Tiny gouache and ink
Fruitbasket
Category Archives: Color
Cuttlefriends!
Portrait of my friend’s dear cuttlefish, raised from eggs, who passed away of happy old age this year.
This one was a very limited palette – Talens Light Blue (a phthalo), Schmincke Burnt Sienna (a weird mix), and white.
8×10″ gouache on board
Lure
5×7″ oil on board
This was a fun experiment with lead white. Turns out it gets really yellow after a while, but putting it in a sunny spot whitens it right up.
I bought this vintage lure just so I could paint it. I love the thing! What have you bought for the sake of a still life?
Black Horse – Class with Mr. Tennison
Black Horse by Meg Lyman
12×9″ oil on board
This is one of the paintings I did at the fantastic class I took with James Tennison this summer. He is a phenomenal painter and teacher, and we all had a blast.
Chefalopod
Even I couldn’t overlook this pun.
5×7″ gouache and ink on paper. Used a limited CMYK palette on this one, plus a bit of brown and white.
Last one for a while
The earnest person of honest narrow vision who comes along and says, “I don’t see that colour,” should have one’s sympathy, as looked for with his coldly accurate eye, all the glory of colour disappears and has no existence.
Page 138, Oil Painting Techniques and Materials by Harold Speed
I wonder which ones…
On eliminating earth colors:
And there is some considerable danger of that nasty acid fruit salad sort of colouring turning up, as in some of the worst impressionist pictures.
Page 109, Oil Painting Techniques and Materials by Harold Speed
Furiosa
Furiosa by Meg Lyman
9×12″ gouache on cold press
I never gave this one an official post – here is my homage to my favorite movie, Fury Road.
I used gamut mapping and a limited palette to help this obtain the color-filtered look of the movie. My colors were, from top to bottom: gamboge (didn’t use much of this at all), titanium gold ochre, Hooker’s green, burnt umber, neutral tint, cerulean blue, and indigo. I also added a bit of quinacridone red for the faces, gold for the sparkles in the engine grease, and of course white. I could have limited the palette more and had even better color harmony.
Note how all the octopus are hanging on the same horizon line, through the upper middle of the torso for an average-height imaginary octopus. I initially sketched them all wrong, and had to review my perspective rules.
Bonus thumbnails:
I may have too many tubes of paint
Students are apt to rush into painting with a full palette of colours, and absolutely no preliminary experience in handling paint whatsoever; with naturally the most appalling results.
Page 93, Oil Painting Techniques and Materials by Harold Speed
Bye 2015!
Furiosa – fan art homage to my favorite movie of all time
2015 was a good year. I was able to focus my art by doing more still life practice and background work, and I really got into the vulture culture/skull collecting community. I appreciate all of you – artists supporting artists, collectors, and the helpful and friendly vultures I’ve met. I hope we all have an awesome 2016!
Buoy – gouache work from a photo I took in La Push
Liberty Leading the Cephalopods – a fantastic commission
Madrona – experimenting with oils and daily painting
Orange Otter – alla prima from life plus a little Klimt influence
Vanitas I – my first try at still life with lead white oil
Octophant – a fan suggestion and experiment in textures