Mushrooms Painting

The mushrooms painting done in acrylic is one of my favorite paintings. It took several hours to do just like it would have taken me if it were a photo manipulation.


Mushrooms Painting by Christopher Johnson

I was trying to make a realistic painting with very recognizable mushrooms however I didn't want it to be as complicated as real life would make it so I simplified the background and I only painted a few mushrooms. I gave them brown-tan-white tops and white stems. The ground was simplified to a dark brown instead of the normal leaf and twig littler you'd probably expect to find in that setting.

The trees in the background are simplified down to brown lines for branches and short wide strokes for leaves. If you are interested in learning to paint, check out the Learn and Master Painting Course. I use it at home.
Learn & Master Painting - the world's most complete video instruction course for painting

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.

Mandarin Orange 1 - Mandarina 1

Mandarin oranges, mandarinas, are my favorite early winter fruit. They make me think of Christmas, and I buy many kilograms of them every year while they are fresh and in season. The only problem is that eating them is a little messier because of the seeds.


Mandarina 1 by Christopher Johnson

I love their tart flavor. Each juicy piece of this fruit should be cherished. In Mandarina 1, I'm celebrating its general form and beauty. Mandarins are unique and compelling. I love the perfume of the fruit as it is peeled too. It is so intoxicating.

Pink Centered Carnations 1 & 2 Ethereal Radiance and Contemplation

Carnations are my favorite cut flower since they are not common in gardens yet very cheap cut. They also keep nice for about 3 days.  They also come in quite a few different color combinations.  Roses are also easy to buy as cut flowers, but cut-roses seem to be inferior in quality compared to those I can find growing in parks or sidewalks.  Here are the first two in my pink centered carnation flower series. The centers are pink and the rest is white.


Pink Centered Carnations 1 - Ethereal Radiance by Christopher Johnson


Pink Centered Carnations 2 - Contemplation by Christopher Johnson

White Morning Glory 1

Morning glory flowers are not easy for me to edit so I was very happy with how quickly I was able to edit this morning glory photo I had taken a couple blocks away in late October. Since I had taken the morning glory photos, the city went through and cut all the wild flowers back to short-grass level. This shows you how important it is take your camera with you even to places you go regularly. You never know when it will be gone.

White Morning Glory 1

White Morning Glory 1 - Love Eternal by Christopher Johnson

Pink and White Carnations 2 Claveles Rosas y Blancas 2

Pink and White Carnations 2 is from the same batch of photos I made the first, but as you have probably noticed, I don't like making cookie-cutter artwork.  I post-process each photo separately. Sometimes they look similar and sometimes they don't. While art galleries may not like truly original artwork, I find this to be much less boring.

In this artwork, I decided to enhance the lines and colors present as well as enhance the white in the white flower which in the original photo had a bit too much yellow-green highlights.  I did darken the background a little and reduced the light coming from the window to the left.

Pink and White Carnations 2

Pink and White Carnations 2 by Christopher Johnson

Little White Wildflowers 4 and 5Flores Silvestres Blancas 4 y 5

I feel quite happy with the results of these last two artworks in the white wildflower series. I hope they'll one day make a collector happy.

4 and 5 are both painterly with enhanced highlights and shadows with tonal contrast and some sharpening. It is also very interesting that it is much easier to do painterly artworks than works using other effects which highlight lines or form. I'd be interested in seeing if that is the case for other visual artists.

Little White Wildflowers 4

Little White Wildflowers 5

Little White Wildflowers 2 and 3Flores Silvestres Blancas 2 y 3

These two artworks were from the same photo session here in the "studio".  I again went for a painterly look because I wanted to keep them very soft and gentle almost delicate. I made the effect in the second one much more subtler than the third one because the painterly look made the flower petal edges so indistinct that it was difficult to view so I mixed some of the original back.  In the third version, I added extra highlights to the petal ridges and did some darkening around the edges. I like both of them for very different reasons. I think a collector might enjoy having prints of all three.

Little White Wildflowers 2

Little White Wildflowers 3

TrophyTrofeo

This pose makes me think of achievement or victory so I decided to make him look like a trophy figurine without the stand or label. I was surprised to discover that it didn't take many layers to achieve the look I wanted of a glowing abstract male trophy.

Trophy

IntrospectionIntrospección

This work is trying to show the model in a more innocent reflective pose. I'm very tempted to make another version with angel's wings. Here he is contemplating life in a pure state as if he was sitting on peaceful clouds.

Introspection

Little White Wildflowers 1Flores Silvestres Blancas 1

I took photos of some more wildflowers that I picked a couple weeks ago. I'd rather take the photos there, but the recent rains have flooded the park's paths and also the last time I spent more than 30 minutes in the park, one of the loser neighbors called the police inventing that I was doing some activity that anyone with good eyesight would know immediately that I wasn't doing that.

These little white wild flowers started blooming around the end of August.

Little White Wildflowers 1

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

Genaro 1 - PortraitGenaro 1 - Retrato

Genaro is a young man and he loves to sing and dance however I wanted to give him a more serious dignified look in his portrait. He is wearing a white polo shirt and eyeglasses. I made three different versions, normal color, color with sepia, and antiqued: black and white with sepia.

Genaro 1 - Portrait

Genaro 1 Sepia - Portrait

Genaro 1 Antiqued - Portrait

Karina 2 - PortraitKarina 2 - Retrato

The second portrait of Karina. I tried to get her face a little lighter, but that has made her skin look a little too light. I might make it darker after I get her feedback. If I make it darker, this preview will also change to match the update.

Karina 2 - Portrait

Karina 1 - PortraitKarina 1 - Retrato

This is my first portrait of Karina who is one of Gerardo's cousins.  The original photo was a little washed out looking from the sun and the location wasn't the best so this and the next few portraits I will post are lacking the dramatic shadows I enjoy. Karina is wearing a pretty pink crochet blouse and a shiny piece of jewelry.

Karina 1 - Portrait

Karina 1 Antiqued - Portrait

Queen Anne's Lace 1 & 2

Queen Anne's Lace or Wild Carrot is a wildflower with clusters of very small white flowers. I was sent several unedited photos by a friend and artist to experiment with and use in art. Here are the first two works.

Queen Anne's Lace 1

Queen Anne's Lace 1 has enhanced color and saturation to make the flower 'pop' simple yet effective with that extra saturation and other adjustments.

Queen Anne's Lace 2

This Queen Anne's Lace floral artwork had to be simplified because it just had too much detail, so I gave the entire background a painterly effect which gave it an impressionistic feel which one friend compared to Monet who made many wonderful garden paintings. I didn't give the flowers the same painting look so they stand out with most of their detail.



It was a pleasure to work with the reference photos. If you have some high-resolution photos that you'd like to have me include in my artwork, let me know in Twitter or Facebook.  Don't forget I'm also available for artistic digital portraits.

White Hibiscus 2 GraceHibisco Blanco 2 Bendición

A beautiful white hibiscus flower artwork that makes me think of grace. A subtle glow plays over the main flower in this floral art. The shading and different degrees of sharpness draw you in closer until you feel grace of the divine presence in your life.

Made with a reference photo taken by a friend and artist. Reference photo used (as always) with permission.

White Hibiscus 2 Grace

White Hibiscus 1 GlamourHibisco Blanco 1 Encanto

This hibiscus flower artwork is based on a reference photo taken by a friend who is also a great artist. I only spent about 3 hours doing the post-processing work. I think it came out very well.

White Hibiscus 1 Glamour

Esta obra de arte es basada en una foto que me envío una amiga que también es artista visual. Solo edite la imagen unas tres horas.

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.