A couple of kids

Here's a couple of 6x8 portrait sketches of a friend's kids, Leo and Layla. I tried this more as an experiment than anything else to see if I could infuse some life in a portrait using just photos as reference. It's not something I found easy at all, and I'm not sure about the results which I feel look overlaboured.. but here they are anyway!

Thornhill Paintout

Had a great outing last Saturday at my first OPAS paintout in Thornhill. The event had about 20 artists competing in a plein air event with the finished products being voted on by the festival public. The event started at 10:00 AM sharp. Artists then had 3 hours find a spot, create and submit their art for voting. I had a somewhat mediocre attempt in the field, but tried to rework the finished product here at home. All in all it was a great day, and nice to finally a few more passionate plein air painters!

Summer's Coming

An 8x10 experiment of some sort of backhoe CAT from this weekend at the Junction in Toronto.

Another 8x10 experiment from Leslie Spit, this time looking east towards Toronto Island.

Here is an 8x10 from Leslie Spit in Toronto. It was a hot one, but some great scenery down there!

A bit of a sketchy 6x8 from Adelaide and Spadina St.

A small 6x8 of an old slate roofed building.

More sketches

An 8x10 of an overcast tugboat from the other day.

A bit of an overcast one of downtown Toronto skyline from the other day. 8x10 oil.

An 8x10 of a backhoe from this week.

An 8x10 still life of a copper kettle and some apples.

Another 8x10 of the tanker "Canadian Miner" from the other day.

An 8x10 of the tanker "Canadian Ranger".

A quick 6x8 of "Ruby", a Golden Retriever currently boarding with me! I plan to use this and a few photos to make a larger painting soon.

A work in progress of a Queens Quay from the other day. Most done on site, the rest at home. 8x16 oil.

Here's an 8x10 jobbie from today of my Martin D-18 knock off guitar. (ever waiting to be played!)

Here's two 2 hr 8x10 head sketches of the same model.