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 :)