Fire extinguisher.

11x14 inches

oil on canvas bird

Fire extinguisher.

This the painting from last Friday still-life class.

We had to go around the school and painting "something" of our choice. 

….no people and no landscapes…just objects, that was my choice, the fire extinguisher at second floor next to the elevator.

:) selfie

work in progress

Working now on some sketches form the weekend, will post them soon!

Weekend in NYC…leaving tomorrow… quick sketch to get into the right mood!

Just a quick sketch done from an old picture taken some years ago. 

Manhattan cityscape with Brooklyn Bridge.

New York, New York, New York….what to say…can't wait to see you!! Have been way too long :)

I had an amazing time living there. 

In a not very easy period of my life this city welcomed me like if I belonged there, priceless .

I probably run into some of the rudest people ever (without probably, I am sure I did!) but at the same time I also met some great friends.

Charging the battery of my camera, ready to take A LOT of pictures to turn into sketches!! 

No time to draw there on the spot, too many people to see, too many spots to revisit ( like our engagement place..maybe!!)maybe some shopping too, why not!

Some old pictures now:)

this is me few days after having arrived in NYC straight from London. November 2009

Hubby to be in background:)

Us, we bought the two matching hats in a market near where ewe used to live in Hell's kitchen.

Wearing our New York hat at home, here in san Francisco:)

(it was Movenbar! here you go, the mustache!)

One more sleep to NYC , and one more painting calls , tomorrow!

Ciaooooo!

Chiaroscuro still life.

charcoal on paper

18x24 inches

Chiaroscuro is the Italian term to indicate the contrast between light and dark, here I draw the still life that was in front of me thinking in terms of value and black and white.

Basically I reduced the colorful objects in from of me to a palette if gray.

Here is the actual still life:

 Selfie of me at work in class :)

And my friend Naomi, we were sharing the same still life.

Ari. sketch with pencil

This super cute baby is Ari, well done to the parents Ramon and Grace! He couldn't be more beautiful!
I am sure Ari is super happy daddy is done with his MBA and he will spend MUCH MORE TIME with him! :)

High key painting….with palette knife, for a change:)

11x14 inches

oil on canvas board

Quiet.

Today we painted a High key still life (high key means that all the value are lighter than the middle gray) .

I really liked the simple composition and I decide to use the palette knife to add more movement and texture to it.

Here is a detail:

detail

 The set up:

My work in progress:

Our class:) 

Normally we paint in a dark room, black blinds down and lamps lighting up the still lives. 

Not today though, to create a hight key painting you need a LOT of light, so no blinds! Nice :)

My friend Xiaoxiao sketching. 

The most important color in our palette today was white  and of course…. I didn't have mine!

 Thanks Xiaoxio for sharing yours!:)

Study: SF life style

20x10 inches

oil on canvas board

SF life style

7.30 pm and I am calling this last still-life study finished, getting hungry: DINNER TIME :)

I started this painting on Monday and picked up again only today, not a great choice since all the colors were already dried and I had to mix up everything again.

I struggle a LOT with the basic structure of the board and with the rendering of the tracks.

Tomorrow in my still life class at the academy I ll build my very first canvas from scratch  (exciting!!) .

The size will be 24x12 inches , so almost twice the size of the study, and I ll paint it again, more carefully this time!

Here is the original sketch, I used whitish shoes in the final study to avoid the Christmas effect red/green :)

And here is the set up, in a corner of my studio:

And what I mean San Francisco life style I mean this :)
Here is hubby on his way to the tram and to the office.
If you zoom in he is actually wearing the same shoes! How cool is that!
Please notice the ocean in the background, we live in the coolest (in both sense , coolpart of town!

Another Simon's sketch.

Instead of keeping working on my new still life today I just drew…. more people lying down, as per my school assignment, and one more drawing of Simon :)

A quick sketch, I really like the glassed look, very cool. 

This was the original picture I worked from :

  

And here is my still life, work in progress:

10x20 inches

work n progress

And the actual set up:

 it s just a study but it needs to be finished by Friday, so I am planning to paint ALL DAY -no excuses allowed- Thursday.

Cooking/dinner time now! Have a great evening everyone!

Simon lying down.

This sketch is from a picture I took last Saturday at our place.

We had some friends over and we had a little party. It was fun!
 I asked Simon to lye down for my picture and this was his pose :)

I love this sketch! Drawing this the most relaxing part of the afternoon.
In the morning  I was VERY busy painting a still life for school, hopefully I ll be done by tomorrow. I HAVE TO :)

Dinner and bed for me! Have a good night everyone!

Low key painting.

Today we focused on a low key still life.
In a low key painting the majority of values are darker then middle gray. Light values are saved as accents to highlight the important elements in the painting .
Probably I should have gone even darker than that!
It was my first low key painting attempt, planning to do another one sometimes soon , a very dark one!….as soon as i have some free time!!
Time has been a serious issue lately :(

11x14 inches

oil on canvas board

Vases and egg.

Here is the picture of the still life arrangement in class:

Laying down poses, 20 minutes drawing

I do not usually post pictures of what we do in our drawing class but today is an exception, it was pretty cool! Too cool no to be shared :)

The set up : two models laying down on a central platform, us students around drawing the different poses.
Each pose was 20 minutes.


Here are some of the drawings of today:

18x24 inches 

20 minutes study

drawing on paper

18x24 inches 

20 minutes study

drawing on paper

Here you can see a bit of our class!

 18x24 inches 

20 minutes study

drawing on paper

18x24 inches 

20 minutes study

drawing on paper

I  have honestly fell in love AGAIN with drawing this semester ( thanks to our great teacher too of course !) . 

 It was something I really liked and I used to do ALL THE time when I was a child. 

Then I do not know what happened…maybe just life happened! :)

I started traveling, focusing on languages and other stuff and I left my pencils at the bottom of some drawers. 

They are all out again now, more shiny and pointy than ever !

My red earrings, COMPLETED!!

11x14 inches

oil on canvas board

My red earrings.

Done! FINITO!

I am so happy I am done with this still life…I do not really enjoy working on the same painting for weeks and weeks…but I have to say is making me a better painter.

Since the last time I posted this painting I did few changes, the bottle is transparent now with new reflections, the girl has longer sleeves (!)…and other tiny things here and there.

Two details down:

I am very happy with the final result, i have to say :)

Looking forward to start the next still life project, working on something different! You will see it soon, I am doing sketches for now.

Today is the 3 year anniversary of my art blog…HAPPY ME :) 

You should check out the the very first post 8th April 2011 !

http://lauradallagata.blogspot.com/2011/04/stages-of-life.html

Sketch 15 min: Hubby in meditation position

This is a sketch done yesterday afternoon, hubby was meditating and I …well I sketched him down of course! :)
He in Minnesota right now while over here we are enjoying a couple of summer days :)
Missing you baby!!!

Off to a drawing workshop now, Mona is relaxing in a nice sunny spot. Lucky her!

Happy Monday everyone!

Shoes time!

This is the painting from yesterday still life class, it was meant to be a bird eye view practice.
I really enjoyed this assignment, I love painting shoes more than buying shoes! :)

11,14 inches

oil on canvas board

Red Shoe

Beautiful and sunny today, going for a coffee now…. via beach !! :)
Happy Saturday!

20 min quick portrait, FUN TIME

charcoal on paper, study

Yesterday I went to a drawing workshop, I did some figure drawings part of my school assignment and in the last 20 minutes I just did what i like most: DRAWING FACES :)

The model was reading a book for the full session, here face was soooo serious and tense, she was totally struggling to understand the concepts of her book.

By the end of the pose I asked her what she was reading….the answer was : ALGEBRA.

OMG!!!!

No wonder all those wrinkles on her face!

A painting inspired by our African trip, work in progress.

This is a detail of a painting I am working on at the moment. 

Is going very SLOWLY since I am very busy with school and life in general at the moment…but I 'd love to have it done by the end of the weekend.

Here are two pictures of the first two stages, under painting and jutting the texture on the canvas.

It was my first time painting a black skin tone and I am pretty happy with the colors on the actual painting, thanks to my hubby for buying me a book on "Painting Skin tones"!

Apparently the main colors to use are raw umber, white and burnt sienna. 

Still need to work on the necklaces and the back ground, plus adding more gold to the hair….

I didn't have an actual picture for painting this girl she is just right out of my imagination! Inspired by all the beautiful girls we met over there.

 These last two pictures were taken one evening during singing/dancing show. Something VERY touristy but still fun!! ;)


Our group :)