Bathing beauty

Oil on canvas, 30x40 cm, not title.

The fun thing about not having a sketch or a pre-thought desing is that painting becomes an surprising adventure. The only thing I knew when I started with this painting was that it was going to be a portrait.  The expression, style, colours and the scene came as I painted. This painting started off with some really quick and lose brush strokes with acrylics, and from there I continued with oils. First, I attempted a loose style, which I kind of liked. But then I messed it up. Then I attempted a more "classic" painting style, but the result bored me, so I wiped it off. This morning I started out with a fresh mind, and I decided to paint it more like the manner I paint my house-paintings.

I wonder if the ligth blue line in the bottom right corner is too strong? Perhaps I will adjust it a little bit.

Different

Acrylic and oil on canvas, 18x34 cm, no title.

Different expression than usual. With just a lay-out with acrylics, this painting is painted today with oils. Was dissatisfied with the first try, so I wiped off the paint with a palet knife. Kind of liked the structure on the house that appeared. And I decided I wanted a lighter foreground, as opposed to the dark foreground I had on the first go.Not at all perfect, perhaps even bad, but here it is.

Acrylics and oil

Acrylic and oil on canvas, 18x24, no title.

Ah, it felt like a relief to finnish the painting with oil. It is a much more satisfying medium to work with. The advantage of painting wiht acrylics is that they dry really fast so I can continue building on the painting quickly. But finnishing with oil feels great.

Winter

Acrylics on canvas, 18x 24 cm, no title.

I have used many days on this painting, all though you cannot believe that when you see these simple shapes. But it has been through many stages of varying bright colours and different scenes, before I stripped it down boths in terms of shapes and colours.

Figure drawing

 I need to practice my drawing skills. I love to draw figures so I really should start attending croquis sessions. But for these quick drawings with ink, I had a look in the book by Bill Buchman "Expressive figure drawing". You learn a lot by copying other artists so I think I will make more of these drawings.It is so fun and satisfying to draw in this quick and loose style.

Summer house?

Acylics on canvas, 18x24 cm.

A summer house? I feel I am in a small struggling period, the paintings are not daily paintings at the moment, more sort of a-couple-of-weeks paintings. I am not quite satisfied with this one either, but force myself to finnish it sort of, and post it. I think the darker blue should be somewhat different, but I cannot find the right blue. Perhaps it will come later. Besides, I am also struggling a bit with the acrylics, I just recently bought acrylics from the brand Amsterdam, but I am not quite sure if I like them. I would appreciate tips on brands that works well for other artists. What do professional artists use??