New Mornings

http://tomsarmo.blogspot.com/

Detail of crow skull study

I'm an early-riser; that's just a fact, not some badge of honor. But it does let me get a lot done, especially if I have a plan in place.

My old mornings:

1. Grab coffee

2. Grab laptop and do social media

3. Grab an art book and look through it

4. Start painting in the studio

My new mornings:

1. Grab coffee

2. Grab still life object(s) and paint a one-hour study

3. Start painting in the studio

http://tomsarmo.blogspot.com/

Some of the studies so far

They are small--the largest is 4" x 5.25"--so I can pretty much finish them (or not) in an hour.
Will this became a habit? Gonna try to make it so. I'm not much of a rule-bound or goal-oriented person, but if I find something that fits, I'll wear it out. So far this seems to fit.

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Set-up I used for the first crow skull study

 I'm using a darkened basement room instead of my studio for this:

 A. Because I can leave all the materials there without them being in the way in the studio, and 

B. Because it's always dark down there.

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Details of two studies

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Set-up I used for the bottle study

 I read about using a box like this on an internet site for still lifes. Not sure I see the point--but I will keep trying it out. The slot in the top is for controlled lighting--I can cover it partially or all the way with cardboard. If anyone reading this knows what the advantage of this kind of set-up is, please let me know, as it's escaping me.

http://tomsarmo.blogspot.com/

Detail of lantern study

I'm drawing them first--so far at least. For this study I used a black watercolor pencil for the initial drawing; for the crow skull and bottle I used a red Colerase pencil. No real reason for either--just trying things out. I used a 1/4" flat for most of the paint, changing to a round if necessary for tiny details. I'm keeping the sessions to an hour, even if I don't quite finish them. And when the weather warms, my plan is to do same but with one-hour landscape studies as well.

Also, so far, I've only used Ultramarine Blue, Burnt Sienna, and white to mix up neutrals. I def want to eventually go with color, but I'm in no rush.

I do miss my art books, but not the social media.

Thanks for reading!