Mini paintings

Ships Point Bird in Tall Grass

I'm doing a challenge where I paint 1 small painting a day for 100 days. The other part of the challenge - which I put upon myself - is that all the paintings must be scenes through windows. I've just completed day 23. Most of the paintings are in acrylics, because I don't need to wait for paint to dry, but I've done a few in WMOs. For these two, I started both of them yesterday and got the underpainting/backgrounds done, and then completed them both today. They are 8x10, which is the biggest size I'm doing in this challenge, most of the others are 6x8 and 5x7 - it just depends on availability of canvas. I need to stock up tomorrow!

These are great! I like how you did the grass.
I've heard other artists mention the 100 paintings/100 days before - is there a website about it? Seems like a good exercise to build your "painting muscles".

Very nice paintings Sofie! How did you do the grass? I agree with Callie it's very well done. Neat idea with the scenes through windows.

Thanks Callie and Janet

Janet, I did the background for the grass yesterday, so it could dry a bit, using a bit of stand oil with the paints to get it to flow and blend well. Today I stroked on the grasses lightly, but thickly, trying my best to prevent the paint from mixing with the undercoat. I just did random stalks in random colours, the darker tones first and then highlighting with the yellows and off whites.

Yes, there is a website, but I've not been there. I found out about it from another artist who is doing it. It is a good exercise, not just for the continued practice, but also because it gets you to stretch your imagination and try new things. Coming up with a new subject every day can be quite tricky. I've done afew variations on the same theme. And sometimes I decide to do a big painting, based on how the little one worked.

Please feel free to keep sharing your daily paintings. It will be fun to watch how you progress and see what you come up with for your through the window subjects.

most of the mini paintings have been done in acrylics, but the last few days I have been using oils. I loved the way the wso blended for this evening light on the water pic.

What an outstanding view out the window. I love the colors.
Judy

Beautiful

Thanks Judy and Callie

Great abstraction going on in this one Sofie! Can't wait to see how you progress!

These exercises are tremendously useful to hone your skill I find. If I had more time, I'd do lots more. For a while last summer, I was doing 10-15 min. studies of the sun setting on small canvas paper (4 x 6 or so). I would do 3-5 in a row, each showing the progression of the sunset. It really helped me improve my skies fast!

Thanks Chantal! I just completed day 45 - you can see them all on my website. I admit to being a tad ahead, so some of the ones I'm posting here haven't been posted there yet. The majority of the ones I've already posted on my website are done in acrylics but the last few days I've been having fun with my WSOs.

this one is of a sunset I've always wanted to paint because it was so striking, but I'm also a little wary of painting sunsets, so the mini painting was the perfect opportunity to try it out

this one is of the witch hazel in my front yard that blooms a few days after Christmas every year. The buds are just about ready to break open now, but I took the reference photo for this last January. I enjoy painting witch hazel.

Sofie, I really like the sunset one. The colors are very nice. The witch hazel looks very well rendered.

Wow Sofie, these are great - I love that sunset and yes, they can be difficult! Try doing one plein air! I haven't succeeded yet, but have done many, many studies.

I checked your website and you have so many fantastic paintings! I particularly love your winter scenes and stained-glass look paintings. Mostly because I'm in that sort of wintery mood I guess. What a great challenge and what a great way to produce pieces that go so well together for a show! If I thought it were in any way realistic, I'd take on that challenge too... maybe when the kids are a bit more grown up I like the idea of experimenting with paintings you might not attempt on a larger scale. And I think these little paintings done in a sitting are less "contrived" and more spontaneous.

Thanks Janet and Chantal.

My kids are all grown up, Chantal, so it makes it a bit easier for me to take on a challenge like this, though I have my 3yo grandson quite a bit - I often give him his own canvas and brush to keep him away from mine.

This one is of rosehips. As with the others I started with an orange-toned underpainting on my canvas - this time not much of it shows through at all.
I did not do any preliminary drawing, just painted using a photo as a reference. I painted in the background thinly, using a thinner with my paints, then left it while I painted something else. When I came back to it I was able to paint the branches and berries overtop without any problems. I touched up the background a bit and then intensified the more prominent branches to give more depth. Then I left to dry a bit before taking off the masking tape and colouring in the mullions of the window.

You don't need to be wary any more about your sunsets. This one is beautiful.
I can see Chantel's point about plein air. The sky changes from second to second. that is why I always use photos.

Judy

Sofie, First thing that I thought when I saw your painting is great depth. I see from what you wrote that part of your process was to acheive depth.

Thanks Judy and Janet.
Yes Judy, catching the light in plein air painting is a real challenge. I'll usually take a few photos as I'm working in case I want to finish the painting in the studio.

Here are three paintings of robins in the mountain ash I did at the end of November. These are even smaller because they're only 5x7. These were the first of the mini paintings I did with WSOs. I took photos of the robin in the tree with my zoom full on - not an easy task. they all ended up a bit blurry, but good enough for my purpose because I didn't want to paint detailed studies. As you can see, I got looser as I went along.

I'm sorry Sofie but for me your pics are the size of a postage stamp but from what I can see they look lovely.

lol - yes they are quite tiny, but I didn't want to post the bigger size and takke up all that room. I'm going to experiment with the sizing until I find a happy medium.

I love all your mini's. I was wondering how you got the lines of the mullions so as straight. I never thought about masking tape with my WSO. Is it just plain masking tape something special?
Judy

Thanks Judy.

The first few I did, I drew in the lines and followed them, but it was too time consuming. I don't like using masking tape normally, especially because there's always seepage, but with these the seepage doesn't affect me because when I take the tape off to paint the mullions, I simply cover it up. I don't retape as there is no need, I follow the lines - anyway, the rest of the paint it still wet. I'm using the green masking tape, mainly because it was what was at hand. I'm taping staight onto unpainted canvas. I'm not sure how taping on a painted surface would work as I've never tried it. I think the paint would have to be completely dry first.

thank sofie for the information. I know there is a blue painter's tape for house painting that does allow seepage, but I think it only has adhesive on one edge.
Judy