Seriously Tiffany (oil, 8x10)

Hopefully, some of you will recognize some of the features of my nieceTiffany Matson's in this painting. What a might struggle I've had with this one! There are so many tiny things that make each of us individuals, not the least being animation. Tiffany, in real life, is a much more animated person - she doesn't hold her cards tightly at all. At least that's been my experience. This shows the more serious side of her, pensive, etc. This is based on a photo I took when she modelled for the portrait portion of the Zhaoming Wu workshop several weeks ago. Unfortunately, I had to leave soon after we began so I painted from the photos at home, without the help and coaching of Zhaoming Wu and my fellow painters. I'm fairly happy with the result, although I have barely scratched the surface of what can be learned about painting portraits. I've left it to dry for now but I may play with warming up the colours before calling it finished. It was so much fun!

 

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C’mon In! [12”x9”, acrylic on birch panel]

Vicky loves the water… I used a photo taken July 2009 as the basis for this painting.  In that photo, her left arm was waving around like a cowboy’s so I had to do some adlibbing and decided I didn’t need to do much, just suggest that her arm is behind her.  I think it’s fairly convincing.  I really, really struggled with her facial features, particularly her mouth.  I found myself smiling while doing this painting…  the expression on her face is so cute and she’s a bold little gal.  What fun!

For those of you that paint, I thought I would share a few “in process” photos.  The support is a birch panel [1/4” prepared with GAC100 isolation coat].  You can see the warmth of the natural birch glowing through the painting and it pulls the whole thing together with a “warm day” look.

1.  Drawing and highlights…  Left photo below: I increased the contrast on my photo reference and collaged over her left arm as a test.  Right photo below:  After sketching her features on the panel, I painted the lights in her features and reflection with titanium white. 

   

2.  After glazing some hair [quin gold] and skin tones [yellow/red] as a base, I struggled to find the right colors for her facial shadows. The reflections from the water looked to be blue.  Blue, yellow, and red…  all side by side.  At times she looked like she’d been given a serious beating – bruised!  I persisted with what I saw rather than what I think her skin color should be.  Difficult and patchy!

Again, I found the acrylic paint [both fluid and heavy body Golden] dried very, very quickly.  That left brush strokes and bit’s of paint raised.  In this shot I was still struggling with the shape her mouth and just that one little issue and she looked like…  a blonde Rachel [a cousin].

3.  I’ve darkened the water, puttered a bit with her mouth/chin shape,and darkened highlights in her hair.  I’m happier with her facial expression now.  I mixed up a very light skin tone [zinc white, yellow, and red] with glazing fluid.  I glazed all of her skin with this mixture.  The glazing fluid extends drying time, thus giving me more time to change the color up a bit and time for the brush strokes to flatten out.  I think it worked well to unify all her skin tones!   

Onward to the next painting…  Cheers!

New mixed media painting

I've been puttering on this for the past week after the transfer I posted on March 20. I've got plenty left to do but I've been finding the creative process sluggish & challenging lately. I blame it on all the numbers I've had to look at over the past 10 days - yuck!

I hope to finish this over the next few days and when I do, you'll see it here again.

p.s. for those that know Chuck - mum's the word until the big bday is over - thanks! You might also take a minute to compare this photo to Erin's baby pics - it's uncanny how alike their mouths are!

Ted Nuttall's "A Garden in Her Face" copy attempt

When challenged in my art class to copy a painting I loved I immediately thought of Ted's Nuttall's painting style. I'd almost talked myself out of trying to copy his loose, casual, drip friendly style but this morning I decided to give "A Garden in Her Face" a try. It's a tall order particularly because of his loose style and subtle color. The layering order is difficult to determine also. In the end I decided that even if my copy turned out poorly I would learn enough about LOOSE watercolor to make it worthwhile.
As I painted today I could hardly make myself stop for breaks - it was so fun! I missed the mark considerably but it was a worthwhile exercise and I'm even more impressed with Ted Nuttall's work than I was before. This painting was featured in Splash 8 - click on the link above to go to Ted's site and see the original and many other beautiful paintings. Enjoy!

Painting of Hannah

This painting was done over a couple of days and is the third portrait format watercolor I have done. I'm really pretty happy with the result... although I think Hannah looks older than 7 in the painting - I have no idea why, other than it could be in the colors used. I took the reference photo when we visited them in Edmonton back in 2006 - it seems like ages ago now.

Tomorrow I have my last painting class of the year. It is unbelievable how fast this year has gone!

I hope you are all enjoying the warm spring weather!