Wednesday, December 31, 2014

Brass Bowl with Wine Bottles


When it comes to photographing oil paintings and getting faithful reproductions of the original there's a lot to learn.  I've read many sources on the subject, and I'm still floundering.  Then, to add further to the challenge, I'm trying out my new Nikon DSLR for the first time.  I've had a chance to review some of the manual settings and I was very pleased with the resulting picture. I was able to save it in Photoshop without any adjustments except for the normal cropping.  However, now I'm experiencing problems with imported image into Blogger.  The picture below is not the quality of the original image that I have in Photoshop.  I have not had this problem before.   Obviously more to learn! 

This simple still life is done on 12 x 12 linen panel.  I enjoy painting these still life setups.  They are truely painting "from life" - something I think most artists don't do enough of - but they will sit patiently for you as you struggle along...and even wait overnight for the next session.  I appreciate that!

Brass Bowl Oranges Apples and Wine Bottles   12 x 12 oil on linen panel




My Art Site: Bruce Hancock Fine Art

Thursday, December 11, 2014

".....home from the sea." Oil on canvas

"...home from the sea" started as a photo taken from my Hotel balcony in Ft. Bragg, California this fall.   I did a small oil study (8x10) to try out some approaches to the night scene and then did this 20 x 24 final painting.  The study was actually the second I've done of night scenes in Noyo Harbor and this is the first larger painting done from either.  I plan to start the second one shortly.

I've really enjoyed trying to capture this night scene.  The fact that there is some intense light in the scene which illuminates other portions of the painting to differing degrees adds to the challenge.  The water is Ultramarine with Thalo Green added to darken the value...and just a touch of Cad Red Medium to gray it slightly.  I used Rembrandt Cold Gray extensively in mixes with other colors, particularly in the buildings and dock of the middle distance.

Overall this image is slightly lighter than the painting, and even of the picture used to import the image, but it's reasonably close.  

home from the sea   20 x 24" oil on stretched canvas
This painting is available framed or unframed.  Please contact me by email for more information

This is the 8 x 10 study done in preparation:
Home from the Sea  Oil Study on 8 x 10 canvas panel



My Art Site: Bruce Hancock Fine Art