Saturday, March 21, 2015

The stages of Pouty Face

Many times when working on a portrait I post pictures of the piece in progress on my Facebook page. I've found that people really love to see the progression and the layers build up. I've noticed that artists and non-artists alike enjoy seeing how it works so here is the progression of colored pencil layers as I was working on the Pouty Face portrait I shared in the last blog post.



Here I've just got the basic outline in and I'm working out my palette while starting to get some darks blocked in.


You can see that little strip of paper on the side- that's where I test my colors. For this portrait I'm working on a dark blue Canson pastel paper. It's actually darker than it looks in the photos. When I took these pics I was just using my phone at the drawing board. The board is right in front of 2 windows so sometimes the colors shift depending on the time of day I took the picture.


So here I'm beginning to build up skin tones. Any time I'm working on colored paper I cut an extra strip of the same color paper to test the pencils on- especially for skin. On this paper I couldn't use any of my usual portrait colors that have yellow in them. You know what happens when you mix yellow and blue..... he didn't need to have green skin.


I used lots of peachy and orangey tones to work the skin. Surprisingly deco orange got used a lot. I hadn't considered it right away but it really worked.



In this pic the lips look a lot more orange than they really were. They were a bit of a challenge though to get them pink enough without them turning purple on the paper.


He's almost done here- just building up the background colors and the red of his shirt. I went back into the eyes to push the values a little more and then back into the hair to fill it out with more strands.


Pouty Face is done and Pouty Face happens to be my youngest grandson. He is quite the character so I'm sure I'll be doing more portraits with his very expressive self.



Saturday, March 14, 2015

What have I been doing?

Boy do I have some updating to do!! I've done a lot of work since posting last so I'll share a few pics...

These are brand new landscapes inspired by aerial photos I took as I was flying into Tampa airport. These pieces are very textured. I used Super Heavy Gesso and many layers of drybrushing. Size wise they're 11x14 and 12x12.





This one is the newest tree piece and the largest one I've done- it's 48x36 and it has tons of texture. I covered the entire canvas with layers of tissue paper.



Then..... there's the colored pencil work. I've been doing some commission work and of course doing portraits of my grandbabies. Pouty Face is the one I just finished this past week and I think it's one of my faves. Harlen is such a character I know I'll be doing more with his beautiful face.



This gorgeous animal is Winston and he was a commission piece for a dear friend of mine. He was a real joy to paint and a real challenge too. That hair!!!



Yep, still partying. Friday Painting Parties are still happening. In fact I'm now doing an afternoon session along with the evening. Last month we did a scene from Tuscawilla Park - Ibis Morning, a line up of birds along the waters edge.


This month we're doing a landscape....



Just one more bit of news for now- a show at Gateway Bank! Check this out. The reception is passed but the show is up until May 26th.



There's a sampling of what I've been up to. Leaving for now but I'll be back! I swear! I'll be adding new work to the pages up at the top and I'll post more of the portrait work including photos of the work as it progresses. See you soon.