Thumbing It Inside While Under Tornado Warnings Outside

There is a great deal of weather activity outside today. Channel 9 advised us to stay indoors and find a safe place away from windows as there is a tornado watch in Clearwater until 8PM tonite. Well, what better way to stay peaceful than doing thumbs of beautiful (and peaceful!) Eagle Lake. The top three were done this afternoon. The one below was done last night and is ready for an underpainting which I'll do over the weekend. There you have it! :>)

Using The Thumbs

Here are two thumbs I picked from my "Many More Thumbs Club" Sketch book to use for paintings. I continue to learn how valuable Thumbs are in the process of painting a picture. I am often reminded of our motto: "Think and then Paint, rather than Paint and then Think". From the thumbnails I spent time thinking through the composition, values, color hues, warms and cools, transparent areas and opaque areas. It took quite awhile figuring all that out. By the time I could close my eyes and visualize what the painting will look like (to some degree anyway) I felt ready to do the underpainting. What a difference when approaching the canvas!! At least I had clear direction of where I was going. Now I have two underpaintings done and four more to go for my April workshop with Deborah in Texas.

Hope all of you thumbies are doing well. This has been a great time reflecting on some of the knowledge I've obtained in the last couple of months.

Happy painting to you all. I think of you often and trust you are doing well! :>)

Wuemme Thumbnail

The river Wuemme is near Bremen and a good subject for thumbies. Here it is still a bit icy, but now the ice is away and everybody is happy about it.

pencil on paper

There's More To The Story

TOP PICTURE

There is someone breathing down my neck.

NEXT PICTURE

Question: OKAY! What did the farmer tell us to do if this happened??!!

Answer: DON'T PANIC! DON'T RUN! Act like nothing is wrong. If they get close, talk to them.

NEXT PICTURE

I'm acting like nothing is out of the ordinary.

NEXT PICTURE

She is Up Close and Personnel. So I talked to her. She got her first lesson on how to draw a thumbnail sketch. Then she whispered in my ear: "Eat More Chicken".

Farfalle

Something to eat before being cooked...

Thumbs from Bayou Drive Salt Marshes

Hi Everyone,

These thumbs are of the Salt Marshes near the Gulf. They are from a photo (It's an hour's drive north of here). I concentrated on simplifying the composition and using three different formats for the same subject. Now that Painting Water workshop is behind me, I'm thinking more of including the sky in the composition. I'm looking forward to doing a painting soon. Today is the first free day without company. As is often the case, it's wonderful to have them here and then there comes a time when the thoughts start to come: "I can't wait to start painting again". That time has arrived. :>)

snow thumb

While the last snowy winds blow across the high ground near the mountains we know that spring time is almost here. Thumbs are amazing aren't they I was reading about Phoebe's thumbs she said that some had not been successful yet her palms were very beautiful and a great success. I had trouble with the sky area behind the trees near the middle of the sketch, the wind is blowing the snow about and I have managed to get those darks into the foreground trees yet the value of the distant trees and the dark sky are quite close. I am not sure if this thumb is successful it could be I need to make a decision regarding values in the areas I mentioned.

Phoebe's Thumbs from Philippe Park

Hello to all the Thumbies!

My Irish guest and I were able to go to Philippe Park and do some thumbs. This park is on Tampa Bay which has much calmer water than the Gulf.

Yesterday I did a couple of thumbs at the strawberry ranch and they were a total flop. I worked on one for quite some time and tried to retrieve it but it was way too busy. While I was sketching I could feel someone breathing down my back. I turned around and there were at least twelve cows about four feet away staring at me with great curiosity. They were wondering what was I doing in their field! What we won't go through to get our thumbs!

Ulrike's Thumbnailing 5

This time I've got just two to post, but it's better than nothing. The studio and its garden needed an urgent spring-clean and it's best to do that in the first sunny hours we seem to have for ages O;-)

Expresso Beans Anyone?

Hi Phoebe, I have not forgotten that I owe you some expresso beans. You have been very patient and hopefully you believe in better late than never, right? ; )

The other two thumbs are for the next painting that I am going to start. It's about figs on a branch, don't ask me why, it's just an idea I haven't been able to let go of.

great to see everyone here!

Thank you Phoebe for your great idea and for creating this blog! I look forward to all the sharing we will do.

Palmer

thumbs

Hi Phoebe, thank you for sending the link again. Here are thumbnails ideas based around a single tree in a field.

WELCOME TO MMTC

Hello fellow artists and welcome to Many More Thumbs Club. This will be a great opportunity for us to share our thumbnails, stay in touch, encourage and remind each other of the benefits of doing thumbnails. Also I am sure everyone would like to see any process and results from any of the thumbs. So, let the thumbs begin! Post whenever you like.

Got it!

For the first posting I looked for a thumbnail I haven't posted up to now and I found this one.