The Zippo Challenge

This is another Daily Paintworks Challenge, this time lead by member Michael Naples.  We were challenged to paint a photo of a zippo lighter in only burnt sienna, ultramarine blue and white.  This is a great way to learn working in a limited palette.  Anders Zorn also worked in a limited palette of black, red, yellow ochre and white.  This keeps the artist from getting too "happy" with those wonderful bright colors we have available today.  I chose to do the image cropped to highlight the industrial design aspect of the working end of these lighters, which I found appealing.

Late Summer Shadows

There were clouds around this morning casting shadows across the fields.  I liked it best when it put a spotlight on this rise, with the houses lit upon it.  The silhouette of this with the valley beyond in blues and purples inspired me to paint it.

Just Before Sunup

I thought I would paint a small quickie early this morning to warm up for the day.  It happens that this morning was about 35 degrees out.  Not too bad but my hands got a bit cold.  It is still shiny with wet paint so the photo is pretty rough, you can't see those scratchy strokes in real life.