Ready for some mediocre art?!?

My friend Jun Yamaguchi is a talented artist.  Around Thanksgiving of 2013, he was hanging out with my family, working on a watercolor.  I was bored, and cajoled him into giving me a quick lesson.  Of course the painting I made sucked, no surprise there.  But what did surprise me was the fact that I enjoyed it.

I don't consider myself a painter, or an artist, so maybe I was just surprised that when I put brush to paper, I ended up with something that looked vaguely like what I'd intended.  I've stuck with it, and decided to post the progress I've made here.

Still life of an orange.

I hope that was obvious.

Still life of some grapes. I was trying to work on shading and tone with this one. I think I learned a lot from it actually, although it was pretty tedious.

They say art is theft, and that is definitely true in this case. I was at an outdoor arts and crafts festival in Denver when I came across a booth of someone doing something in a similar vein to what I attempted here. I wish I could remember their name, because I really liked their stuff.

Painting of the colosseum in Rome. I was trying to copy this work by Bill Drysdale. I love the loose, fluid style in his painting, which I clearly wasn’t able to replicate!

Another tutorial from a watercolor book I’m slowly working my way through. This one was attempting to show what is achievable with just three colors.

March, 2017

I was actually super pleased with how this recreation of a painting in a watercolor tutorial turned out.  The tutorial emphasized the effects you can achieve with just a single color by varying the tone.

March, 2017

"Valovi Chair" - A painting of a chair I actually made using a CNC machine with plans found on opendesk.cc.

March, 2017

This was another painting I attempted based on an original in a watercolor tutorial book.  I like the somber feel and muted tones in this one, and think the dead tree turned out halfway decent.

February, 2017

A third attempt at "Two Pines".  The trees turned out softer, which I'm happy about, but I don't think it was my best attempt at grass in the foreground.

February, 2017

Second attempt at "Two Pines".  Attempting this one again has helped me appreciate how finicky the 'wet on wet' technique in watercolor can be.

December, 2016

My attempt at replicating a painting of a barn in a watercolor tutorial book.  Pretty pleased with this one, although I wish the front face of the barn was a little more uniform in color.

December, 2016

My attempt at replicating the watercolor "Two Pines" from a watercolor tutorial book I picked up.  It needs work, especially in the trees.  I'll probably try this one again.

December, 2015

I was really happy with how this turned out.  Except I forgot to add shadows to the trees.  It was a gift for my sister.  Idea came from here.

January, 2015

Still Life of an Apple and Bowser from Super Mario World

May, 2015

Another study of tree branch structure.  It ended up looking a bit too boxy, IMHO.

May, 2015

This was an effort on my part to get better at painting the branch structure of trees.

May, 2015

Getting the windmill blades to look right from this perspective ended up being more difficult than I'd originally expected.  I'm pretty happy with the end result though!

May, 2015

Purple flowers, shamelessly copied from something I saw on Pinterest.

May, 2015

If Jackson Pollock were a tree...

December, 2014

A painting of an airplane.  (I'm kidding -- it's obviously a horse).

April, 2014

Mountains in India (I haven't been there, so I doubt they look like this).

March, 2014

I originally intended for this to be a tree, but now I think it's actually a hot air balloon, as seen by someone with really bad eyesight.

March, 2014

My girlfriend, in a car, in Cleveland, in Ohio, in the United States.

March, 2014

Boulder's flatirons, painted from a picture I took on a hike.

February, 2014

Attempt #2 at painting a sunset.

February, 2014

A picture of a sunset that I captured while on a bike ride in rural Ohio.

February, 2014

A second attempt at recreating a painting my dad bought my mom in Italy.  I like the colors in this one a bit better, but regret that I filled in the trees so densely that no light shines through.

February, 2014

An attempt at recreating a painting my dad bought my mom in Italy.

January, 2014

Boston Harbor, painted from a picture I took while working there one summer.

January 2014,

The edge of a garage and some tree trunks, at sunset.

January, 2014

My first attempt at painting a person (my girlfriend).  Don't worry, her hand doesn't look like that in real life.

January, 2014

El Matador Beach, LA

December, 2013

Griffith Observatory, painted from a picture I took while visiting my friends Corey and Laura in LA.

December, 2016

I asked my mom to hang this on her fridge.  She said "no".

November, 2013

This is the second thing I ever painted.  It's Glacier Ridge Metro Park, mid-fall.

November, 2013

This is the first thing I ever painted.  It was supposed to be a reproduction of a blurry picture I took one evening on a drive home, of car headlights/taillights on a bridge.

March, 2017

I went on vacation in Philadelphia in March (during a blizzard -- perfect timing), and stayed at a really charming AirBnB.  I liked the look of the house, and felt that the architecture was simple enough that I could take a stab at painting it.  I'd never painted brick before, and that was a bit of a challenge, but if you don't stare at it too closely, I think it looks pretty good!