"Quick" oil studies - Yosemite triptych

In preparation for my first painting class in 18 months (wtf?), here are 3 oil studies of Yosemite, taken from the last time I was at the park. Feels good to get back on the oily horse.

Oil on canvasboard - 5x7

First 2 are 90 minutes, the last blew out to about 2.5 hours because I got distracted by my medieval murder mystery audiobook, The Tainted Relic. It's all Friar this and Brother that, so I had to pause every once in a while to figure out who was killing who.

Suffice to say, gotta pull my socks up.

"No Swimming"

Had a midweek plein air jaunt with Adam Ceja at possibly the most inconveniently situated park in America. It's basically a nature strip set in the massive truck parking lot that is the Port of Oakland, with a beach that - as indicated above - is strictly ornamental.

Didn't those smelly truckers looked PISSED about it as well... or maybe they always look like that.

Archetypes

This was a piece inspired by a mythology class I recently took with the truly awesome John Dobson. It's based on the primary male archetypes - knight, king, troubadour and mage - that constitute elements of the male personality. Here we see my book nerd mage dropping knowledge (geddit?) on the less dominant elements. Ahem.

Patagonian Sloth Badger

Closely related to the Honey Badger, the PSB has neither the terrifying ferocity nor the endurance of its cousin, possibly resulting from regular ingestion of rocks and dirt while digging burrows with its tusk-like canines. It does, however, share a thick skull and loose hide, which provide it questionable benefit against its only predator, the Maned Iguanalope, a carrion feeder.

The Iguanalope also happens to serve as the PSB's chief food source (besides rocks), but due to the badger's glacial speed, height disadvantage and downward-facing incisors, it has devised an ingenious - but often fatal - hunting strategy.

Lying prostrate on its back, the PSB plays dead and waits for its prey to approach and become distracted with eating through the badger's tough belly skin. If the Iguanalope is a slow eater - the badger attacks!

The IUCN lists the Patagonian Sloth Badger as an endangered species.

Menagerie variations

3 variations on the same theme: an elephant, a bear, a rabbit and a young boy walking through the woods.