Pt. 1 Picked to the Bone, making sketches and learnin’

I’ve had this painting in my minds eye for a while. It’s a large size oil and it contains subjects and techniques I am not completely familiar with. Because of this the painting has sat there in my mind and grown instead of fading away. It now wants to be a series. But I don’t have the skills yet. I guess it’s time to start researching, sketching and practicing! This is going to be a journey.

…And it started at Pinterest. My favorite of the various social media sites. Mostly because it’s made up of pictures and I love pictures! The painting series I envision has skeletal bits, portraits, birds and landscapes. So these are the things I looked for.

My next step was to paint! Only one way to learn a painting technique and that’s to do it … and do it… and do it again until it works.

Here are some of my sketches:

I’ve also been creating little stand alone paintings but using the themes I have in mind for the larger oil paintings. While I paint I have many thoughts passing through my brain. On my mind lately are people who are in my life. The kinds of people who are here and the kinds I want to be with me. Sometimes I just feel like I’m being slowly drained and these types of people always seem so nice at first. I feel like they are little birds picking me to the bone. I’m also concentrating a lot on the technical difficulty in the subjects I’ve chosen. The skull and skeleton is complex but I’m not looking for exact reproduction. Decisions have to be made on what to highlight and what to leave out.

Here are some of the small scale stand alone paintings.  The two bottom ones are representations of the heart and root chakras. Stay posted for all of the chakra’s represented in drawings.
I’m really happy with how the bird and skull painting came out. I call it “Looking for Leftovers” and it as the exact ambiance I’m going for. It really feels like a win!

Interested in learning more about my process and seeing what happens with Picked to the Bone? Join my newsletter by clicking here: http://eepurl.com/bgOO1X

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Painting ‘Moon’ Companion to ‘Sun’ Pt. 2

I’m done! This painting took an estimated 20 hours from start to finish. As a reminder this is a companion painting to Sun. Oil on linen 24 inches by 24 inches.  The two will hang together in my yoga studio until time they find a new home. Here they are together as they are intended to be:
  

 

 

 

 

 

 

 

And here is the process from beginning to end.

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