Winter colds and mixing paint

I hate to say it's too cold to paint.  When I'm fighting a cold that won't go away, the only thing I like to focus on is to get better.  I don't know about you, but being sick really sucks.  My energy is gone, but the motivation is still there.  I just finished my second largest painting to date, and already I'm feeling like I may need to paint another one the same size so that I get better at mixing larger amounts of paint.  If you haven't painted in oil before, paint is expensive.  Especially when you have paints that is rated in series numbers.  For instance, a series I burnt umber is a lot cheaper than a series V cadmium red.  So when mixing colors and a large amount of paint isn't the right hue, sometimes I have to start over mixing.  That wasted paint goes into my mud mix.  What's a mud mix you say?  Well it's a mixture of various paints mixed to a nuetral color that I then mix into most of the other colors that go into my painting to help balance all the colors in the painting.  It's easier to write this than to do it, believe me. 

This month is busy for me and one of the things I have to tackle is to get two more solid plein air paintings under my belt.  Tuesday is looking like my best opportunity to go out and get a solid painting done outside.  The weather forecast says partly sunny with a strong chance of rain.  I'm hoping the sun stays out that morning at least.  I have this vision of where I want my paintings to be at in this stage of my painting career.  I got one done last month that fits the bill, but my second fell short.

I'm still playing with the Apple Pencil and so far it's been great.  The responsiveness it incredible and it makes any work done on a wacom feel feeble and sluggish.

My largest solo is coming to an end this month on the 29th.  I would make sure you see it before then, because I will be there bright and early to tear down so I can ship out all the paintings that sold.  Here's the address in case you missed it.

2101 Parks Avenue

Virginia Beach, VA

23451

I like to use the marker in Notes when building a drawing up with the Apple Pencil.  Next I'll use the pencil to add detail.