Another January’s End

On the off chance you’re here to find out about the third January painting I teased in the last post, “Phoebe in the Aisle of Eyes”, I am sorry to report that painting was a dud. However, I finished my favorite painting to date over a number of days. This one:

Patience, 16″ x 20″ acrylics. He was told they would sleep the whole time. They did not.

Here are the rest of my results from Paint Every Day, January 1-30, 2023.

11″ x 14″ (and one 12″ x 12″) acrylic on canvas paintings, January 2023
Top Left: Louise, After the Recital

Results: The first painting (blue critter, above), and the last painting (at the top of this post), were the only ones I managed to finish. I had hoped to finish a painting a day but it turns out that goal might not work for me.

I have some paintings to finish for February. We’ll see how that goes.

Thanks for visiting!

It’s January Again. And Paint Every Day!

Today is January 7, 2023. I finished a painting on January 1. The painting is titled Louise, After the Recital, and here she is:

11 x 14 acrylics on wrapped canvas. Louise, After the Recital, by Cindy Dauer.

I hoped to do a painting every day, but the next one took three days, including many false starts. I didn’t give this one a name. Someone who saw it pointed out that the main character looks a bit like the Grinch, which is true.

11×14 acrylics on wrapped canvas, by Cindy Dauer

I am on day three of the next painting, which got a name early on: Phoebe in the Aisle of Eyes. You’ll just have to come back and see. :-)

Thanks for dropping in! Happy 2023!

Acrylic Painting Progress Slideshow

I made a video. I posted it to my neglected YouTube channel.

This video slideshow represents about 85% of my paintings from 2014 to March 2022, with a handful from earlier. Many are unfinished studies, many are quite dreadful! But I thought it would be interesting to see them all together, to see the process of progress.

Progress is not linear. And there were a lot of long stretches of months with no painting at all. I’m pretty sure a live, local community is very helpful for that sort of thing and then we had a pandemic.

I may do another version with a voiceover, but I haven’t done one of those so I’ll have to look into it.

Most of these paintings are currently stacked in my living room. Maybe I’ll list some for sale. I have started to paint over some of them, especially unfinished ones. It’s a strange feeling, to do that.

Thanks for dropping in!

Completed Drawing Challenge, 1-25

Composition/Drawing Challenge 1-25, March to April, 2022
Opus (plush), pencil
Kyle the piranha-dog from Despicable Me (plush), pencil

Originally it was a 30-day drawing challenge, but I finished it out at 25, which is still pretty great! It was particularly motivating seeing drawings from all the other class participants. (I can’t link it because it was on a closed teaching platform.) It’s always good to surround yourself with an art community if you are trying to do art, which is so often a solitary pursuit.

Next up is a continuation of the composition instruction, this time with paints, and I will be using oil paints for the first time, after 11-ish years of halting progress with acrylics. I am actually putting together a slideshow of my first 11 years of paintings, which I’ve been meaning to do for ages. I want to see it for myself, and I thought it might be interesting for others.

Thanks for dropping by!

The Majestic Unicorn, Drawing Challenge Progress

The Majestic Unicorn, 4.5″ x 4.5″ pencil

I really enjoy seeing all of these together.

I may have mentioned it before but it’s so interesting I took a drawing class from Ian Roberts when I follow him for his oil painting videos. It’s also interesting because I don’t have as much interest in painting the kind of landscapes he normally paints. But he has a lot of great insights and is a great teacher, and his YouTube channel is great!

I have signed up for Ian’s Brushwork course that comes after the drawing one (the prerequisite is the drawing class). I don’t often have art-related momentum so I’m not going to give it up just yet. I will be painting in oils for the first time, and trying out some of the non-toxic medium and cleaner options.

I can’t believe it’s April 2022. The pandemic has made time even more unreal than usual. Thanks for dropping in!

Week 2, 30 Day Challenge

Pencil drawings on smooth Bristol board, 30-day drawing-composition challenge Mar-April 2022.

The end of the second row has the only landscape (and out of order). Otherwise I’ve been on this crazy still life kick. Part of the reason, is that we are supposed to be taking and cropping our own photos for this challenge, and there’s not much outside where I am at the moment. (Of course, there is beauty in mundane things, etc, but it’s the end of winter and overcast, so no additional landscapes for me yet.)

I mentioned in the last post that I never thought I would be interested in, or any good at, still life drawing. But now I’ve done a whole lot of them, and they are going pretty well!

Ladle and lemons watching tennis on television. (I thought this one wanted a name.)

A Drawing Class & a Drawing Challenge, March 2022

6 days of 30-day drawing challenge using your own photographs. Approx 6″ each, pencil on smooth Bristol

These are the first 6 days of a 30-day drawing and composition challenge, which is the final (optional) part of Ian Robert’s recent Mastering Composition drawing course. Mainly Ian draws and teaches landscape, but for this challenge we are tasked with using our own photographs, so some of us are doing still life photographs.

Who knew, first of all, that I would enjoy drawing a still life? Or think I could actually do like, a decent one. And in pencil!

Red Onion and Paintbrush, 6″ x 4″, #2 and #4 Staedlter and Blackwing Matte pencils on smooth Bristol

This onion and paintbrush went well. It goes against the parameters of the challenge just a little bit, as the challenge is intended to highlight the main dark and light shapes in an image, and this one has just a few too many details. But that’s probably because I kept going after I got the main shapes in. And that was possible because I took this really excellent class.

Ian Roberts website. Ian Roberts on YouTube.

3 Apples and Goblet, 4″x6″, #2 and #4 Staedlter and Blackwing Matte pencils on smooth Bristol

Perhaps I’ll be back with seven more at the end of next week. Thanks for dropping in!

Acrylic Painting, February 2022

Acrylic Portrait Studies, February 2022
16×20 Acrylics, An Unusual Man
16×20 Acrylics, unfinished landscape

I missed a couple days so far in February. I am worried because this is what happens yearly – I paint every day in January and then the rest of the year whooshes by with much less productivity.

I think I need an actual project, like a series. I feel like I’ve been practicing to get better for several years now, but for what purpose? So, I’m trying to decide on an idea for a series. Imaginary Animals? Rescued Farm Animals? Not sure yet.

And at the same time, I think I may be close to trying oil painting with some of the non-toxic materials options like walnut oil and walnut alkyd.

Or maybe that is the problem. Too many plans, not enough action. I am currently taking a composition drawing class with Ian Roberts. He is mostly a landscape painter, and with a terrific YouTube channel. After the class is over I will start thinking more about the series.

Paint Every Day, January 2022 Completed!

9×12 and 11×14 Acrylics, January, 2022.

Here are all the January paintings. Some portraits, some landscapes, some horses, one donkey. One failed cityscape. A pretty good month. I have completed the Paint Every Day in January for 4 or 5 years, with varying degrees of success. I think 2022 is the first time I actually painted all 31 days.

I hope to compile a retrospective of 6 or 7 years of trying to learn to paint with acrylics in the next month or so. It is time consuming! To find all the images and resize them and get them organized. But I always enjoy seeing other artists’ progress.

In the meantime, here is my set of paintings from January 2018:

9×12, 11×14 and some 16×20 acrylics paintings, January, 2018

Mostly dogs in 2018, with a handful of other animals and one almost-kind of horse, in the middle of the top row. I have improved! I just wish I had been more consistent, as always. I have started to paint over some of these. Though, the bat and panda found homes, and the beagle in the bottom row is probably going to stick around.

Thanks so much for dropping in! If you’re doing art projects this year, let me know so I can check them out. :-)

Paint Every Day, January 2022

Well hello! (If anyone reads this! Who knows!) My last post was April 2021, at which time I was doing an online art class. It went.. ok. I discovered I do not like to paint with acrylics on a wood panel. Perhaps I was not doing it right! Eh. It’s ok not to like it.

Here we are in the middle (toward the end?) of the Omicron portion of the global pandemic. And I am once again painting every day in January.

Although I’ve still got a few days to go, here are some horses I painted this month. I am new to painting horses. It went pretty well!

Three horses, acrylics, January 2022

And here are some portraits I painted this month. The ones on the right are definitely more successful than the ones on the left.

Four portraits, acrylics, January 2022.

And here are some landscapes I painted this month. I am new to landscape painting, and used free reference photos from unsplash.com. It went pretty well with the sunlight and atmospheric perspective and a cute little (lopsided) car:

Four landscapes, acrylics, January 2022

Are you doing any painting projects in 2022? Let me know so I can check them out! :D

Thanks for dropping by! I can be found on instagram at cindydauer.