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The Story of "Multnomah Falls"
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As I'm trying to hone my art abilities, I'm wanting to do more sketching. I bought a couple of books lately on sketching and I find them inspiring. Good stuff. So I'm practicing. Both books talk about using value sketches. And David's book touts the value of the all-graphite pencil. No wood. Just paper wrapping the graphite itself. I bought one today, and I love it. Here's the color picture that I started with:  So the challenge of taking a color, textured and shadowed, and turning it into a black and white sketch is kind of odd. With paints, I just go for the smears of color. With sketching, you do a quicker look at it as though it were a black and white photo. So here's what I did:  And after I finished it, I scanned the black and white version of the photo:  This is fun... I'll tackle more tomorrow at lunch. And did I mention that I love the pencil? |
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 I started on the Multnomah Falls picture. Oregon is like my spiritual home, so I remember this setting quite well. I was there several times and walked the perimeter of the pool before the big bus-sized rock fell a few hundred feet into the pool. Due to that, they no longer let people walk in that area, of course. I'm doing this painting much different than the Trafalgar Pigeons painting. With Pigeons, I painted and finished each area until I was done. Here though, I'm applying layers of paint to the entire painting until I finish. I went and bought a larger memory card for my Sony Cybershot, and tomorrow I plan to go in early to work and walk through the building to take pictures of the art that decorates the walls in the 50 conference rooms in my building. Here's one I found by Mari Giddings:  I'm doing this to explore different venues for the purchase of art. Corporate art is a huge market. I hope to talk to the buyer for my building and learn more about it. We'll see. I went to my boss today, though, and asked him if he knew who I might talk to. "There's art in the conference rooms?" he asked. I think it's a left-brained (business) versus right-brained (art) thing. |
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 It's been all big brush so far. Time to start the detail and break out the tiny brushes. I didn't watch the president's speech. I talked for quite a while with my kids about life and stuff. Great conversation. Toward the end of it, my son Aaron is thankful that we talk, and in depth, about things. Wide-ranging, free exchange of thoughts and opinions. My kids are my favorite people. It's cool to hear their foundation become sturdy under them as they grow and get a grip on how life works. But regarding the president's speech, I expected it would be great. The consensus seems to be that it was. And of course it was - the vision behind it is solid and right. That makes the speech easier. He's the right man at the right time. |
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 I'm close... time now for the tiny brushes and really small, time-consuming detail work. I went in this morning and snapped pictures of half the corporate art in the building. Can you say "abstract?" Here are a few of them:     What's the criteria for selection? Don't know... Someday, I'll try my hand at this, but I need to get a grip on painting reality first. |
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 I wasn't going to bed until this one was done. Here's me at my messy desk, starting the finishing work.  And here's the progression of the painting:      And the photo from which I started:  As I finished, I washed out whitewater in the foreground because, well, it just looks artificial. And I removed/simplified a few other things, while trying to bring additional colors out. I like it. And so, content, I am off to bed. |
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