Screech Owl

 "Screech Owl" (pastel, 8x6 inches) bid or buy

Here's the star of Saturday's Paint-Along - the Screech Owl! This one's a little different... Instead of my usual pastel primer underpainting, I used some UArt paper  that had some pastel washed in with alcohol, something I had left over from someone else's workshop months ago. I figured I'd put it to use! So instead of building an acrylic-based underpainting, I basically started with a value drawing of the owl using a black Rembrandt pastel.

 See a quick speed video here!

Day 24 of 28: "Moo Mime"

 

Day 24 of 28: "Moo Mime" (formerly Moomime) pastel, 6x6 inches. bid or buy

Moomime was a cute little white face calf I painted years ago, and it never sold. Personally I suspect it was because of the atypical off-centeredness, with the left ear cropped. Also, on further study, the values were not quite right in the face. So it's been hanging in my studio waiting for me to fix it. I needed a quick painting right before heading out to my Rockport workshop, so I decided to tackle this.

I decided what she needed was a back-tilt to that ear to get it away from the frame edge, some better shadow values in the face, and maybe a few other tweaks.
So I searched my photo files for some dark tilted ears on cows, and used a few to reference how Moomime's ear might look in that position. I also thinned her down a bit, and of course corrected the face shadow values. Then I had fun adding some colors not seen in the photo!

To celebrate her rebirth, I've slightly edited her name to "Moo Mime" (I always thought her face looked like mime makeup 🙂)

Enjoy these progress pics showing how I gave Moo Mime a makeover!

And, see a few of the original, pre-makeover progress pics here.

Day 19 of 28: "Lyra"

 

"Lyra" (pastel, 10x10 inches) $390 unframed for a limited time.

 I have several medium sized works planned in this month of paintings (10x10 is "medium" for me!) I managed to get this one half done yesterday and finished today. As the works get larger, the strokes must get larger and looser. I'm pretty happy with this one. But I have painted her twice before from the same pic and I've always loved how the light looks... 

See progress pics and the reference photos here!

Day 15 of 28: "Nio"

 

Day 15 of 28: "Nio" (pastel, 6x6 inches) bid or buy

Nio is a young Pygmy goat. I have a gazillion pics of his parents, siblings, cousins, aunts and friends belonging to a friend of mine. They're so much fun to visit in the springtime. All that silly jumping and bleating.

See progress pics here!

Cowconut

 

"Cowconut" (pastel, 5x5 inches) Click here to bid or buy!

Goodness! I almost forgot this little white calf that has been hanging out in my studio since the Minnesota workshop in October! Time to get her posted!

See progress pics here!

Fiesta Llama - Day 20 of 21-in-31

 

"Fiesta Llama" (pastel, 12x6 inches)

This llama has very dark fur, but in the sunlight somehow it all got very colorful. I guess that happens sometimes with my paintings.

See progress pictures here!

On auction for one week only at Dailypaintworks!

"Monke" - Day 17 of 21-in-31

 

"Monke" (pastel, 6x6 inches) On auction for one week only at DailyPaintworks.

This would have been the third painting in my workshop triple-demo, if I had finished it then. I finished it today instead. I'm not quite sure what kind of monkey this is, but my son and I think he looks kinda like a monk (in a homespun cowled hood) so we're calling him Monke.

Watch a quick GIF here!

Brahms - Day 16 of 21-in-31

 

"Brahms" (pastel. 12x6 inches, sold)
My opening demo for the workshop this past weekend. I like these half-face compositions sometimes, it really makes one look at the lines and value patterns. I even came back in from a short break partway through and for a half-second could not recognize what it was! 😂

The workshop was exhausting and wonderful and it was great to get back into some real life in-person communication!
Enjoy this speed video of Brahms the Brahman steer.
Here's a group shot of my talented students and me!

Little Beggar - Day 11 of 21-in-31

 

"Little Beggar" (pastel, 5x7 inches)

I met this young deer at a wildlife refuge on my travels, and she was begging for food at my car window! I thought the foreshortened pose would be interesting to paint.

Click here to see some progress pictures of "Little Beggar"!

On auction for a limited time at Dailypaintworks!

Red Red - Day 10 of 21-in-31

"Red Red" (pastel, 10x10 inches)

Here's the horse portrait I mentioned yesterday on the post for "Sa Sa". This makes a complete set for this client!

"Sa Sa" (pastel, 12x9 inches)

"Tuan Tuan" (pastel, 10x10 inches)

"Dot Dot" (pastel, 8x6 inches)

 

Watch a quick speed video of Red Red's painting process here!

Fuzzy Puppy - Day 7 of 21-in-31

 

"Fuzzy Puppy" (pastel,  10x10 inches)

 This fuzzy puppy is one of four pet portrait commissions for a client this month. I finished her Chihuahua a couple days ago, and have another dog and a horse to go! Hopefully I'll get to post the Chihuahua tomorrow.

Click here to watch a quick speed video of this pup's painting process!

Poppy - Day 6 of 21-in-31

 

"Poppy" (pastel, 7x5 inches) bid or buy here

Happy Birthday and Merry Christmas to me! I found this painting that had not been posted yet. Somehow it got overlooked in the computer for months! I had finished it at the last minute before delivering several small paintings to my solo show opening in March, and it just got swept up with the others and somehow missed being posted. 

SO! Since it's still available I've decided to count it towards my 21 paintings to post this month. Poppy will take the place of a painting I did today that I probably won't be posting because it was a "copy" of another recent painting that a client wanted me to paint for them because they missed out on buying it first. I don't do copies very often, but when I do, I don't really like to post them if they're from a painting that was recent.

See a nifty little GIF of Poppy here!

Gothart - Day 5 of 21-in-31

 

"Gothart" (pastel, 8x10 inches) bid or buy here

This was one of the underpaintings I had in my last batch. I hadn't finished a painting in a couple days; I've been working hard on more underpaintings for several commissions. This face has been calling to me because I really was pleased with the freshness of the underpainting and I thought I might be able to get the pasteling done fairly quickly too... so I jumped right on it after completing the commissions' underpaintings. It wasn't quite as quick as I'd hoped, but I'm happy with the result anyway.

BTW, here's a peek at most of the underpaintings I've got going now.... The dogs and horse and dove are commissions:

I'll probably be pasteling one of these at Monday's Virtual Open Studio, Aug 9. If you'd like to join us you can register on my site here!

And visit this page to see some progress pics of Gothart the goat!

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And in case you missed this message earlier...
 
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SO! If you're receiving this post via email, I thank you for your subscription, but you will no longer be getting these delivered to you from my Google Blog after this month.  
 
But don't despair! Here are two ways you can still get my (almost) Daily Paintings in your inbox!
 
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#2 - Follow my public Patreon Posts. Sure, Patreon is a subscription-based creative support platform, but you don't have to pay anything for my public posts, and just about all of my new work gets posted on my Patreon page, usually with cool little extras like progress pics or short speed videos! CLICK HERE to go to my Patreon Page and right below the membership levels, next to a button that says "share" is a button that says "follow". It's that easy! (Browse around my other free posts while you're in there..)
 
Thanks so much for liking my work and following my blog. Here's to many more years of following my Website or my Patreon, and to many more years of creating!

Guertie, Guernsey Cow - Day 2 of 21-in-31

 

"Guertie, Guernsey Cow" - Day 2 of 21-in-31 (pastel, 5x5 inches)

This little cow was painted during my last Virtual Online Studio day, but I'm counting it towards my goal because it hasn't been publicly posted before now.

See a quick GIF of Guertie's painting process here!

On auction for a limited time at Dailypaintworks!

Tika Closeup - Day 1 of 21-in-31

 

"Tika Closeup" (pastel, 14x11 inches) $590 framed

I have a ton of great pics of this fuzzy Barbados sheep, which is a beloved pet of a friend. I painted Tika's portrait years ago, and finally decided to use another of the reference pics for a new painting. This started as a demo for the New Braunfels Art League last month, and I just finished yesterday.

See some progress pictures here!

Speaking of the New Braunfels Art League, I'll be teaching a workshop there this month, August 20-22. there are just a few spaces left! More info here.

And, yes, my numbered post title means I've decided to take up a new Daily Painting Challenge for August! I'm calling it a "21-in-31" meaning I'll post 21 new paintings this month. The June 30-in-30  was quite exhausting so I'm hoping this modified goal goes a little bit easier...

Here's Tika in her frame!

 

Day 8 of 30 - Backyard Baby

Day 8 of 30 paintings in June - "Backyard Baby" (pastel, 7x5 inches) bid or buy here for a limited time

This sweet fox lives in our back yard. He usually only comes out at night, but I managed to get a few pics one evening when the sun was just setting. He was just a youngster then. My husband has seen him recently and says he's much bigger now. 

The photo I took was much cooler in tone, but the underpainting colors I use helped create a warmer look!

See the reference photo and a little speed video of this baby here!

Angel

“Angel” (pastel, 10x8 inches) $350 unframed for a limited time, or $430 framed.

My opening demo from last weekend’s workshop in Virginia. I had originally planned this little heifer as a 4x6, but decided to draw her larger for better visibility in the classroom.
During her painting process, I found myself making the shadowed side of her face too light for my chosen background, because of the dark the background in the photo making that shadow look far brighter. So I wiped that off on Sunday and tweaked the contrasts to better suit the lighter background.

See progress shots below:

Here, the blue-ish shadowed side of the face had gotten too light, and was blending in to the background...  a face is not usually where one would like to have a “lost edge”!

So, my final tweaks involved wiping off the too-light blues and keeping them slightly darker when re-painting. Combined with some subtle lightening of the background blues...  Voila!

Tomorrow starts my last workshop of this summer trip, at Painted Views Ranch in Florence TX. So the flow of new paintings will continue for the next few days! Monday I’ll be home and back to the grind of normal life...

Blue Boy

“Blue Boy” (pastel over acrylic/pumice primers, 8x8 inches) $300 unframed for a limited time, or $375 framed.

This plump Angus bull was my final animal demo in Greensboro last week. I’ve been trying to demo at least one painting in each new workshop that will demonstrate my new blue primer color in my under-painting. I’m ready finding it exciting, but it needs a definite “blue-ness” to the animal for best impact. This bull is mostly the under-painting! ...Which I guess would make him technically a mixed-media rather than pastel...
But the terra cotta primer and the ultramarine layer up so well together!

For a pretty good description of this process with the blue, read my post for “Blue Bunny”!

The only difference with this bull was that I forgot to put some terra cotta before the blue and layered it in between instead... but got the nice deep dark effect I was hoping for anyway!

See progress shots below:

 This is what the finished under-painting looked like! Not much more to do!

Lumi

“Lumi” (pastel, 7x5 inches) $200 unframed for a limited time, or $265 framed

Lumi means “snow” in Finnish. This was one of my triple-demo from my VA workshop over the weekend.

Next weekend, August 3-5, I’ll be giving another workshop in Florence TX. There are still a few spaces available! Treat yourself to an art vacation! See more info on my workshop page or click the flyer below:

Some progress shots of Lumi:

And here are a couple of really cool panoramic shots one of my students took of the classroom!

The workshop was held at the St. Paul’s Heritage Center in Edinburg VA. Very cool place!

Blue Bill

 “Blue Bill” (pastel, 12x6 inches) sold

This was the third in my triple demo from my workshop in Woodstock VA this weekend. I didn’t quite have enough time to finish him on Saturday so I made him my first demo on Sunday morning.

The workshop went went very well; lots of raw talent and various styles among the students!

I’m heading back to Texas today; I’ll get to Florence TX by Thursday for my last workshop of the trip, at Painted Views Ranch next weekend, August 3-5.

There are still a few spaces left in that one... to register contact Kirk at paintedviewsranch@gmail.com, and visit my workshop page (https://ritakirkman.com/page/14193/workshops-and-shows) for more info!

Meanwhile, here are a few progress shots of Blue Bill:

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