Carolyn and Carl

A speed painting for sure!  This was a gift for my friends wedding.   I was pretty happy to paint at all at 6 months pregnant and still feeling pretty sick.  The skin tones only had one pass but I was still pretty happy with the result.  

Carolyn and Carl

Acrylic on canvas

The Kiss

I decided to expiriment with gouache.  I chose a wedding photo from a friends wedding that I had wanted to paint for some time. Instead of approaching it like watercolor I used them like acrylic paint.  It made a big difference in the results. I'm excited to have a new medium to add to my favorites!  

The Kiss

16" x 20" 

Gouache on paper

Jesse in-progress

Painting Jesse has been a fun and ongoing project.  From makeup, hair, to the photo editing this project has been bigger and more time consuming then any of my previous paintings.  The lacy woven shawl, crystals and gold have been a challenge and fun to paint.  Here are some in-progress pictures.  I hope to post more as I get closer to finishing it.  Acrylic on canvas.

Hardy Gallery Submission

I joined a few of the people in my class in a mosaic fundraiser project for the Hardy Gallery.  How it works is you sign up, they send you a 6" x 6" stretched canvas and you paint it and send it back to them.  All the canvases are displayed together as a large mosaic and raffled off as a fundraiser.

I sketched out my idea on a small notebook and then scanned it, enlarged it to fit my canvas and then sketched it on canvas.  After my sketch was finished I painted the background color and started with the hair, then worked on painting the face, starfish and kelp shawl.  I painted my line drawing of the scales and then went over it with a wash of color before doing a finishing touch on the fins.  This project is about 4 hours of work.

I really enjoyed this project.  I don't often paint my dreamed up sketches, lately I've been big on photo reference.  But with a canvas so small I think you can get away with invented details.  I hope whoever receives my painting enjoys it.  :)

Venice

Welcome to my art blog, sorry for the long pause in updates.  I began this painting before I became pregnant last year and it sat unfinished in our basement for quite a while!  :)  But after having our daughter I signed up for a painting class to cut out a few hours every other week to paint.

So the inspiration for this piece came from our trip photos.  I found this beautiful carved gold picture frame in a garage sale that set everything in motion, I ordered a canvas to fit the golden frame.  I had already narrowed down a few of my favorite photos from Italy but finally my husband and I decided on Venice.  So next I picked a composition that worked well in the frame size.

I began by getting the drawing down on canvas with pencil.  I printed a black and white version of my image to the size of the canvas.  Then I used scissors and cut out the silhouette of the buildings and important perspective lines.  I then free-handed the areas I didn't get with my cutting out method.  When I was finished and felt confident in my sketch I began to break into my paints. At first my method was wrong, I was trying to speedily paint the buildings in the distance all in one layer of paint.  I realized I was getting flat colors by attempting so much in one coat.  So I returned to my usual method that has a slower process.  I begin by tracing my sketch with paint so it didn't get lost.

  Then began with a wash of color as my 1st layer of paint.  Covering the last of the white canvas feels so good!  I also make calls on what I want to change about my photo at this stage.  I decided that I needed to tone down the heavy dark shadow being cast on the building. I wanted to use reference to brighten and restore the Venetian flag and add in the emerald green color that the water had in some pictures.  A lot of people in the class thought I was finished at this stage.  It's true, in the foreground it's more then a wash, more like a first coat but it didn't feel done.  

Previous experience has shown me in the second coat so much richness and vibrancy comes through in the 2nd layer of paint as you can see in the photo below.  I'm almost done with this second layer of paint.  I've adjusted my colors, and I'm getting close to finishing!  

My next photo should be the finished painting!  I'm just adding a few more details and then varnishing.

This has been one of the most challenging paintings I've worked on.  It required so much patience!  I haven't finished tallying the hours but my guess is over 80 hours of work!

Portrait of us

We returned from a trip to the beautiful state of Oregon the day before my painting class (eek!) so I found myself in a rush to pick a new subject and prep my canvas for class.  I settled on one of my favorite pictures of my husband and I back in our dating years. It was taken after a long motorcycle ride to Kettle Morraine State Park.  I braided my hair to keep the wind from whirling my hair into a knot.  Anyway it was a fun hike even with the hordes of mosquitoes and my poor moto-sore butt because I was crazy in love with that cutie beside me.  :)

Anyway back to the painting.  So I started Just washing in colors. I always feel so relieved when there's less white canvas. Then I did another pass with thicker paint.  As I worked I decided to change the background.  I knew right away I wasn't happy with the thin spray of branches and countless tiny leaves so I found an out of focus forest and photoshoped it into my background. 

 

 I also had a cloth slung over my shoulders that was an awkward shape so I removed it in photoshop using a layer mask.  

I used the Nova Color acrylics again I just love that paint!  It's not too thick and mixes so nicely.  This is actually the first portrait I've painted of my husband and I.  I guess I was scared to paint one before because it's always hardest to paint people you know.  But in this case I didn't want to finish it because the memories of those days are so sweet.

Anyway this painting will be up at a show in November at the hospital gallery.  It won't be for sale but maybe someone will be interested in commissioning a portrait.  :)  I'm so thankful for my teacher getting us involved in showing our work.  I hope there will be more gallery showings in my future!

14" x 18" 

acrylic on canvas

Mucha style portrait of Mary and Tom

I'm a big fan of Alphonse Mucha's artwork.  My husband and I got to go to a showing of his work in Debuque, IA last December.  I really wanted to work on a decorative, Mucha-style art project.  so when my sister-in-law got engaged I began sketching out ideas and doing color mock-ups in the ipad.   Here's my 1st go at it:

But in this concept my details were too tiny for the scale of my canvas so I started again.  

For the new concept I tied in more details that reminded me of Mary.  My sister-in-law said she might use curly willow and green lady slipper orchids in her bouquet so I worked that in.  The little mushrooms and white trillium flowers are native to the Oregon forests.  I remember her telling me that Trillium flower was protected and that reminded me of her too.  The two rings that the portrait is framed in are their wedding bands.  And the warm color pallet match her wedding colors. 

I did the line work in Photoshop and then color mock up on my ipad.  I stenciled the line work, you think that would be faster but actually making the stencil was pretty time consuming, but worth the effort.  

 

                                                                                 

With my sketch completed I began painting.  I started painting left to right, background to foreground.  It was really helpful to work this was to prevent smudging paint.  Having the white of the canvas mostly covered before working on the portraits also helped me to pick colors with out my eye blending in the background white.  

One of my teachers really saved me by pointing out I should use a wet pallet with acrylic paint.  The portraits wouldn't have gone so well without it!  I used a cookie sheet for my pallet. Lined the bottom with a wet paper towel and then wax paper.  Using this method my paint stayed wet for an hour instead of 5 minutes!  And I didn't have to use any acrylic retarder to slow the drying time. Here are a few photos of my progress: 

                                  

And finished!  I have to say, I really liked working with acrylics.  It was so nice to have a finished piece without the long drying times.  :).  Mary and Tom loved the painting.  I hope it always reminds them of their beautiful celebration of the sacrament of marriage.  :). Love you both!   

29" x 29" Acrylic on canvas

Photoshop Painting Class

So Here was the final project for the class.  I learned a lot about making my own custom brushes for hair and grass.  We spent time building off of silhouettes, building form from black blob thumbnails and then going over them with low opacity brushes in white and black to build form.  I'm still trying to pick up all the quick keys that will eventually increase my painting speed.  All and all I learned a lot in this short summer course.

My teacher wanted to submit it to the student art book.  If it gets in that would be pretty cool.  :)  

Stations of the Cross: Coloring Book

We finished ink drawings of the Stations of the Cross about 4 years ago for a friend who teaches at our church.  John and I split the job in half so we had 7 each.  Recently I went back and cleaned them up for an 8 x 10" printed coloring book for her students during Lent.  Who knows, maybe one day it'll be published.  :)  

Happy Valentines Day!

Here's my coffee shop sketch:

There's something nice about getting out to a coffee shop to draw. Maybe it's because I love lattes.  I was thinking of Portland and the Dahlia fields.  I might paint this sketch.  I like how the flowy hair turned out.  

Since Valentines day is just a few days away.  I thought I'd also post one of my favorite poems to go along with it.  :)  Enjoy!

She Walks in Beauty

She walks in beauty, like the night

Of cloudless climes and starry skies;

And all that’s best of dark and bright

Meet in her aspect and her eyes;

Thus mellowed to that tender light

Which heaven to gaudy day denies.

One shade the more, one ray the less,

Had half impaired the nameless grace

Which waves in every raven tress,

Or softly lightens o’er her face;

Where thoughts serenely sweet express,

How pure, how dear their dwelling-place.

And on that cheek, and o’er that brow,

So soft, so calm, yet eloquent,

The smiles that win, the tints that glow,

But tell of days in goodness spent,

A mind at peace with all below,

A heart whose love is innocent!

by Lord Byron

Christmas Card 2013!

Another husband and wife team effort card.  John drew the angel and instrument and I painted it in Photoshop.  It was a rush to finish but fun to work on and I think it might be one of my favorites.  :)

Master Painting Class Update

Here's the finished under painting:

This is about 8 hours of work.  It was scary at first to start painting over the under painting but it was nice to have a second chance to correct.  

This is a picture of my progress from the last class.  I'm going to have to finish up at home.  Still not sure on what to do for the background. 

Painting Juliet

Wednesday Class

Today felt like a struggle. This was the best of the 3 paintings in class.  The pose in class was for 45 minutes.  I worked on it after class a little too.  Models in the past were all elderly or at older with more lines.  I think it was harder to draw someone young and ideal and still get a close likeness   I wish I had more time to get it right.  

Sunday Class

The same model is posing for the rest of my Master Painting Technique classes.  So I thought I'd post the progress photos in this entry.  I worked in class and then took a photo of the models face so I could continue working on it after class so this is more then 3 hours of work, maybe closer to 7 and 1/2 hours.

Fall Art Classes

Last Wednesday was my life drawing class.  It's uninstructed and the models are all the same people from when I took the class a year ago so if you see familiar faces you're correct.  After some pencil sketches I switched to the ipad.  These were half hour poses.  I feel pretty happy that I was even able to finish a painting in that amount of time.  I liked the colors.  I see some progress in my color choices.  The skin tone isn't pasty white like some of my earlier paintings.   I worked on it a little after class to try and fix some things but I see it's still off  in areas in the portrait.  

I'm also taking a Figurative Master Painting class that teaches old master techniques.  Last class we practiced under painting in oils.  We used just one mid-tone thinned down with Turpenoid and then erased back to the white of the canvas by dabbing with a cloth wrapped finger.  We'll have a model in the next class.  I'm looking forward to trying this technique on the human form.  :)

Ipad Sketches

I've really had a lot of fun sketching on my ipad.  I use the Procreate ap because I love the simplicity of the interface.  Here are a few of my favorite sketches so far.  The woman's face below is part of a sketch I'm not finished with yet but I think her face will probably be my favorite part.  We'll see how it turns out.  

I really like the colors in this next sketch.  I was inspired by a Loreena McKennet song, The Highway Man.  It's a sad Romeo and Juliet kind of tale where love doesn't win the day, instead it belongs to tragedy.