Rob’s Waterco☺ler

Been working on this for a few days.  Inspired from a 2004 trip with the USS Truman Carrier Strike Group.  Formation traveling through the Straits of Hormuz.  View from the flight deck of a Flight 2A Aegis DDG with the back nets down.

HB, 2B and 8B graphite on 100 lbs Lana paper, 14×17

Came home from work and needed to at least finish the rough of this 14×17 drawing.  Now it can sit a few days until I figure out what to do with it next, or be done with it.

The weekend after Christmas is a great time to do art with Dad!  I am working on a drawing of Pre-USS Mason DDG 87 being built in Bath Iron Works, Bath ME in 2002.  Kids are going through the box of pictures and drawing dogs

Ship progressing well.  14×17 inches on Lana 100lbs paper…nice paper to draw with.  My favorite

Kids in the art room.

Show and tell time.

I started on a 10 x 14 watercolor of Gina tonight.  I got as far a getting a good reference drawing down on the hot pressed (smooth) watercolor paper.  It gives me a real good idea of the values and lets me make sure I have all the proportions correct before I put paint down.  After I sleep on it for awhile I will fix anything and then start painting

When she (Gina) see’s this she will kill me ’cause I do not think she is too keen on being painted, but oh well, I like working on attractive subjects

The picture is from the Middleburg Virginia trip the other weekend by the way.

Rob

Last night we had tornadoes and other severe weather come through Northern Virgina and it knocked out the power and Internet to much of the region.  We had power, but no Cable, Telephone or Internet.  I took advantage of the free time to add some watercolor to this pencil sketch I started the other day on the Manassas Battlefield.  Not sure it improved the picture, but it was a good exercise in using colors.

Rob

This painting of the Clifton Virginia General Store is moving along slowly and methodically.  The real trick here is getting all the greens working correctly, while maintaining the accuracy of the true colors.  Of all the colors in the rainbow, green is the hardest for me to work with.  Go figure, it is also my favorite color, especially with orange.

Rob

Today was a great day to work outside.  I went to Clifton Virgina with my good painting friend Lou ( from NOVAL ).   At 9:30 I was set up in front of the old general store and Lou took refuge next to the display rail car.  I spent nearly 3 hours working the details of the 16 x 20 drawing (on 140lbs cold pressed paper) of the store.  Much care was taken to get the details as acurate as possible as this is likely to be an attractive piece which may sell at one of the summer shows. 

People like Clifton , not just because it is a picturesque town in the middle of the hustle and bustle of Washington DC.  It is also a very down to earth place to visit and hang out.  Today there was at least one other painter out besides me and Lou, and a photographer.  I hope the folks in Clifton appreciate the little bit of paradise they have.

Rob 

Above is a watercolor painting I am working on from today’s en plein air painting in Manassas.  I happened to catch this little sparrow sitting on the train tracks.  Must be waiting for the VRE to come through

Anyways, this is on 16 x 20 140 lbs cold pressed paper and the next step will be to add the watercolor.  Sometimes I like to really develop a drawing directly on the watercolor paper before putting down paint.  I used a blending stump to get the nice graduated tonal effect throughout.  It certainly makes for an interesting picture in the end.

Rob

Well today I went painting en plein air with several Manassas Art Guild members in Old Town Manassas.  We set up at the Historic Manassas Train Station and I took a shot at oil painting with a palette knife.  I will tell you that this is NOT something to do for the first time in the middle if a busy down town, en plain air!  I felt so good about the painting that I left it in the garage and will go back at it in a few days to see if I can get it right.

So after I abandoned that folly, I decided to sketch one of my fellow artist.  All in all it was a great time and the weather was fantastic.   See some of the photos.  Tommorrow I am going to Clifton Virgina to get another look at some of the historic structures.

Rob

I am working on the and painstakingly putting in water details and lily pads.  When I get further along, I will post an update.  Till then, here are four recent doodles/sketches from my .