Atmospheric Perspective Study, part 1

I'm not the best planner when it comes to my painting. I sat down Thursday evening to do a simple practice sketch of atmospheric perspective and color mixing. Mountains receding into the distance.

Desert Mountains, block in (oils on canvas, 16 by 20)

Then I got to the point where I realized I should actually try to make a painting out of this since I had used a 16" by 20" canvas (albeit a cheap one).

Desert Mtns, adding foreground (oils on canvas, 16 by 20)

So now I am stuck with trying to figure out how to backfill a composition in the bottom half of the canvas when all I had really paid any attention to was a first layer of blocking in on the top half.

Desert Mountains, sunset sky (oils on canvas, 16 by 20)

Not sure where this will end up, but I may be able to salvage something out of this. More to come...

The Last of Its Kind

For pretty much all of both girls' school years, we have had a tradition of taking a picture in the kitchen on the first day of school right before they leave for the school bus (or to drive in these days).

There is a front shot.

Grace, Fall 2012, 3rd grade

And a side shot.

Grace, Fall 2012, 3rd grade

Julia is done school and this is Grace's senior year. So for one final time...

There is a front shot.

Grace, Fall 2021, Senior Year

And a side shot.

Grace, Fall 2021, Senior Year

I'm not sure if it makes me more happy or sad to see them grow up. Happy. I guess.

Marching Band (Football) Season Begins!

Last night the Garnet Valley football team (and marching band) kicked off Grace's senior season.

We always begin the season with our one non-Central League game, and Coach Ricci likes to schedule the toughest competition he can find in order to test our team, which for much of the last decade has been the cream of the Central League. Downingtown West (DW) has been on the schedule several times recently, being consistently one of the best programs in southeastern PA over the last bunch of years. They routinely have a number of division 1 recruits, which is something we don't. In 2019 we opened with DW and hung tough for a while before their combo of a division 1 quarterback and division 1 receiver put the game away. We then went undefeated through the rest of the season and (I think) three rounds into the playoffs before losing to DW again in the divisional finals.

Drum Majors' addresses, last night of band camp

So this year, we were scheduled to start with an away game at Downingtown West... We went into the game with the knowledge that we were believed to have the best team we have had in years, maybe ever, but we were still not expected to win the game. DW is huge, with 4 of their 5 offensive linemen over 6'4" tall and 250 pounds. We just don't have that kind of size.

What we do have is tremendous coaching, a great system, and a whole lot of heart.

Loading the band buses, game 1

We took the opening kickoff, ran 3 plays for a first down, and then broke a Shane Reynolds 61-yard run off right tackle for a touchdown one minute into the game. He simply outran the field. We kicked off, and on DW's first play we tipped a pass attempt straight up into the air as it left the quarterback's hand, picked it off and ran it back for a touchdown. 14-0 good guys 97 seconds in.

We run the ball. A lot. But in the second quarter, our QB completed 3 passes (out of 5 attempts for the game). These 3 passes happened to be touchdowns to Sean Gallagher of 76, 24 and 52 yards. [Our QB's final stat line for the game was 3 for 5 for 152 yards and 3 TDs - not a bad average of 51 yards per completion...]

It got real quiet in the stadium with our Jaguars dominating every phase of the game, and leading 34-0 at the half.

Then came the good stuff. The band. We are a smallish band of ~105 members (including color guard) this year, and aim to be as good as we can be without being fanatically serious about it. We welcome all...

It's hard to describe the pride that I felt as the band marched onto the field for their first abbreviated halftime performance with Grace as one of the three drum majors. In the picture below she is the taller girl on the viewer's right as they march onto the field (among the 3 in white socks and shoes). [Some day I'll learn how to edit the video to make it fit the upload limits...] It's early in the season and ridiculously hot and humid. We will wear the casual uniform of show shirt, khaki shorts, black socks and black marching shoes for the first 2 or 3 games, heat depending, before we go to the full uniform. Drum majors have white shoes and socks.

Garnet Valley HS Marching Band takes the field

The second half was fun. We scored on another Shane Reynolds TD run in the 3rd quarter to go up 41-0 before our backups allowed a garbage TD early in the 4th quarter, and then holding the ball on a 9+ minute drive to grind out the clock.

I'm still basking in the afterglow of the win. DW was considered to be the number 1 team in the whole area going into the season, and we completely dominated them in every aspect of the game. Hopefully we can stay healthy and continue to play well. I don't think motivation will be an issue. Coach Ricci, who has been our coach for a long time and is a GV institution/legend (for building us into the program we are) has announced his retirement following this season. So this is his last team. I think they will maintain their focus.

As for the band, we have second and third movements to add to the show. Nine more games. Hopefully playoffs. Three competitions. Hershey at the end of the year. It should be fun.

There is also the ever-present reminder in this as to how fast time is passing. Grace and her best friend took this picture in 9th grade. A freshman saxophone and a freshman clarinet...

Grace and BF, 9th grade

...And then recreated the same picture last week, as a senior Field Major and a senior Drum Major.

Field Major and Drum Major

She's enjoying it. But I'm not 100% sure I am ready for this and all that will come throughout the year. The last high school everything for our little girl...

Tonalist Landscape

It's been busy these days with work, two weeks of band camp, and other assorted obligations, but I have managed to find the time every now and then to squeeze in some painting time. This evening I took a break from attending band camp and helping out, and did this tonalist landscape after dinner.

Fading Light (12" by 12" oils on canvas panel)

Once again, the photo doesn't really do it justice, but I'm pretty happy with the painting. It's a 12 inch by 12 inch canvas panel, painted in about an hour with a limited range of Charvin Fine Oils.

My hope was that this would give an impression of a landscape in fading light, leading to a distant body of water under a dramatic sky. It got at least somewhat there, I think....

Two Small Sketches

The first is a desert trail scene (at left). 4by 8 inches on a canvas panel, in oils.

Desert Trail (4 by 8)

The second is an abstract landscape, 4 by 6 on a canvas panel in oils.

Abstract Landscape (4 by 6)

Both were fun and took less than 10 minutes each. I didn't have much more time than this, but at least I got to play with paint... 

Mid-August Update

Lots of stuff going on these days, and not much time to keep the blog up to date. That being said...a quick mid-August update. For those few who stumble upon it...

For our first out-of-the-house vacation in two years, we spent a Monday to Friday at the Windrift in Avalon, NJ, a place we have been to a half dozen or so times in the past. The kids liked the beach and the pool. I liked that it was cooler and more overcast than usual.

Avalon NJ beach at evening

Two weeks of band camp commence this coming Monday, and with Grace being a Drum Major, I am very much looking forward to Grace's senior year in high school. And dreading it at the same time. My baby girl is on the verge of going to college... Sigh. But I am jumping ahead.

As far as painting goes, after six weeks or so of lethargy, I have begun painting again. This feels good. The following are all first-pass works in progress, with more layers to come once the first layers dry. Be kind...they are works in process. Also, I am still struggling with the "too good" camera issue, but I am too lazy to put much time into figuring it out...

A lake through the trees. 8 by 10 stretched canvas in oils. [in process]

Lake through the trees (8 by 10)

A stream through the fields. 9 by 12 canvas panel. [in process]

Stream through the fields (9 by 12)

Sunset behind the trees. 5 by 7 "postcard" canvas panel. Painted as a practice exercise limiting myself to a 5 minute sketch. These quick exercises don't always produce the best results, but are valuable in terms of trying to focus on colors, forms and overall impression.

Sunset behind the trees (5 by 7 "postcard" in 5 minutes)

Maybe I will add some commentary on the cluster-f%&$ that is the US peoples' response to Covid. Or maybe not. Suffice to say, working in healthcare, I find myself shaking my head many times each day when reflecting on the situation we continue to face. We have effective vaccines and many people not willing to take them. So we all continue to suffer. And likely will for some time. I selfishly hope that none of this prevents Grace from having a somewhat normal senior year, but.... Let's hope for the best.

Saint Zantil's Monastery

Every now and then, I like to take a break from trying to paint a "serious" picture and take the time to paint a fantasy scene; generally something related to a Dungeons and Dragons campaign location.

Saint Zantil's Monastery (work in process)

In the semi-post-pandemic era, a few of us have started to gather and play an in-person D&D game, and after returning from a week in Avalon NJ  yesterday, I painted a few shore scenes (more on that later), and then felt like painting something fantastic. So this is that. A location in our game that the players have not been to yet, but may have reason to go to in the near future. Or not. Either way, it was a fun and quick little painting. [12" by 16" in Charvin oils]

When the base layer dries I have some touch up and detail work left to do...

Tidal Flats

The below is a 12" by 16" canvas panel depicting a view across reed fields and tidal flats to the distant treeline beyond.

Tidal Flats

I've been enamored with pink and purple evening skies recently...

George N Parks Drum Major Academy

For four days this week, Grace was fortunate to be able to attend the George N Parks Drum Major Academy at West Chester University. This is a nationally renowned drum major and band leadership course that just happens to be 15 minutes from home. Our band parents association sends our drum majors to this camp every year, and fortunately this year they were able to conduct the camp in person. Last year's drum majors weren't so lucky...

Grace (far right), drum majors, percussion student, and our Director

There were kids from schools in Pennsylvania, New Jersey, Maryland, New York, Virginia, California and many other states.

These were long days, starting at 8:30am and running until 8:30pm or later.

Grace met kids from a bunch of different places and made friends with drum majors from several different states, including her squad of 6 people, which won a conducting competition in her grouping of a dozen squads.

I'm very much looking forward to this marching band season...

Home Renovations

For over a year, we haven't gone anywhere, or done anything. On the one hand, this sucks. On the other hand, we have saved enough money to do something we have wanted to do for a long time: replace the flooring in the remainder of the 1st floor with hardwood. So that's what we are doing.

Fireplace...Before

We have torn out the old brick fireplace surround and replaced it with a simpler slate surround. This is in preparation for hardwooding the rest of the 1st floor.

Fireplace (after), with new flooring

The flooring project, scheduled to take 3 days, is moving along on schedule. It's nice to finally do some of the things we have been wanting to do for a long time...

Dog Days of May

Yeah, I feel like this too...

Sleepy Time

Impressionistic Ocean Scene

For whatever reason, I find myself painting works of varying sizes very quickly these days. I'm not sure what that says about my attention span, but the picture below is something I painted tonight in an hour or so. It's an 18" by 24" stretched canvas using Charvin oil paints.

Ocean Scene (18 by 24)

I think I like it...

Camera Issues

I have a problem, or at least something that I will need to adapt to. Admittedly, it's not much of a problem in the overall scheme of problems that one can have.

The camera on an iPhone 12 is too good.

With a crappy old (but perfectly serviceable) iPhone 6, I could take a picture of anything I had been painting, in virtually any light or time of day, and get a usable shot for posting here. The biggest issue was that pictures taken at night in artificial light were yellowish compared to reality, so the better pictures were taken during the day.

I finally got a new phone, and now when I take spur of the moment pictures of whatever I happen to have on my easel at the time, I get photos that are...too good. 

This little 6 by 8 inch sketch of a farmhouse in the fields shows little but the weave of the canvas.

Farmhouse near Longwood Gardens

This 8 by 10 sketch of bright green spring fields and trees shows little but the glare of daylight from the nearby window and individual brush strokes.

Springtime

I will have to figure out where and when I can take pictures of my paintings (and presumably anything else) that doesn't turn into an unflattering microscope view...

Senior Year Band

In another month Grace's Junior year will have ended and she will technically be a (rising) Senior. I hope her Senior year is more normal than the last couple of classes have had their Senior years be. By all measures, it looks like it will be.

Come what may, we have already gotten some good news. A dozen or more rising Seniors applied for the various marching band leadership roles for the 2021-2022 school year, and Grace was one of three selected to be Drum Majors. So a goal that she set for herself before she even walked in the door in her freshman year has been achieved. 

I'm proud. And honestly, relieved. Having been a Field Major last year, she had the inside track on being selected Drum Major, but nothing is ever certain, and she would have been extremely disappointed if she didn't get this. But she did. So she is thrilled and therefore so are me and Amp.

Circumstances permitting, we are planning for a normal summer of band activities, including two weeks of full-day band camp in August. Fingers crossed, this will all happen. In the meantime, Grace can go into the summer happy.

An April Update

It's been over a month since I have posted something, which is very rare in these pandemic days... Which, as usual, isn't to say that things haven't been busy.

Family - In the intervening month I got my second Pfizer shot. Julia got her first and second Pfizer shots. Grace got her first and second Pfizer shots (the last just 2 days ago). Amp was fully vaccinated long ago for her job. We believe in science. And in 2 weeks, we will be as vaccinated a family as we can be (two weeks post-Pfizer). To those who believe that these vaccinations are a way for the government to microchip you.......if the government had that capability, they've already chipped you...so just get the shots please.

Grace is nearing the end of her junior year, and nearing taking her driving test. A big milestone. Applications for band leadership positions have been submitted for next year, her senior year, and having been a Field Major this year, she has applied for Drum Major next year. Fingers crossed. These milestones come too fast these days.

Art - I haven't painted anything in a "fine art" sense since I last posted something here, but I have been painting, just of the Dungeons and Dragons figure variety. I have been having the urge to get back to oil painting these last few days, though, and there is a blank canvas sitting on my easel now, just waiting.

And a personal note - I was going to post a tongue-in-cheek entry titled "Farewell to an Old Friend", as of this morning. It was going to be in recognition of the fact that the iMac computer that I have had here on my desk for the last 10+ years, and has been the computer that I have written every post on this blog since late 2010, seems to be in its death throes. It is labeled a "mid-2010" manufacture and has served me more than admirably, contributing in excess of a decade of service. I'd like to see your PC do that... Anyway, starting a few days ago, the display sometimes works, sometimes doesn't, and the poor old machine randomly shuts itself down to rest. The exhaustion of old age, I guess. It is running the Mac OS that is three entire versions back since it doesn't have the ability to be upgraded any further than it already has been, and there is modern software that it cannot run... I write this post on its successor, a late 2019 manufacture iMac purchased shortly before the pandemic in November 2019. Despite being the newer machine, and far better in capability, it got relegated to the basement, used intermittently while I plugged away on the old one. I'm not 100% sure why. Creature of habit I suppose. But everything has been transferred to the new machine, and I hope it can give me anywhere near the service the old iMac did. So...tongue-in-cheek, farewell to a very old friend. In a strange and ridiculous way, I will miss you.

The reality check that made this intended post seem superfluous was a text earlier this evening from my "other brother" Leo letting me know that a wargaming friend of ours passed away yesterday. We are in our mid-50's, and this friend was a good bit our senior (into his early 70's I think), but I had known him for the last 20 years or so. It wouldn't be fair to say we were close, or that my contacts with him in the last decade or so were anything more than random meetings at the various HMGS wargaming conventions a few times a year, but it is a shocker nonetheless. He was a good guy, and the world will be a bit the lesser without him. In the sense the actually matters... Farewell Old Friend. You will be missed, and remembered.

Shot 1

The wackiness of scheduling a vaccination is a topic for another day (and one that I will never write about), but I drove 45 minutes into the city this morning to a CVS pharmacy on the Temple University campus and got my 1st of 2 shots of the Pfizer vaccine.

The process was simple, once you get past the fact that I needed to be on the CVS website at 1:00am when they open the new batch of appointments to schedule myself, and needed to go 30-some miles away past at least a dozen other CVS locations to get to the CVS location in North Philadelphia that had an available appointment.

Anyway, I did the right thing and got my shot. Three weeks from today, I go back to North Philadelphia to get my second shot.

As of now, I have some minor discomfort in the arm that got the shot. It's a sweet sweet pain.

What I learned from Dad

It would take way more than one post to elaborate on the above, but, in lieu of that, I'll confine myself to one answer and the root causes of that answer...

Be involved in what your kids are involved in.

Brother Dave was a very good baseball player in little league; a slick fielding shortstop (he could actually catch the ball) and a pitcher who could reliably get the ball over the plate (a rare thing in little league).

So what did Dad do? He coached little league baseball. For several years.

Dave and I were involved in band and orchestra in junior high school (back when there was a "junior high school" and not "middle school"), and on into high school.

So what did Dad do? He got involved in the parents' organization and helped with Hoagie Day fundraisers in junior high, and Spaghetti Dinner fundraisers in high school, and was on the parents' board of directors for these organizations. Looking back, I realize how much of his time he invested in what Dave and I were doing. Coaching baseball. Coaching soccer. Band and orchestra Boards. Teaching us to fish. Hiking in the woods with us and our friends. All of it.

I was aware enough to recognize this at the time, but now, having kids of my own, I feel like I can truly appreciate it.

Grace, and Julia before her, were involved in the Drama Club and all of the musicals. Amparo has given huge amounts of her time to this.

Grace has been very involved in Band, and I have given time to this as a parents' Board member.

What would Dad have done? He would have done what I have done, and what Amp has done. Given his time and attention to his kids' interests.

So I might have my faults, but I have at least learned something over the years.

And years down the road, hopefully Julia and Grace will be able to look back and recognize that their Mom and Dad cared, and that the time we spent wasn't for us...it was for them.

Completed D&D Monsters

A little bit of additional detail work has completed the three new monster miniatures posted previously.

Bone Naga, Giant Snake and Cloaker (Dragonborn for scale)

Next on the painting table are a few more D&D blister packs: Grick and Grick Alpha, Grell and Basilisk, Black Dragon Wyrmling and Blue Dragon Wyrmling. And the Roper from the last post...

I hope to have at least some of these done by the end of the weekend.

Painting Some Recent D&D Miniatures

While the most recent oil painting effort first layer dries for a few days, I have been inspired to go back to painting some Dungeons and Dragons miniatures that I have picked up recently at Games Keep in West Chester, and Showcase Comics in Swarthmore. I have gone to Games Keep a few times in recent months with the express purpose of spending some money to support them, and I went to Showcase Comics yesterday for this first time in over a year for the same purpose. No harm in buying a bunch of stuff that you want but don't really need if it helps the stores that you value and want to still be around when the pandemic ends. Or at least moves into a different phase...

Of the [unspecified] number of packs of pre-primed ready to paint WizKids miniatures I picked up, I decided to start with the 4 shown below: a Cloaker (the manta ray thing), a giant constrictor snake, a Bone Naga, and a Roper (the tentacled stalagmite thing). All are recent releases and are classic D&D monsters, and all would be useful adds to my "painted by me" collection. I know that I have a couple of pre-painted Ropers, and an older pre-painted Cloaker, as well as a host of snakes of all shapes and sizes, but these models are all very nice and will be on the easier end of the painting scale. Not having done any miniature painting in a a bunch of months, I'd like to get back into it with something that can be done effectively and quickly so as to give me the positive feedback to continue with some more.

Dungeons and Dragons minis

The Bone Naga is not that far from done. The Cloaker has some partial base coating only, as does the Giant Constrictor Snake. The Roper has only been glued to his base and had some mold lines scraped and cleaned up. The dragonborn sorcerer is included for scale. These are all big monsters.

As a side note, you can see where I have added Liquitex brand flexible modeling paste to the bases of the snake and the Cloaker to blend the molded figure base into the base itself. It's always good to do this BEFORE painting anything, if you have the patience (and memory) to do so. The Bone Naga is almost done and then the base will still need to be dealt with. I need to fix the Roper base before painting to avoid the same problem I will have with the Bone Naga.

 More to come.

Playing with Greens

So I've bought too many paint colors (shocking), and that's just the recent binge of Charvin Fine Oils. I wanted to do something easy tonight, as it's been a long week and I'm not sure I have the brainpower left to think too much.

I decided to play around with a simple panoramic landscape across some sunlit fields to the trees and hills beyond. The main goal would be to work with a few of the greens I have purchased to get used to them.

First step as usual was to do a sketch in thinned burnt sienna, on a 6 by 12 inch canvas panel.

Panoramic Sketch

I used a limited palette of colors, and got a first layer of paint down in about 30 minutes. I am happy with the background and the atmospheric perspective of the different layers of hills, receding more to a grayish blue-green the further back you go. I'm also pretty happy with the mid-ground and foreground fields. They will need a minimal amount of touching up, but I think they are more or less done. The trees in the mid-ground are the area that needs some additional work. I need to work with the greens in the different clumps of trees to make sure that they give a proper feel for those that are closer and those that are further away. This is much-needed practice on value and color saturation. The sky will also need some cleanup in places where the burnt sienna sketch muddied the lower sky.

Stage 1 (yellowish artificial light photo)

Per my prior post on painting in layers, I have every intention that this will just be the first stage, and after this has a few days to dry, I will go back and look at this with a fresh eye, adding and changing as needed.

The limited number of colors I chose to work with are shown below. Excluding the ever-present titanium white and burnt sienna, there are 6 additional colors: cerulean blue hue, sap green, celadon green deep, cinnabar green light, burnt umber and french yellow primary. I wanted to see what I could do with a standard dark green and then a darker olive and a lighter olive. Yes, you can mix all this, but....you'd have to be better than I am at mixing colors. So far.

8 Charvin Fine Oils colors

I am absolutely loving these 150ml tubes of Charvin paint. I love the kinda-thick but still creamy texture of the paint, and the larger tubes make me less hesitant to put out bigger blobs of paint on my palette. That being said, the small amounts of paint used on this 6 by 12 panel are such that I could probably paint 100 paintings of this size with these tubes. I might run low on the titanium white, but then again I might not.

I also had my first experience with using Mimik Hog bristle brushes on this painting, and loved them as well. Firm enough, but still flexible and with good bounce (for lack of a better term). They held the paint and moved it very well. I think I might have a new favorite brush.

Lastly, I made a few final tweaks to the Farm Road painting from a couple weeks back, after it was dry. This consisted of adding wire to the fence line and cleaning up the area around the tree trunk. As I look at it, the prominent tree still needs some work, as it looks too flat now.

Farm Road, final touch ups

A little more painting, a little more progress.