Cabin In The Woods – Sepia Style

The attached prints are of a cabin in the woods near North Bend, Washington. North Bend is nestled in a valley of the Cascade Mountain Range east of Seattle. I found this scene when I was hiking along the river that runs through the valley. I immediately saw it as a sepia print. I used a sepia tone finish on the photograph for that old rustic look. The sepia brown tones originated with film photography as part of the process to develop the prints in the 1800’s. Today, we can recreate that same vintage look digitally. And speaking of digitally, I added the red color on both prints to create an accent point in both pictures.

Old Cabin

Outdoor Chair By The Red Pot

Thoughts? As I have said before, everyone reacts to visual art techniques and looks differently, so I am not in the least offended by opinions. 

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Let Me Be Your Guiding Light

Let Me Be Your Guiding Light is an art print I created using a classic ink sketching technique with traditional watercolor of a lighthouse. The setting is the Yaquina Head Lighthouse along the Oregon coastline. Lighthouses are great symbols of “a guiding light” as that is their sole maritime purpose. When it comes to faith, we all need a guiding light.

Let Me Be Your Guiding Light

Thoughts? As I have said before, everyone reacts to visual art techniques and looks differently, so I am not in the least offended by opinions. 

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Flamingos from the Los Angeles Zoo

In keeping with the approach from last week, I am posting a capture I took of flamingos I took in 2017 at the Los Angeles Zoo and then what I created from that using digital art techniques. The resulting two art prints are completely different in their look and style.

LA Zoo Flamingos

I created the first art print using an impasto style painting technique. This technique applies paint very thickly so that the brush strokes are prominent. I stayed with the original color pallet on this one.

Impasto Flamingo

For the second one, I used a completely different technique creating a completely different look. This look is referred to as Gothic art, a style of medieval art that developed in Northern France out of Romanesque art in the 12th century AD. The aspect of it that I used was the earthen tones that were prevalent in a lot of the gothic pieces.

Gothic Flamingo

Thoughts? As I have said before, everyone reacts to visual art techniques and looks differently, so I am not in the least offended by opinions 

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The Hawaiian Gazebo: Before and After

I want to start this post with clarifying that everyone sees “art” differently and we all have certain preferences when it comes to visual appreciation. I say this as it does not offend me when someone doesn’t like what I have done and can be honest about it. No offense taken for the reasons stated above. Todays post compares the same subject mater presented two different ways. I have attached a photograph I took on the grounds of a resort in Hawaii (2005). I have also attached a digital art rendition of that photograph that was created earlier this month. I wanted to change the original by eliminating the background building and creating some watercolor texture.

Original Gazebo Capture

Step up to the Gazebo

In my opinion there is nothing particularly wrong with the original capture. However I wanted to eliminate the resort itself from the background and add some texture and drawing detail to pull the details forward on the entire capture (gazebo architecture and details of the landscaping).

Thoughts?

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Griffith Observatory and Downtown Los Angeles

As a follow up to a post I did on January 4, 2015, I am celebrating my all time top selling print which is the Griffith Park Observatory with downtown Los Angeles in the background. On the original post, I was asking for input (Griffith Park Observatory in Black and White) on which prints were favored so I could narrow it down to a few to post in my art gallery. I featured six captures I had narrowed down from a series of them. The three captures I ended up posting in my gallery were #1, #4 & #6 now known as Griffith Observatory and Downtown Los Angeles, Open For The Telescope and Observatory In Art Deco. I thought it would be interesting to see what the vote was from the original post. Number 1 received the most votes with #4 coming in second. #6 didn’t receive votes, but it struck me as a nice compliment to the other two to finish out the series. All in all, all three of the ones I picked have done well, but #1 has blown the roof off.

Griffith Observatory And Downtown Los Angeles

Open For The Telescope

Observatory In Art Deco

Thoughts?

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Dahlia Blooms – Close Up and Macro

My wife, our oldest daughter and myself did a day trip over to Whidbey Island last week (Whidbey is just “off shore” in the Puget Sound north of downtown Seattle, but literally just west of where we live in the northern suburbs of Seattle). It doesn’t matter where we go, I always have my camera ready as you never know what you will see that hits you as a photo opportunity. One of those opportunities occurred right after lunch and just before we were going to catch the ferry back to the mainland. We had stopped at a nice outdoor restaurant for lunch and next door to it was a massive nursery with tons of flowers and plants. It caught my wife and daughters eye, so after lunch we ventured over to check it out. As the three of us ventured around the nursery, we came across some stunning Dahlia plants with very (and I mean at least 12 inches/30.48 centimeters) large blooms. The photographer in me immediately went to work on capturing the largest blooms, framing those and then taking another shot as a macro close-up. I have attached eight captures of four different blooms.

Soft Pink, Yellow And White Dahlia Bloom

Macro Soft Pink, Yellow And White Dahlia Bloom

Bright Pink, Yellow And White Dahlia Bloom

Macro Bright Pink, Yellow And White Dahlia Bloom

Red And White Dahlia Bloom

Macro Red And White Dahlia Bloom

Yellow Dahlia Bloom

Macro Yellow Dahlia Bloom

Thoughts?

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Fountain Urns

This week, I’ve attached three art prints I created from a photo shoot in a winery located on the hills above Napa Valley in California. The winery grounds were very beautiful and all items of landscaping design (such as these urns) were imported from Europe. From different points on the estate there are tables and chairs that took in the view of the valley below. Everything is elegant and done to allow you to enjoy the beauty of the winery while you enjoy their wine. The fountain itself is designed to have water quietly cascade down the sides of the urns and effectively creates a peaceful, serene setting!

Spanish Urn Fountain

Two Large Urns

Three Large Urns

Thoughts?

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Downtown Seattle High-Rises in Three Formats

In most cases, my artwork starts out as a photograph that I then play with digitally to see if I like the same subject in completely different formats. An example of this are the three different presentations of two captures of high-rise office buildings in downtown Seattle. It started with the original captures below:

Seattle High-Rise 1

Seattle High-Rise 2

The first aspect that I used was to turn these captures into black and white photographs as shown below:

Heads Up

The Tall Three

Then also like a very subtle

For the next two presentations, I used a detail drawing technique and a subtle watercolor to highlight the details and color of the buildings. To highlight the details of the buildings, I used an abstract approach to the sky resulting in keeping that aspect simple.

Up The Building

Halo Effect

For the next two presentations, I went in a completely different direction. For these two presentations I used a more abstract drawing technique to create the buildings and then filled it with bursts of watercolor on and surrounding the structures. This approach creates a completely different visual for high-rise office buildings.

The Soaring Building

Sketched Towers

Thoughts?

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Lavender Field

This past week my wife and I went to a Lavender field on Camano Island which is on the Puget Sound north of the Seattle area here in the Pacific Northwest. This time of year there are a lot of Lavender fields in full bloom and many farms invite you to come and pick bouquets (I use that term loosely as you actually cut them with a sharp blade) for a price. Each plant has numerous blooms rising from them and on this particular farm you are encouraged to cut the blooms of an entire plant which equates to numerous bouquets.

Camano Island is a very heavily forested island without a lot of open fields. There are farms on the island, but it is mostly dense forest. Having said that, the setting was beautiful and the “Lavender Farm” was owned and operated by a very nice young family. Their children helped those of us that came to cut by giving us the tools we would need and barrels to put our “pickings” in while we were in the field.

I asked permission to take pictures of the field and was promptly asked by their children to take a picture of them (which I did and have since sent it to them). I’ve attached six captures from the shoot for this weeks blog. Enjoy:

Lavender 1

Lavender 2

Lavender 3

Lavender 4

Lavender 5

Lavender 6

Our girls and some friends will be the lucky recipients of very fragrant bouguets!!

Thoughts?

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Variety of Styles for Orchid Blooms

This week I’m featuring four art prints of orchid blooms that I have created using totally different styles. I like each and everyone, but for entirely different reasons. I’m curious for feedback regarding your impressions.

The first one I created using a very shape defined approach as it relates to shape and outlines.

The Beauty Of An Orchid

The second one I created using a sketching technique.

Sketched Orchid Blooms

For the third one, I used a technique where the watercolor is brushed like puffy clouds and then the drawn blooms are used as an overlay.

Orchid Blooms Watercolor

The fourth and final one, I created using a pastel chalk technique.

Pink And Purple Orchid

Thoughts?

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