I'm still working on is keeping a smooth surface, for instance, the deep blue water with dark shadows of the trees. Black, like white is rarely simply black, it is a sumation of its surroundings. So the water at the bottom is deep blue and the black shadows is more of a deeper blue to almost black.

This may take a while

I seem to be working anti clockwise. I know I need to cover the whole canvas, I seem to be picking areas, I don't suppose it matters, I'll be doing the trees last. Barb has reminded me not to make this layer too thick - if you put the layers on too thick, the paint might crack.

Trying this at home

I've finally started my new at home painting, It's a photo taken in the gardens of Dunvegan castle Scotland.
The wonderful textures should keep me quiet for a while. So far I have drawn the shapes and started from the top left, I have worked on the worker's cottage and the background trees

So, here's my 'serious' painting, well, as serious as Puffins can get, I've gotten a little carried away, the one flying in is made a little out of focus, his little legs really were hanging just like that.

My son has been asking me to paint a picture for him. His requests change with his moods but when he saw I was painting Puffins he wanted one, then he says and a pony. Sarcastically, I put this together to which he announced 'Oh yeah, that's gold I want that.' As I started to draw it up he then decided it need a highland cow in the background. So there you are. A puffin on a pony's nose with a highland cow. It's not quite finished, the pony needs whiskers :)

Holidays and Hijinks

Well, I'm back from holidays with a ridiculous number photos to choose from. I spent hours going through the pictures editing them, there's no way anyone but us will ever want to go through all these shots. I've decided there's worse things than taking and keeping too many photos and for anyone in their 40's like me we remember all too well how expensive it used to be to get photos.
One of my kids asked me why we don't have as many photos of them as Adam, my brother, has of his kids, I said because Uncle Adam doesn't have to pay $12 for 36 photos!
Anyway, I'm keepin all my photos because I can and I don't care if nobody ever looks at them, I can have them running as a screen saver to remind me that it happened.
But what to paint. So after great deliberation I decided to do a painting of Puffins.
By the time we got to the colony of Puffins, we had travelled to the other side of the world - Scotland and rode a very small plane with propellers - which landed on an air strip that was too long for the tiny island and actually went across the main road. Yes they had a stop sign and a security guard so when a plane came in, the traffic was stopped. It was a very, very long way from Australia. It was as exciting to us as a Koala is to anyone who visits Australia.

We have a sequence of photos that show this baby asking for dinner, see the guy behind? He wants to know what's going on

And now they all do! Hilarious! So, that's what I've started as my next painting on my visits with Barb. I'm actually doing 2. Barb and I are doing one together and I'm doing one at home for my son Ivan.He announced he wanted one with Puffins and Ponies, the two main animals on Shetland so I gave hime a draft of a Puffin standing on a pony's nose, he thought that was great so that's what I'm painting - they're both funny looking so I reckon I can get away with a bit.

Finished painting - Chooks Outback

Finally put the finsihing touches in our project chooks outback, working on the grass at the front, setting the birds comfortably amongst their surroundings, it was alot of fun. My gumtree is very different to Barb's which is hilarious because Barb has painted the tree I wanted to paint and meanwhile I have gone off on a tangent and painted a completely different tree. Just like the real thing, it grew how it wanted.

Stupid Gumtree

So i spent several hours on the big gum tree. I painted it and I painted it.......... and I painted it,

I know what I want, so I'll have another go tomorrow!

Oil painting chooks

Who knew oil painting chooks could be such a challenge? We took some photos of a friends chooks, we started with a white one. Well, he's got some white in him, but really, by the time you put shading and insinuate the reflective hues of the grass etc, not so white : ) but it was fun.
Ended up doing 5 chooks all up 1 white, 1 black and three golden red, with one in the gumtree on tippee toes crowing, saw this photo and loved it,

If you want to see our finished ebooks click on this link
How to Oil Paint ebooks

It starts

My name is Jo, I am 47 years old. My life at this point is – well –insane. I am running a business, my kids have grown but not flown, I have been married for 25 years and we all live together in a small house with a backyard so narrow that if you trip out the back door you will literally smack your face on the fence!

One of my oldest friends (Barb) is an artist, one day last year I was looking at one of her paintings – as I always do when I go there - and I said for the hundredth time that I wanted to paint and she replied for the hundredth time, well I’ll show you if you want to learn. And so at the busiest time in my life, when I simply don’t have a minute to spare, I picked up the brush.

I have a long winded explanation on what happened next but I’ll save you the details and go to the good bit. We’ve made some ebooks. I pick a subject, Barb shows me how to paint it. She tells me what to do and I tell you what happens when you don’t do as you’re told. I never was very good at instruction! I should call my half – How NOT to Oil paint, but the good thing is, even though I am hopeless and Barb rolls her eyes at me a lot, my paintings still come out alright.

So I am going to blog and write and Barb is going to instruct me and with a little luck and alot of patience on Barb's behalf in no time flat I'll be able to oil paint like a pro!

We have made the first ebook - How to oil paint Frangipanis - a simple montage of Frangipani flowers with a soft blurry background. Frangipanis are easy and popular and I had 2 people trying to claim mine before I was half way finished.

12 page ebook on how to oil paint frangipani flowers

How to Oil Paint ebooks

We have quite a few ebooks to choose from, but this one is the introductory, 12 pages, paypal site, $2.85. link straight to download how easy is that?

PS if you're brave enough to give it a go, let us know how you went, and we want feed back, we won't nag you, but we'd love to hear from you, where are you from, what inspired you to try oil painting? Were these instructions helpful?

Cheers

Jo M