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Here is my Pink portrait, I am guessing that most of you have figured out what it is going to be now that I have added the eye and the beak (we hope), at least it is a little clearer today.  I have been going back and forth between two paintings, this Flamingo and Jania most of the day and feel I made some progress on both.  However, I find that I tend to get all engrossed, then hunched over as I am really concentrating on what I am doing.  Then I end up with a crick in the neck and back, etc, well blah, blah on that.  But most importantly I got to tell you I don't know where the day goes, it's lunch then wosh, it is dinner.  Have to tell you I never really realized what a funky eye a Flamingo really has, and also if you check the beak closely, when is black not really black.  I also thought they had a smooth hooked beak, but upon closer inspection, it is actually gooved on the sides.  Can't wait to get into the delicious colors.  Learned today that the Flamingo is the

Well it was a yet another cloudy day, but supposed to be a good chance to rain - NOT - they were wrong one more time.  Don't get how they can so consistently be wrong, but ... no rain for my garden and grass.   However it was a good day to do some house cleaning and start to work more on my pictures.  Adding more color to Jania, not sure if I will leave it as is or if I will put more graphite over it, side that is colored right now is the shadow side.  Also started to put in the hair, I think I need to get those darker shades in to determine what I want to do colorwise on the complexion.  She looks a little ghostly right now.  Got her hanging on the board so that I can study her up as I sure don't want to lose her now. Also started my flamingo and got the background in.  Used pencils that weren't as waxy as I would like and also tried some Mona Lisa Odorless paint thinner and it handles differently than what I was using, odorless turp.  Was disappointed as it is clea

A good friend has been gracious enough to allow me to try to capture portraits of her granddaughters.  There is always pressure when it is a real person, one that someone knows and has expectations for, so am hoping I do the girls justice.  She was also kind enough to let me post these as WIP as well. Anyway, this beautiful little girl is the easiest of the two, at least from my viewpoint.   I think I pretty much have her, at least enough to put in the eyes and lips in color and then begin to work on the toning in graphite.  I felt initially I had gotten her looking older than her age, but think I have rectified that and gotten her age appropriate again.  Just the slightest tweaks can put the whole thing off.   There will be color in this. I really am liking the subtle color look on my last two portraits, I quite like the softness and am lucky both these girls have beautiful color and long hair, so get to play with the brush and color pencil again.  I am trying to figure out how

Well the experimenting with the oil pastel goes on.  This was done with the Pentel line of oil pastels, they are pretty creamy sticks, but they are little guys and wear down quickly.  This reference comes from the September challenge on Paint and Draw Together.  You might want to check this site out, http://paintanddrawtogether.blogspot.com/ , Lela comes up with great reference photos each month, it is a nice little community of artists to comment and help, and always subjects that you might not attempt on your own.  Lela posted the rooster and said to change up the composition; so I added the little chick as additional interest and a bit of humor as he is taking strutting lessons from Dad.  Been wanting to do a rooster for a while and this guy was pretty colorful. I am still unsure about this media, oil pastel, it puts a lot of color down and there is a point where it blends pretty well, and then it gets clogged or super slick.  Seems more waxey than oiley to me, the feel kind i

Ok, here is the first oil pastel on a scrap of black Artagain paper.  I am not sure I really like using the dark paper on this and am going to do another try but with a white background and a bit rougher texture.  I think it will put more paint on the support with texture and I can try doing some sgraffito which I think would be pretty neat in the seed areas and maybe give the leaves some additional interest too.  But for a first try I found out that the Crayola Portfolios, while creamy don't cover each other that well, but they can be diluted with water and that might be something to try.  I also have had for many years the Faber Castell pastels and found them to be quite dry, now that might be my fault in that I've had them forever.  I also had some Pentel which I found quite creamy, but they are pretty small sticks and not sure how many pictures you could actually get and could they be replaced individually?  All good questions and certainly calls for yes -- more experimen

This is kind of a different piece for me.  Please excuse the cheesy mat, but I gave this to a dear friend of mine who had been asking me for years to do a picture of a potter forming clay.  This was a quick picture, gotten from Ognjen Karabegovic's photo at PMP.  It was such a lovely close up of the fingers and hands.  This was a 5"x7" piece, color pencil on black Artagain paper and done in a much looser style than I usually do.  These are part of some thank yous for people who were very supportive.  Actually I did make some changes, but didn't take another pic, I made the background apron feather up higher and got rid of the two black holes that are looking at ya.  Just forgot to get another picture update. I like this image and might try to do it again in a larger format and maybe with acrylic. Thanks for stopping by and have a great painting week.

Well she has been sitting on my board now for a couple of days and I think I am going to call her finished.  I guess you can pick on them forever making a tweak here or there.  Have gotten the frame and mat ordered (here is the preview) and will put her together and deliver her at the end of the month. I got such a lovely note back from the photographer of my reference photo, Barb Tester from PMP, and I feel good about the picture and the project and hope that she will move some hearts and open some wallets for this worthwhile chariety.  This certainly has been a pleasure to work on and I am liking this technique and am going to try several more portraits in this combination. Now however I am working on some smaller pictures in yet again a different technique, oil pastel, just to try to get a feel for it.  Boy this stuff is like working with butter, it just literally glides on.  This bears no resemblence to dry pastels that I usually work in.  It gives a lot of different opportun

Well this hat is turning out to be a pain. but good thing is there is no definite pattern.  It just takes many layers and I still will have to go over it really good with the graphite to tone it down.  But I feel like I am getting closer to the finish line and I am ready.  Already have seen something that "speaks to me" so it will be my next project.  It is helping to stay busy and let my mind dwell on other things. I always see things that I want to correct and I don't like that glob of shadow in the lower cheek area,  I don't see it in real life.  For the final post I will try to do a scan and see if that gives me a better texture between the graphite and the color pencil. After I get done with the tedious hat (I really liked it when I first saw it) I am going to just give the faintest indication of the sweater. Hoping to get this down to the Art Center next week, but still have to get the mat and frame it.  I am not a huge fan of framing - ugh!!  I am hoping

    Well I am pretty sure I must have a fever because I have actually been organizing and throwing away clutter and decided to go back on a "food watch" aka diet, all on the same day!!!  It is amazing but I can actually see the back wall of my closet and finding things I forgot I had.  Just like Christmas. Anyway I have gone two days now without any significant progress on this picture, worked over the face quite a bit and added more color, the transitions in real life are more delicate from the graphite to the color pencil.  Also have mapped out the hat texture and am going to really have to play up the shadow side graying down the greens as I don't want the green hat to overpower her face.  To be honest I think one of the reasons I have slowed down is I am now to the part of the image that I have made up.  I need to find myself some reference pics of shadowing.  Best get myself in gear though as I will need to get this turned in relatively quickly. Thanks for s

For better or worse I think I am on the path to go ahead and finish her in the original thought that I had.  I will have one additional opportunity, when I go to take the painting in to get someone else's opinion on whether or not this is going to be acceptable.  I do like however, this pose as I think it really suggests innocence, the burden of illness, but the desire to fight and win, so overall I think it is hopeful and it should pull someone's heart strings.    She seems to be pretty much coming out of the paper on her own without a lot of help from me and in my experience that means stand back and get out of the way. Still looking for your thoughts as I really don't want to offend any one with this. Also just wanted to give an update on the weaving that I am doing.  This is my tv project when I don't want to be doing anything else and watching the tv is BORING.    It is a composite of photos from the Blueridge Parkway, one of my favorite places in the world