Finished this one a couple weeks ago. I am happy with it. It was an experiment in two ways. First, I used colors out of my supply that I wouldn't normally use - Violet and UltraMarine. They were going to waste otherwise. I also used a gradient technique - reduced the image to five layers of shading from darkest to lightest in PhotopShop then followed those gradients in painting the five shades of violet. I like the effect enough that I am trying a new painting on a much larger scale doing essentially the same thing (but with Crimson paint). I hope it turns out.

Posted by Steve Medcroft at 03:55 PM | Permalink

This was is a miss on a number of fronts and hopeful I can learn from it. The original photograph shows a friend's child riding a bicycle in some desert terrain near their house without any clothes on. I started trying to paint the background and just ended up with an ugly, muddy mess. So i re-did the background in washes of color instead of throwing it away and set to work. No matter how I tried, I could not get the face just right. So I ended up over-working it and it became blurred and soft, no edges, no definition. So when I painted the bike and it came in crisp and more powerful, it overwhelms the figure. So, I learned a new background technique that I like and that I need to keep working at figure and faces to get more comfortable (and work in bigger scale so I am not stressing to get detail in such small proportions).

Posted by Steve Medcroft at 06:39 PM | Permalink

I have a series of reference photographs of the items I use or carry with me when participating in my favorite passion - cycling. I have shots of my helmet, shoes, a spare inner tube. This still life started as just the cap and glasses but because I drew in the cap centered low and right, I added the waterbottle to give it more balance. I am happy with the colors, the shading, the lettering, the backgrounds. I got the outline of the cap a little wrong (nothing too drastic) and wish I got the glasses lenses and frame more perfect against the original but overall I am happy with this picture and feel like it marks progression in my ability to pull of a picture as I conceive it.

Posted by Steve Medcroft at 03:21 PM | Permalink

I attend this bicycle festival in Monterey every year and this view (looking up on the North hillside surrounding the Laguna-Seca raceway where the event is held) is iconic for anyone who attends the event. I was experimenting with chunky, textured, childlike imagery and it worked well on the greens of the hillside and the sky. But I learned that I prefer realistic proportion and shading rather than the flattened look I ended up with here. I like the way the people in the crowds came together but looking back, realize I should have used more color and not left the figures all black.

Posted by Steve Medcroft at 07:36 PM | Permalink

This was my first attempt at a painting after a half-dozen color pencil drawings. I was happy with the way it looked like what it was supposed to look like. I was happy with discovering how to use highlight colors and that colors are never solid (added blue in the black shorts and gray in the white of the jersey. I botched the detail in the helmet and handlebars and pay more attention to fine detail now. I also learned to not apply acrylic straight to paper - the paper absorbs moisture from the paint and buckles. I use canvas now but if I do ever use paper again I will prep it with gesso.

Posted by Steve Medcroft at 07:20 PM | Permalink

For this picture, I switched to gray paper and loved the way it made the color pencils pop. I was happy to work out a way to get the detail in the bicycle chain (I used a little stencil to outline every individual link) and the spokes in the wheel (following a wheel-builders manual, I used a ruler to get the layout right and the lines straight). I really didn't have anything critical to say about this one after I finished it.

Posted by Steve Medcroft at 07:11 PM | Permalink

The reference for this picture was a video I shot while on a mountain-bike ride in Santa Cruz on a business trip. I like the way the colors of the sky came together - I learned to keep laying the colors on top of each other until the wouldn't blend any more (you end up with a smooth waxy finish that I really like). I like the shape of the figure. I didn't like how the edge's turn out kind of rough when you're working on fine detail.

Posted by Steve Medcroft at 06:25 PM | Permalink

I like the way the background came out on this one. And the way the colors blended in the fabric of the jersey. And the face (my first attempt at a face). Did not like that I missed a letter in the name across the front of the jersey (it's supposed to say Liquigas).

Posted by Steve Medcroft at 06:19 PM | Permalink

My first attempt at creating an original piece with color pencil.

Posted by Steve Medcroft at 09:48 PM | Permalink