Harvest Day Impasto Kaleidoscope Art

I still have to add these and the next set to Zazzle for fun gifts especially those cool ties and cards for Father's Day, but they are all at Imagekind.  I'm making a few new sets of kaleidoscope artwork to celebrate my recent TBA at Zazzle for one of my Kaleidoscope ties. I didn't make a post for those but it was another series.  I've always been surprised by what is (and what isn't)  awarded a Today's Best Award.  In any case, it doesn't really matter since I'll design, paint, draw, or photograph what I want.  :-)

The Harvest Day Impasto Kaleidoscope Art is a series of geometric designs which were inspired by the colors on a photo of pumpkins resting against a leafless tree on a lawn I saw at Morguefile.  While the photo wasn't so amazing,  I really thought the color combination was great even though in the kaleidoscopes I didn't use the pumpkin orange. The impasto is the thick painterly texture added to these artworks. You really can see the texture in either preview, but it was added.

Moonrise on a Distant Planet - Robot Painting

Moonrise on a distant plant is my second robot artwork (the first was a digital drawing), and I used acrylic paint.  It wasn't part of the Learn and Master Painting course that I've been learning to paint with, but I did try to practice different strokes, brush technique, and color mixing as shown in the course.


Moonrise on a Distant Planet Painting by Christopher Johnson

Unlike my previous works, I decided to first make a quick sketch outline of the robot basic shape and then I started painting over it in blocks finishing with the sky and moonrise. No, I didn't really try to keep inside the lines since the painting course doesn't show that as being correct. Instead I used my outline sketch as a guide and quite a few details changed as I worked.  It was loosely inspired by a famous robot, but almost every aspect of this work is different from the robot that inspired it.

Winter Pine Tree - Acrylic PaintingPino en el invierno - Acrilico

This was my second attempt at painting with acrylic paints and my first 6x8 (inches) with acrylic paint. It was done in layers over three days. I guess I spent about 3-4 hours on it. I imagine someone with experience could have done it much faster.


Winter Pine Tree - Acrylic Painting by Christopher Johnson

On the second day I was very unhappy with it and almost painted it over with white to start from zero.  I am happy to say that I resisted and I really like the results. I hope you like it too.  It is supposed to look like a pine tree with the light from behind and a subdued sky which fades to white. Since it is supposed to be a Christmas like cold climate winter scene, the ground is white to represent a heavy cover of snow. Would you like to learn to paint?

First Oil Painting

About a week ago, I first tried acrylic painting with a small bookmark.  As I expected, I really didn't like how the paint was dry in only about 3 minutes so I had no time to mix and blend.  A day or two later,  I spent a while (at least a half an hour) starting my first oil painting on a 6x8 inch pressboard wood rectangle that I had already painted a couple layers of white acrylic. It is a simple tree on a green hill with a cloudy light blue sky.


Tree on Hill - First Oil Painting by Christopher Johnson

I only used blue, green, and white as colors at first. I mixed both green and blue with white to get lighter shades and painted the upper part blue and the lower green and blended the green up in stronger thinner strokes.  I then mixed some more white with the blue and made parts of the upper part lighter.

A few hours later, I decided to paint a tree. You'll probably see many tree paintings because I always loved to draw trees even though mine were never realistic.  Oil painting has the opposite problem it takes many days for it to dry so while you have time to mix and blend on the support, working in layers could take weeks to finish a complex painting.   This painting took about 5 days to dry.

Riding in the Desert

Riding in the desert and riding in the desert antiqued is a "simple" digital collage of two images one of a rodeo scene and another of mountains with water in front.  Most people seem to prefer the simplicity of the sepia version and perhaps they don't like the fantasy element of the blue mountains in the first version.  After combining the two I had to fill in the gaps with fake desert soil and then worked on the effects to add the canvas texture and quite a lot of burn and dodge on the horse and on the first row of mountains.  I decided against adding desert plants because it would take me many hours more to add them.
Some might not like the intensity of color in the original which i could have reduced by partially applying sepia over the color, but the horse was a very strong red-brown in the reference photo and I just didn't feel right in changing him to a boring common brown.

Riding in the Desert

Riding in the Desert Antiqued

White Oleander Flowers with a Bee 1

I took a few photos of this shrub in bloom while walking the other day. I didn't get a photo of the bee's head. I think it was trying to hide from me.

White Oleander with a Bee 1 Painterly

White Oleander with a Bee 1

Glowing Lights 1 - Fractal ArtLuces Brillantes 1 - Arte Fractal

This fractal flame artwork was just something for fun, but it makes me think of photos I've seen of the northern lights.

Glowing Lights 1 - Fractal Art

Twisted 1 Fractal Flame Kaleidoscope in Green, Red, White, Blue, and SolarizedTwisted 1 Serie de Arte Fractal Calidoscopio

These kaleidoscope artworks are based on the Twisted 1 fractal flame abstract art series.

Twisted 1 Fractal Flame Kaleidoscope Art

Basados en el arte fractal Twisted 1

Twisted 1 Fractal Flame Series - Red, Green, Blue, White, and SolarizedTwisted 1 Serie de Arte Fractal en Rojo, Verde, Azul, Blanco

This series, Twisted 1, is based on one fractal flame image. It took me several hours to do, but once I got one color highlight it wasn't difficult to change to other colors. I could have done more colors, but I decided to stop at three and do others by request.

Twisted 1 Fractal Flame Series - Red, Green, Blue, White, and Solarized

Twisted 1 (Torcido 1) es de una imagen fractal pero hice varias versiones agregando colores distintos como rojo, verde, y azul. Puedo hacer mas versiones sobre pedido.

Blue and Purple Circles 1 - Fractal Flame ArtCirculos Azules y Morados 1 - Arte tipo Fractal Flame

Blue and Purple Circles 1 - Fractal Flame Art

I really love this work because I changed almost every single part of it from the colors to the textures to get the look you see here. I'm still trying to comprehend fractal generating software so I'm really creating the art in post-processing. It has several bubble like circles or globes with blue, black and purple.

Pearls from the Deep - Fractal ArtPerlas De La Profundidad - Arte Fractal

This fractal like the previous fractal artwork, was very simple in as a fractal, but after a few hours of post-processing, It is attractive. This one makes me think of pearls turned into a bracelet or necklace. I tried to add some texture, lighting, color, etc. in post-processing.

Pearls from the Deep 1

Esta obra de arte como la anterior, fue bastante sencillo como fractal, pero después de procesar la imagen algunas horas se me hace atractiva. Agregue color, textura, y luz. Me hace pensar en una pulsera o un collar hecha de perlas.

Focal Point - Fractal ArtArte Fractal - Enfoque

Here's my second fractal artwork,Focal Point 1. This abstract work is to make you imagine light traveling in space with the focal point as a distant star, but if you imagine something else, that's great too! :-)

Focal Point 1

Here is the original fractal generated by software with my settings.

Fantasy Fairy in the Woods 1Hada en el Bosque 1

If you're a regular reader, you know I love to experiment and stretch my abilities and subject matter.  Considering how I haven't tried anything really new for a few weeks, I started this fantasy fairy image last evening and you'll see the most up-to-date version here.



This is my first attempt at anything fantasy or at drawing wings so please, if you don't like it, add a comment with a specific suggestion to improve it (give steps!). I used Photoshop for this, but I have Painter too.(lo siento, aun no no hay traducción para esta entrada)

If you're a regular reader, you know I love to experiment and stretch my abilities and subject matter.  Considering how I haven't tried anything really new for a few weeks, I started this fantasy fairy image last evening and you'll see the most up-to-date version here.



This is my first attempt at anything fantasy or at drawing wings so please, if you don't like it, add a comment with a specific suggestion to improve it (give steps!). I used Photoshop for this, but I have Painter too.

Ocean Waves - Turquoise and Sea Green Kaleidoscope or Geometric art

This morning I was inspired to design some kaleidoscope artwork using colors in a painting of ocean waves on the coast of california. Beautiful and powerful at the same time.

Here is my favorite Ocean Waves Kaleidoscope Art 8.

Ocean Waves Kaleidoscope Art 8

Here are three more of the nine kaleidoscopes in the sea green and turquoise geometric art series called "Ocean Waves"

Abstract Blue Petals Kaleidoscope Artwork Calidoscopio Petalos Azules

Here is the other artwork from yesterday that I decided to keep. Blue petals Kaleidoscope is what to me looks like a very abstract version of a blue daisy-like flower. I made the "petals" extra shiny.

Abstract Blue Petals Kaleidoscope Art 1

Want an interesting tie for Father's Day? I'm sure it will at least be a conversation starter.

Here it is on a button.

Abstract Blue Petals Kaleidoscope Art 1 Button

Here is the other artwork from yesterday that I decided to keep. Blue petals Kaleidoscope is what to me looks like a very abstract version of a blue daisy-like flower. I made the "petals" extra shiny.

I Miss You Grandpa - Remembering Grandpa Christy Te Extraño Abuelito - Pensando en Abuelo Christy

I Miss You Grandpa

Today's artwork was photographed by my parents. I only did the post-processing to make it art and something to share in his memory. He died last year in February at the age of 90. This photo was taken just a few years before.

Te Extraño Abuelito

Mis papás sacaron la foto. Solo edite la imagen y puse efectos para que sea arte y algo para compartir de mi abuelo .  Falleció el año pasado en el mes de febrero y tuvo 90 años.  Esta foto es de unos pocos años antes que fue a estar con mi abuela Alta en el cielo.

Gray Roses 1 Artwork - What if roses were gray?

Gray Roses 1  - What if roses were gray?

Today, I asked myself, "What if roses were gray?", and here is the result. In this artwork, I'm experimenting with digital painting, but this time I'm painting the background instead of the main subject. I also used dodge and burn very heavily in this work. It is a little blurry, but I think that adds to the concept. I painted the background with a light pink and a light blue.
Please add your comments!

Blue Kaleidoscope 10

Blue Kaleidoscope 10

This is one of my favorite blue kaleidoscopes from the while glowing points to the lines that look almost like chains in a circle.