Vermont Farm

I painted this from a photo using my new SceneSketcher Android app. I used the
app to break down the photo into separate dark, mid, and light images that isolated
the colors in each value range. I used the app's measuring tool to layout the image
on canvas. Drawing and staying on track with a plan are two of my bigger painting
problems, and the app made me more comfortable with both. 10" x 15"

Here's a link to the site I made for the app: www.scenesketcher.com Let me know if
you're interested in beta testing - should be ready in a couple of weeks.

my Android app

About three months ago, I was starting a painting and wondered if I could
find an app for my Android tablet that would help me paint.  I was surprised
that I couldn't find one to help in the basic stages of blocking in a value study.
So I decided to learn how to code for Android and see what I could come up
with.  Here's a sample image from the app I've made:

My app is basically a convenience, touch-enabled photo editor with aspect, pan, 

zoom and lock controls. The most interesting feature, though, is that it has an 

interactive gray scale display. 

This mode makes it easy to flip back and forth between color and gray versions of 

an image that can be panned and zoomed.  The number of values and the amount of 

blurring applied in converting a color image to gray scale can be adjusted to a 

desired level of abstraction, similar to squinting.  With a long-press gesture at

a point of interest on the screen, the value band the point lies in can be toggled back 

and forth between gray and color. By pressing points on the screen, it's possible to

set some or most of the image to bands of gray and just show selected value ranges 

in color. The toggle is pretty fast because the gray scale uses optimized code that 

runs on a tablet's graphics processor.  I'm thinking the gray scale toggle will be 

helpful to channel one's focus, but I haven't tried painting from it yet.

I'm not all that far from releasing what I've got so far as an app, but it seems like

there's always another bug and more to be done!

Mill Brook Valley, Arlington, MA

Painted from a Google street view of Arlington, Massachusetts.  Mill Brook
flows in a greenbelt just beyond this intersection creating a beautiful little
valley that cuts through the town.  I premixed some of the main colors, and was
able to lay down about half the painting rather quickly over a charcoal sketch.
Then I bogged down in detail.  This is the right half of a diptych. 16" x 20"

pink house in Walsenburg, Colorado

I was randomly browsing street view in Google maps and picked this scene.
Beats driving there! 11" x 14"

night Cattleya

This poor orchid managed to struggle into bloom after years of neglect.
The underpainting was a charcoal sketch tonal study.  Painted from life
and later a reference photo after it wilted.  I've started using a tablet
mounted on a mic stand next to the easel for photo display. This arrangement
really helps improve my wandering and unsteady powers of observation.
13" x 10.5"

in the kitchen

A more or less happenstance kitchen arrangement.  I managed to exercise some
restraint and keep the tabletop and background muted, instead of making the
usual all over free-for-all of saturated color. 9" x 12"

Spiral Diner

A view of the kitchen of a busy vegan diner in Oak Cliff, Texas. 9" x 12"

baleful frog

Kalanchoe and apple guarded by a frog carved in fragrant Japanese cedar. 8" x 8".

suburban captivity

It's been a long winter.. 11" x 14"

apple, clay, coleus, peppers

The actual tabletop of the setting is light gray, which made an awkward negative space.
The improvement from changing to a deeper value, saturated red was a big surprise.
Also, painting red over gray gave a nice grisaille which firmed up the fade into
half-light on the background and plant. 11" x 14"