Last #ArtAdventCalendar for 2025. Makapuu Beach, Oahu Hawaii. While I was painting this, a group of women were posing in front of me on the beach. After I was done, they came over and were horribly disappointed that I didn’t include them. Their thongs clashed with the color scheme.

On #ArtAdventCalendar day 23, I give you The Burger King. Resin Jimmy Flintstone figure, painted with Golden’s SoFlat acrylics.

Day 22 of #ArtAdventCalendar back in April I participated with a few friends in Plein Airpril. I knew going in I wouldn’t complete the whole challenge, but I got a couple decent studies out of it. I bought some watercolor pencils long ago, but I’d never really had much chance to use them. Until now.

Day 21 of #ArtAdventCalendar. The Crab Nebula. Acrylics, 9x12

Day 20 of #ArtAdventCalendar. Rho Ophiuchi gas cloud. 9x12 acrylic, one of a series I’m calling Plein Airless.

#ArtAdventCalendar day 19. Cloud study. The mountains were just an afterthought I quickly added in to give some grounding. Clouds were moving real quick,so captured the general shapes and tried to get some movement.

Day 18 of #ArtAdventCalendar getting close to the end, which is good, I’m running out of semi-publishable pieces. Today is a tower I did a quick sketch of a while ago.

#ArtAdventCalendar day 17. Early pastel of some trees in Millenium Park, Chicago. I’d used them once before.

#ArtAdventCalendar day 16. A Gorn bust. It was tricky to replicate the crappy hand painted look of the original tunic.

Some rocks at Daniel’s Park. Sun was literally straight overhead, and no shadows. I’d never seen that before. #ArtAdventCalendar.

Day 14 of #ArtAdventCalendar. Quick still life of an old jug. I was trying out charcoal pencils. I’m not a fan.

Day 13 #ArtAdventCalendar. A friend and I painting at Red Rocks State Park in Nevada. We were at an International Association of Astronomical Artists workshop in Las Vegas. Can’t wait for the next one!

Halfway through #ArtAdventCalendar. Some quick sketches at a life drawing event. I’ve never been good at nose placement, so was just working on that.

Day 11 of #ArtAdventCalendar is a white oak drawing from February. I was just deciding that I liked sketching trees at this point and still learning how graphite works.

Day 10 already? Sheesh! Almost half over with #ArtAdventCalendar. I traveled to Salt Lake City last spring, and while waiting for my friend to get ready I quickly sketched out a couple trees. Not completely done due to my friend arriving, but I like the spontaneity of it.

Pearls before swine, Dec 10, 2023.

Day 8 of #ArtAdventCalendar. Waiting on my son for his piano lessons, I started drawing in my sketchbook. An elm tree in graphite.

Day 7, #ArtAdventCalendar an in process shot, blocking in the major shapes. Turns out I don’t have a picture of the finished piece, and I can’t seem to find it in the pile—my guess is I set it aside to dry and now something is on top of it. Time to clean the studio.

Day 6 #ArtAdventCalendar is quick 10 minute sketch of some sort of bird. Hangs around in my yard over the summer.

Almost forgot day 5 of #ArtAdventCalendar Trying to create form with color temperature vs value. Not completely successful, but I still like the feel of this.

Day 4 of #ArtAdventCalendar is an old miniature from Deadlands, a Hangin’ Judge. One of the first minis I painted about 25 years ago. I’m only slightly better now. Deadlands is one of my favorite game settings, and with middle school RPG club I’ve been able to play in it again.

Day 3 of #ArtAdventCalendar. I bought a large graphite stick, and am trying to learn control with it. I’ve always had a very heavy hand. I think that comes from years of not having any depth perception. But now that contacts have corrected that, I’m trying to relearn a lot.

#ArtAdventCalendar day 2. Some lilypads in a small pond close by. 11”x14” oil on panel.

Day 1 of #ArtAdventCalendar is a quick sketch I did of a tree a few weeks ago.

A bunch of government accounts joined Bluesky today, and it seems very likely they intend to trawl the timeline for statements they can spin as inflammatory or insidious. I’m denying them access to my posts, and I suggest you do the same. Here’s how to do it in one click.

Saw @scalzi.com today. As we were driving to the book signing, I told my son about his “Wil Wheaton, Croc Hunter” short story from a year or so ago. My son wondered if his Croc could be signed. @scalzi.com delivered.

I’ve had to be away from arty things for a bit due to life. But I found myself in a Costco parking lot waiting for my tires to be changed. Storm clouds were moving very fast. I’ve never tried capturing clouds before. #pleinair #sketch #graphite

One for your diary as an IAAA member! This Saturday's member's Zoom will feature Dr Pamela Gay of Cosmoquest! CosmoQuest.org

It's a scary time to be in education www.ed.gov/about/news/p...

If anyone wants to join a nascent #pleinair Discord, here’s an invite: discord.gg/9df7dvHCEW let’s get the numbers up.

Anyone going to attempt #pleinairpril ? A Plein air painting every day in April. I won’t be able to do every day but I think I can do 3-4 a week. More information: pleinairpril.com

Went to a taping of “Wait Wait Don’t Tell Me” in Chicago last Thursday. It was fun to see how the show was made—I had no idea the commercials are recorded live.

Thanks again to @jayispainting.earthskyart.ca for doing the #ArtAdventCalendar. I’ve never really posted much publicly, and this got me out of my comfort zone.

And for the last #ArtAdventCalendar, I give you Immortan Drumpf (Trump as Immortan Joe from Furiosa). Painted during the last reign, and not looking forward to the next one. I particularly liked the troll doll at his waist on this one.

#ArtadventCalendar day 23. Another onsite drawing of an overlook in Death Valley. I have a photo as well, but I wanted to just capture the values and shapes of the area in graphite. It’s a study for a later Martian landscape. #pleinair #landscape

#ArtAdventCalendar day 22. Driving through Cherry Creek Stare Park, I watched two deer eat. When the geese flew overhead, they looked up to watch them land on the next meadow over. I think it’s the first time I’ve seen two animals watch each other that wasn’t a predator/prey situation.

So do starter packs and lists dynamically update? Like anyone added to them after I subscribed automatically get added to my feed?

#ArtAdventCalendar day 21. Another scale model. A 1/35 Jeep from the Gundam universe. Acrylics through an airbrush, oils for weathering. #scalemodels

#ArtAdventCalendar day 20. Study of a pitcher for an early #oilpainting class. There was no way I had the brush control to do the Grecian style image on the front, so I abstracted it. I liked the effect so much, it led me to want to study Impressionism. Don’t like the handle lighting. #stilllife

#ArtAdventCalendar Day 19. The horrors persist, and so must I. I have a flask in my “Big box ‘o still life stuff” and wanted to try and paint a reflection in it—I had never painted glass before. #oilpainting #stilllife it really helped the “paint what you see, not what you think you see” skill.

#ArtAdventCalendar day 18. Another scale model vignette. Bandai 1:144 scale Star Wars Snow Speeder and AT-ST. I hate decals, so everything is hand painted—nothing airbrushed on this one, and it was a test to use thinned artists oils. Lots of layers, but the weathering turned out well. #scalemodels

Talking to an old friend a few days ago. Was discussing lifelong hobbies. In learning a skill/hobby/trade, at what time do you consider yourself out of the realm of “beginner”, and what’s the next label? “Intermediate”? “Advanced”? I never see anyone label themselves “advanced artist” for example.

#ArtAdventCalendar day 17. One of my earliest attempts at #astrophotgraphy. I broke apart a webcam, and made a focus adapter for my telescope. It was good for bright objects. Shortly after the image was made, I had to move and this generation of equipment was broken. This image of Saturn remains.

#ArtAdventCalendar day 16. A copper bowl I liked the reflections on—because of the ridges, it almost looked 8-bit. I, used it in a class. I don’t really paint many still life objects, I enjoy being outside too much. But I really should try this a little more.

#ArtAdventCalendar day 15. Two winters ago I went to a favorite painting spot near a river hoping to see fast rapids from the runoff. Nope. Hiked a ways, found this naked tree with light scattered around it. Quick sketch with the changing light. I’ve redone this a few times in other media. #pleinair

#scalemodels #resinkits Are there any other resin figure builders here? Looking for like minds!

#ArtAdventCalendar day 14. My son was fishing on the Big Thompson river, so I busted out the paints. It was completely overcast, and like being in a softbox. This is a small sketch, low dynamic range, just to play with shapes. I need to figure out if there is something here. #pleinair #landscape

#ArtAdventCalendar day 13! Transit of Venus across the Sun, seen from Utah June 5th, 2012. My favorite #Astrophoto I’ve taken. It was cloudy all day. Had to leave, quite deflated. About a mile from home, the clouds parted. Was able to park in a school and setup my equipment quickly, got this shot.

For #ArtAdventCalendar day 12(Halfway over!) here’s another drawing from a figure group I attend semi-irregularly. I think this was a 5 minute sketch. Charcoal and graphite on newsprint. 36”x24”. The lighting is very flat, but I think I was able to get some shadows. #charcoal #drawing #lifedrawing

This is a great Timelapse that shows just how difficult Plein Air actually is—look at how the light changes so much.