Water Balloon Challenge

I'd really like to thank Carol Marine for coming up with this weeks challenge. Painting water balloons. They were a challenge, getting shadows and values on translucent objects. I placed them in a sunny spot, hoping the water areas would show.

The more important lesson is how much fun water balloons can be for a good sport. Filling these up with water really brings out the inner child. Good memories of childhood and summers gone by. It also helps if you can run fast.

Egg challenge

Broken egg. Painting is harder than it appears. Every drawing class has you draw an egg or two. Very interesting study painting the egg whites. Lots of reflection, things are never as they first appear. A lot of shades and shadow in a white egg shell.

Complimentary Peach

Blue - Orange challenge, or in this case a peach.

Complementary Pear Challenge

Since the complementary challenge of last week, I have discovered the richness of color. The challenge : take a color in the above case yellow, add the complementary color, purple, add a shade lighter and a shade darker. You are right Layne, yummy greys happen.

Painted on a 6 x 6 inch canvas portrait canvas texture, with a depth of 3/8 inch.

Sunflower Save Me

An oil paint version of Pam's Sunflower. Still looking over the fence. Watching.

I used a brush and palette knife to try for a more abstract feel to this piece. I am going to miss this flower....I have fall and winter to learn how to grow my own for next season. Maybe start a notebook, or a journal on gardening.

This big guy is painted on an 11 x 14 inch canvas panel.

Summers last breath

Walking out in my backyard I saw this looming over my neighbors fence. Only one, but what a gorgeous sunflower. I have always wanted a row of these strange giants, but I heard from another neighbor the chipmunks were also very fond of these.

I photographed and painted this in a very different style for me. I m trying to go a little more on the abstract, but not quite there. I wanted to stretch my watercolors, making them more vivid than I usually paint.

The back to school rush almost over, some already back. This means one thing, summer is a heartbeat from becoming a memory.

Complementary Challenge

This is probably the most difficult challenge. I did what I thought it was asking. If not, no worries, paint over. I took this photo a couple of weeks ago of my neighbors front garden. I know it was the complementary colors that made this garden pop. The challenge was to take one of the complementary colors, I chose red, and used yellow red for one aspect, and dark red for the other side. Green was the complement, combined they made the greys in the background. Yellows and purple were added, and we're used for more greys.