Progress on my Tangelo

Here is a progress shot of my little 8X10 tangelo painting. I know this is rather simple, but this little painting represents some real breakthroughs for me.  This has been really fun to paint and I have managed to keep it much looser than my normal paintings. My goal is to paint realism, but still have it look painterly.  This is hard for me with my illustrator background. I tend to want things smooth and clean, which somehow takes the life out of a painting for me.  I'll keep pushing...wish me luck.

Another Start

I've started another little painting.  This one is a tangello. Here is a progress shot.  I'm trying to use bigger brushes, stay a little looser and vary my edges a bit.  We'll see if I can do it.

Here are some paintings in frames. It's amazing what a frame can do to make a painting look better/different.  I still need to varnish these so they may look a little better when I'm done.

First 3 DONE!

It's kind of fun to look at my first 3 paintings together. I'm not happy with everything about these.. (that's the hard part about being an artist, nothing I do is ever good enough) What I am happy with is the fact that I'm painting again and having fun trying to improve. I can do better, I"m sure of that.  Let's see what Feb '2016 brings.

idea

Most daily painters have painted an orange or tangerine at least once. So this isn't anything too original, but I was thinking I could step back and paint something a bit more simple and try to push  color and brushwork a little. This was a sketch out of my mind while thinking along those lines.
Not sure if anyone comes here anymore, but check back soon to see how this one progresses.

Progress

I'm happy with the progress on this painting. I don't know if I'm learning or remembering how to paint, but it seems to be getting a little easier....at least on this painting.

another start.

Here is the very beginning of another painting. These are some beach rocks gathered up by a neighbor of mine.  She has several of these buckets on her porch and when I saw them I thought they might make a cool painting...we'll see.

calling this one done.

This painting had a few moments of fun. Every time I paint now, I wish I would have continued painting and not let life get in the way so that I could draw on that experience now. "If wishes were fishes...." Can't look back now, just need to keep moving forward.

last progress post

Thought I'd post one more progress post. I thought I'd finish this over the weekend, but this was as far as I got.  Almost there, slow progress.

progress

got in a little more time in on this last night.  Kind of just sloppy block in of rough color, but I was having fun doing it and I felt like I was getting in some what of a groove not worrying about much except just covering the canvas, now the fun will start.

new painting for the new year

I started a new painting a couple days ago. Here it is about an hour into it. I'm not sure when the timid stage will go away, but it is amazing how hard it is for me to start something new.  Hopefully this one will come together.  2016 needs to be a year of painting. I need to get back what I've lost and continue to improve from there. Comments welcomed!