Shade in Mexico

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As I slowly process what I learned from the online tutorials I recently watched (by John Burton and Nathan Fowkes) I find myself wanting to pull out old reference material and look with fresh eyes for potential paintings. This one is from a trip to San Miguel (Mexico) I took with some buddies a couple of years ago. The "thing" to the right of the skirted lady is a big bunch of balloons and toys being held by a guy who (I'm guessing here) was trying to sell as many as possible to us tourists. But the thing that really grabbed me about this scene was the split between light and shadow. It was tricky to get all the value relationships just right, but I'm really happy with how it turned out.

Water Channel

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I struggled with this one. Actually, I painted it, wiped it off completely, and painted it again, all in one day. These little people paintings are taking longer and longer it seems. Why? It takes forever to get those tiny little faces right! Even when they are very "suggested." And I guess my standards are going up. This is me feeling very frustrated right now. This is me calling it a day and pouring myself a drink. Bye.

Shady Parking

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Here's another little scene from Mexico. I took the photos for this on a walk to the Aurora, a fancy area with a ton of galleries.

A Colorful Commute

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I always want to say, in my posts, "Here's an experiment," because really, they always are! Every single painting is totally new for me. I might paint similar scenes over again, but never the same exact thing. Even if I have a do-over, I'm trying it a new way, because obviously the first way didn't work (duh). And this is the tough thing about painting, because doing something new every time is hard. But it also keeps me perpetually entertained. In fact, the only time I get bored is when I get in a rut and only paint the kinds of things I already know will work.

So here's an experiment. The photo (taken in Mexico) was pretty boring, so I spiced it up with some extra color. I love the stark contrast of warm/cool from light to shadow. Spicy!

Where to Now?

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Here's another one from San Miguel (Mexico). I just loved the shadows cast by the tall buildings in the center of town (El Centro). Also, there's only foot traffic in some areas, which is pretty much heaven for a people painter like me. : )

Loaded Down

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I didn't have time to paint when I was in Mexico (San Miguel de Allende), but I took pictures whenever I could. Here's the first "scene" that caught my eye.