Rita Kirkman's Daily Paintings

New Years Art Resolutions, and my Blog is Moving!

2023-01-01T16:03:00.002-08:00

"Park Trail #62" (pastel, 6x12 inches) bid or buy

I wrote a really nice long inspirational New Years post today about painting more, and you can read it here! (or on my Patreon page.)

What I really want to say here is that my blog is moving! I'm retiring this location and continuing with the Daily Painting posts on my new website blog...

(Update: Nah, don't go there either I decided not to use a website blog. Just go straight to my Patreon, EVERYTHING gets posted there!! 😃 And tons of free public posts to entertain you if you don't want to subscribe yet.)

But you can always find them also on my Patreon page, and on DailyPaintworks.

I won't delete this blog, I just won't post here any more. Thanks for being great fans! See ya around on the web in other places.

Happy New Year!

"Brimli" Bunny

2022-12-26T08:50:00.002-08:00

"Brimli" (pastel, 8x8 inches) bid or buy

My Patreon patrons chose this cute grooming bunny for me to pastel last week at my Virtual Open Studio. Moo-tastic Muses and Bunny Buddies on my Patreon can watch the complete pasteling video here!

The rest of y'all can enjoy this speed video! 😎

Beau

2022-12-05T14:08:00.005-08:00

"Beau" (pastel, 7x5 inches) bid or buy

Here's "Beau", from VOS Episode 124 Part 2, which I finally finished. (Muses and Buddies on my Patreon can watch it here!)

See a quick speed video of "Beau" here!

Harper

2022-12-04T18:50:00.001-08:00

"Harper" (conte pencil and pastel, 16x12 inches) (a sold commission)

Here's Harper, one of the handsome quick-sketch doggies from Episode 128, sped up for your enjoyment!

Screech Owl

2022-11-21T15:17:00.003-08:00

"Screech Owl" (pastel, 8x6 inches) bid or buy

Here's the star of Saturday's Paint-Along - the Screech Owl! This one's a little different... Instead of my usual pastel primer underpainting, I used some UArt paper that had some pastel washed in with alcohol, something I had left over from someone else's workshop months ago. I figured I'd put it to use! So instead of building an acrylic-based underpainting, I basically started with a value drawing of the owl using a black Rembrandt pastel.

See a quick speed video here!

"Finley" the Fawn

2022-11-09T20:30:00.002-08:00

"Finley" (pastel, 7x5 inches) bid or buy

See a 40 second slide show video of the creation of Finley here!

"Park Trail #61" and Mark Cole Workshop

2022-10-28T17:39:00.003-07:00

"Park Trail #61" (pastel on Ampersand Pastelbord, 14x11 inches) bid or buy here

The first day of Mark Ivan Cole's workshop was fantastic! He demoed a wonderfully moody and atmospheric woodsy creek. Many of us were surprised by his method, which starts off very loose!

My painting here is from a photo I took "somewhere in TN" according to my endless photo files. I thought it looked like a Mark Cole scene, though I swung myself into a method I used in a workshop with Rae Smith in 2017, when I painted one of my fave landscapes, Park Trail #39. And the Pastelbord handled the many layers very well.

See some progress pics here!

Don Keyfurry

2022-10-26T18:58:00.001-07:00

"Don Keyfurry" (pastel, 8x8 inches) bid or buy here

The star of my recent Donkey Paint-Along! For your enjoyment, here's a fun speed video!

"Gurty" the White Cow

2022-10-24T18:00:00.002-07:00

"Gurty" (pastel, 6x6 inches) bid or buy

Here's a quick high quality GIF for you, and guess what? I made it myself! My son showed me how. There's a program that only works on Mac or Linux... well, I won't bore you. But I'll probably have to get my son to show me again the next few times too. (PS: If this GIF doesn't play for you, click to watch it here!)

Gurty is short for "Yogurt" because doesn't she look like vanilla? Today's your lucky day too because I finished painting Gurty in my Virtual Open Studio Episode 118, Part 2, which I decided to make public for everyone to watch! The 30-minute episode picks up early on in the pastel process, as I had started Gurty elsewhere, but I did manage to find good enough progress pics to put this GIF together. I hope you enjoy it! (And the video too!)

Argie in his Blanket

2022-10-23T14:35:00.006-07:00

"Argie in his Blanket" (pastel, 8x6 inches) bid or buy

Here's a quick speed video of Argie expertly edited by my son. Enjoy!

Muses and Buddies on my Patreon can watch the real-time video in Episode 122 here!

If you pay attention you can see when I when I wipe off most of the first try, to correct the drawing and values and paint it again!