Coffee Shop Sketching No.2

In my last blog I told you how I had decided to visit some of the coffee shops in the local area and sketch what I saw either from an an interior window seat, or even better, from an outdoor seating area or patio. Today's image is from another Starbucks nearby, no surprise, they're everywhere! This one at the Oak Park location at N. New Braunfels & Nacogdoches.

Coffee Shop Sketching

Good morning, buenos dias, etc! I hope you have had your morning coffee today or tea or chai or whatever gets you going.

Recently I joined a group and began urban sketching, which, as it turns out, is a worldwide pastime of artists and sketchers and painters and some architects even. Who knew?

I'm enjoying the new challenge and decided to scout out some urban locations to sketch. With the proliferation of coffee shops on almost every corner it seems, I started there.

I've been visiting several in my nearby area and, after purchasing my brew of the day, usually dark roast, I find a seat, either a window or outdoor area, and sketch the view.

Today's image is my sketch of the view from the leafy Starbucks in Alamo Heights looking north on Broadway. Hope you like it.

In upcoming blogs I'll talk about what I'm learning about the many different tools of the trade used in this endeavour. Note: I'm still figuring out which ones work best for me.

Urban Sketching in San Antonio

 

If you've re-discovered The Painting Life blog, aka orbisplanis.blogspot.com, thank you for viewing. As you may have seen in my last post, I started posting again after a multi-year hiatus to attend to a family crisis.

In order to make my posting to The Painting Life blog as easy as humanly possible, I'm using the most basic blogspot formatting tools so that I may post quickly without fiddling with the look and feel. I hope you don't mind.

The topic of today's blog is Urban Sketching, in which I recently started participating. I knew very little about this art phenomena, although I had heard snippets about it for years. So I did a little online research. Seems it is way bigger and more widespread than I imagined  - worldwide in fact! There are urban sketchers in every part of the globe and it appears in most of the world's urban population centers.

I was pleasantly surprised to find one in San Antonio and one in Austin. I found them on the MeetUp app and joined the movement. The San Antonio group meets roughly twice a month at notable locations around the city and in nearby Hill Country towns.

Today's image is my sketch from last Saturday at Mission San Juan Capistrano, one of San Antonio's famous missions dating from the Spanish colonial era. 

Hope you enjoy it and maybe it will spark an interest in your trying urban sketching.

#urbansketching, #acrylicpainting

The Painting Life Blog is Back

Two Pears

Acrylic on Canvas Panel

20 in x 16 in

Copyright 2023, All Rights Reserved

If any of you reading this blog remember way back in 2018, that was the last time I posted on Orbisplanis.

As happens to all of us sometimes, life intervenes, and we must face the challenges we're confronted with. In my case, and without going into any details, the challenge was the diagnosis of a terminal illness of a loved one. This stark reality lead to life-altering changes for the family. I was completely overtaken with the subsequent illness, death and recovery period (if you can call it that).

Needless to say, my painting life was put on hiatus for the duration. It has only been recently that I was able to re-kindle my interest and pick up my paintbrush.

Today's image is a by-product of my new reality.

   

Take Comfort In Your Oil Paint

Blazing Sunset
Water-Soluble Oil on Canvas Panel
10 x 8 in/25.4 x 20.3 cm
Copyright Byrne Smith 2018

With the holiday season right around the corner, the weather finally starting to feel like autumn (in the northern hemisphere anyway), and as a way to cope with everything going on in the world, I needed to take comfort with my oil paints.

I equate using oil paint with eating comfort food in my mind anyway. Compared to painting with watercolor and acrylic, oils provide the oozy, rich warmness you get from eating mac 'n cheese, lasagna, cheesy mashed potatoes and the like. At least I think so.

I think in Denmark they have a word for it: hygge (hue-guh). It loosely means having that feeling of being cozy, charming or special--just like painting

I can't think of anything better than mixing up a palette of all values and colors of oils. Then you apply it via brush or palette knife for the cozy satisfaction of rendering a painting well painted.

Take comfort in your oil paint.

Painters Should Not Be Bored

Indian Summer
Oil on Canvas Panel
6 x 6 in/15.2 x 15.2 cm
Copyright Byrne Smith 2018

Before the month was completely gone, I wanted to post again. I've had a slow week or two getting going with my painting. I don't know why, but suspect it's painting ennui, that is, boredom and lethargy.

The only way I know how to break the cycle is to paint and paint some more. So that's what I did this week.

I also decided to use a different medium than what I've been using of late. I switched to water-soluble oils rather than my usual acrylics. That did help since you use them differently, not altogether differently but enough to make it more interesting. The ennui was overcome, at least for now.

I decided to paint a little impressionistic landscape before the seasons changed completely. Hope you like it.

Painters should not be bored.

Seascapes and Beach/Water Scenes

Beachy
Acrylic on Canvas Panel
 6 x 6 in/15.2 x 15.2 cm
Byrne Copyright 2018

One thing I like about seascapes and beach/water scenes is that there is an unlimited number of combinations between the color of the sky and the color of the water. There are a myriad of reasons, such as the time of day, the weather, the season, the geographic location, and the surrounding landscape, if any.

What attracted me to today's image was the contrast between the predominantly ultramarine blue of the sky and the cerulean/pthalo green of the water near the coast. Beautiful, and it also helps set the mood, bright and sunny, a winning combination.

Beach scenes also keep the painter on his toes by having to create the correct color of the sand at the location of the painting. Similar to the reasons mentioned above, the types and colors of sand around the world are almost limitless.

The sand in today's painting was mixed with primarily titanium white, but you have to add very small amounts of cad yellow light and and cad red light, along with a dab of ultramarine blue to help gray down the other three colors slightly. I always forget that until I notice that something with the sand is not quite right.

I hope you like it and that you will paint your share of beach/water scenes.

A Time to Reflect with an Autumn Landscape

Central Coast
Acrylic on Canvas Panel
14 x 11in/35.6 x 27.9 cm
Copyright Byrne Smith 2018

As summer turns into autumn, I wanted to paint a landscape that celebrates the changing seasons. This after not posting in September while I was figuring out what to paint next and where to take my painting.

This time for reflection has happened before, and I'm sure it will happen again. I feel sure it happens to most painters at some time. Neither a slump nor a retreat, it feels more like reaching a plateau, and now it's time to take stock and move on.

I now feel clear-headed about continuing on my path of painting acrylic landscapes and seascapes. although I may try painting on larger supports soon.

I hope you take some time to reflect on your work now and then.

Paint With a New Perspective

Beach Walk
Acrylic on Canvas Panel
18 x 24 in/46 x 61 cm
Copyright Byrne Smith 2018

I spent the week painting this rather non-traditional landscape (or maybe it's really a seascape). I say non-traditional because of the perspective and viewpoint, almost overhead the beach below. 

Most landscapes are typically a straight-on view with the horizon line positioned somewhere with the sky above and the usual fore-, middle, and background view of the land.

In my painting there is no visible horizon line, and the viewer is looking down at waves, shallow lapping water, the beach, and vegetation at a steep angle. That's probably what drew me to paint this scene. Even though it's highly realistic, it's also somewhat abstract when you step back a bit.

Also, don't miss the five figures and a dog walking along the shore. They don't jump out at you because of their small size, but do provide scale, which is very important for this motif.

I understand it's good for viewers and collectors to be able to look at a painting and almost immediately recognize who the artist is by his or her style and subject matter. But it's also good  to try new things and new ways now and then.

It will certainly give you a new perspective and may just get you out of a painting rut.

A Calming August Acrylic Landscape

Summer Dusk
Acrylic on Canvas Panel
20 x 16 in/50.8 x 40.6 cm
Copyright Byrne Smith 2018

Well, it's August 1st.

If any month deserves a calming landscape, it's August (and possibly December also). The heat, the glaring sun, the heat, the dash from car to building, the heat, the sunscreen, the glowing perspiration, the heat, the must-go-now holiday/vacation. Did I mention the heat?

Today's image is the one I mentioned in the previous blog--the one I let rest for a while. As I suspected, I did make a couple of changes that I thought would help. The main thing I did was to tone down the setting sun so that it was less intense to match the time of day, which was dusk. I also lowered the intensity, slightly, of the orange glow around it for the same reason. I added a few darks to the immediate foreground for depth and, of course, signed it.

In paintings like this, I find acrylic to be most beautiful with the ability to blend and blur just the right places.

I hope the painting ushers in a calming August for you, too.