For some reason, when I paint in oils I always produce extremely tight paintings. Landscapes are improving a bit, but I tend to rework still life subjects and lose all spontaneity. I tried doing this...
Some life drawing from last night. These were done in grey marker and graphite. Poses were about 5 minute (basically whenever the timekeeper had finished his drawing).
I hadn`t done one of these in ages, and when this sketchbook arrived I had a difficult time finding inspiration. The theme is rêveries – dreams – or maybe daydreams is a better translati...
update : this post is from earlier in the week but I hadn’t been able to publish until now. I did try to keep up with the Every Day in May Sketching Challenge, but then internet went down for ...
I haven`t been too happy with my artwork lately and so have been keeping it to myself. Wendy Shortland has invited me to join her Every Day in May sketching project, though, so it`s time to wake up ...
The Loire Originally uploaded by csytoussaint A postcard – sized sketch for a friend`s framing project. I`m trying to make a decent oil painting out of this scene as well.
I’ve been doing pretty regular life drawing for a few years now. At first I made progress relatively quickly, having done quite a lot of life drawing when I was in my twenties. But in the last...
I have 2 black and white cats, a very portly, timid male and a fearless female kitten, who bosses him around with no mercy. When they`re sleeping, they make pretty good models.
A friend of mine asked me to do some small drawings of her cat for a framing project she’s working on (she needs 3). Here are a few preliminary ones. I’m working from photos, and I find...
This one is quite large. Number 37
cross-posted here I’m calling this a landscape because there is a horizon in it, although it’s really just a sky study….The camera filtered out all the yellow tones for some reason, and made th...
I’ve been distracted while doing life drawing lately, which has had a negative effect on both the quality of my drawing and my enjoyment of the time spent doing it. On Tuesday evening I could ...
I have had a hard time getting back into painting (not to mention blogging and even visiting blogs) this fall. Anyway, I have finally broken through to the other side of whatever was keeping me from...
Anybody who is wondering where I disappeared to lately – here’s one of the things that’s been keeping me occupied. I’m sure you’ve heard of the Sketchbook Project, it...
First of all, if you have received any weird messages or wall postings from my facebook account – please delete them. My account was hacked into while I was away. We just got back from a trip ...
While in the States recently, I was lucky enough to meet up with Shirley on the night she goes to a life drawing session at the New York Society of Illustrators. We met up with another artist and goo...
I’ve been missing in action most of the summer, and now I’m off to the States to help my Mom pack up her (recently sold) house. This summer flew by, and we’ve been so busy with fri...
We spent last week in Brittany with friends, and I did do a bit of sketching. I was too lazy to do anything more than scribble. I hope to get back into working a little harder now that I’ll...
A little over a year ago, I sent my little fold-out sketchbook on a trip around France, to South Africa, and even California. I named it ‘Paysages Urbains’ (Urban Landscapes) and waited ...
Sitting in a café next to the market in Toulon, I grabbed a 6b pencil and started sketching the people at the table next to me. I had forgotten what a wonderful medium graphite is to work in. Altho...
I’ve had a hard time sitting at my computer these last few weeks, due to a brutal heat wave here in France, coupled with technical difficulties with my scanner that makes posting pictures a mul...
I didn’t much feel like painting today, but once I got going it was ok. This is from a photo I took a couple of days ago, but accurately reflects the weather we are having today. No particular prog...
Our local government here in Amboise (France) works hard to create events and attract even more tourists to what is a pretty busy little place in the summer months. Tourists from all over come to see...
I had an awful time painting a landscape from the photo I chose to work with this week – I wasted days on it and was ready to give up oil painting altogether. I couldn’t work out exactly...
This is from a photo I took in Turkey. The light was tricky – it must have been around noon. Oil painting is certainly a lot easier on a linen canvas than on those cheap panels I’ve been using.
This is number 30 for me in the 100 landscapes project. I’m finally starting to get value in the landscape. Funny how much easier it is for me to get it right in a still life… And it oc...
Another Brittany picture, done from a photo. Nita, an excellent painter, has been stopping by and leaving helpful comments since I started this project. Yesterday, she sent me the link to the blog f...
I finally went out and bought some purple paint – I’m trying to stick to a very limited palette, but this painting was supposed to be about purple. I started scraping off the wall color,...
Some sketches done around the city when I was there a couple of weeks ago. What an amzing place, from the little I saw. I’m dying to go back there and spend more time. This one is wonky becau...
Here are some more quick impressions jotted down during my recent trip to Turkey. A bit of the library at Ephesus: A couple of views from our hotel in Sirince and some sketches from a café in the sam...
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