Back to Work

Zorinsky Lake

18 x 18

oil on canvas

Available for purchase at my etsy shop!

I had a wonderful Christmas full of snow and family and friends! I was able to complete my commissioned paintings with enough time to finish Christmas shopping and even do a little baking! I actually loved the Christmas snowstorm because it slowed us down a bit. It was so nice to be snowed in for Christmas eve and literally trudge through the snow to get to our parent's houses! The snow days throughout December also helped keep me home painting which was nice. Today it is still snowing so here is a water painting to remind us of warmer days! I love the snow, but I don't think I've ever painted it... I may have to do that one of these days! I'm hoping to finally get back into a routine of painting and blogging and posting on Etsy. I have a few commissions to work on, as well as the annual Art & Soup in February. I have lots of ideas! Thanks for checking out my blog! Stay warm out there!

How to plan a portrait (Part 3)

Voila! Here is the finished portrait. I kept it simple by unifying their clothing and giving it a solid background. I think that helps the focus to be on their faces. By doing a lot of the measuring ahead of time, I was able to focus on color mixing and value tones rather than painting over mistakes (I've learned my lesson over the years). So, I will be shipping it off on Monday.. a painting would be such a nice surprise for Christmas :)

How to plan a portrait (Part 2)

OK please don't judge me. This is not pretty, but it is the next step in my painting process. This is the underpainting. I like to do this for a couple reasons. It helps me to catch mistakes before I spend time mixing colors. If you look at the girl on the right, you can see that her body is much too small for her head. I may not have caught this as quickly if I hadn't done the underpainting. Also, it helps me to lay in some value structure (hence, the splotchy faces). It may not be pretty, but once I start putting color on top it gets better! Lastly, I really like layering lighter colors on top of darks because it gives the painting depth and interest.

One thing to remember when doing an underpainting... keep it thin. You want it to dry before you start painting color on top. (Also follows the "fat over thin" rule in order to prevent cracking). Stay tuned to see the final painting!

How to plan a portrait

It can be tricky to do a portrait of six kids but planning well in the beginning makes it a lot easier. Believe me, I am not the best planner but I put my non-meticulous ways to work to ensure fewer setbacks later on. I always start with a sketch. It may not look like much but it helps me familiarize myself with the faces and the composition. The pictures I was given to work with for this portrait were fairly small so I blew them up as much as I could without getting blurry. I had to work between two separate photos to get the best view of each child so drawing out the composition in a sketchbook helps to sort it out. I often make notes in the sketchbook to remind myself of ideas and colors.

Once I am ready to tackle the canvas I start laying out the composition in pencil. I don't normally do this because I usually enjoy just moving paint around and not tainting my canvas with pencil, although when I'm painting six portraits on one canvas I have to measure and re-measure and that is a little easier in pencil. I make sure to measure every head, set of eyes, forehead to chin, ear to ear.... you get the idea. This is not a mathematical method nor is it graphed out. I use my pencil or paintbrush to measure. It's more like eyeballing until you get it right. I like this method because I am still using my eyes rather than relying on a graph. I think it just works best for my brain. After this step is done it's time to start painting! My next post will be about the underpainting.

Computer woes!

My apologies for the lack of posting!! We've had some unfortunate computer malfunctions as of late and it is keeping me from blogging. :( I'm not really tech savvy, but apparently after we did software updates on both of our computers the hard drive on one of them completely died and the other one is showing signs of doing the same thing! yikes! So, a few hundred dollars later, we have at least saved what was on one computer and we are currently backing up the other, but I still can't load photos quite yet. These aren't even old computers! uggh. On a positive note, it has given me time to just focus on painting and a few projects around the house so that is good!

I am currently working on a large portrait of six kids, a paris scene and some charcoal portraits. I am also planning new work to start on after the holidays. I will have to be ready for Art & Soup again... one of my favorite art events of the year! It sure makes the month of February way more fun! Hopefully, I will be able to update you with photos soon!

Stacks-o-paintings!

I now have stacks of paintings in my basement. I used to store quite a few of them at my hubby's design studio, but now they are living with us. We are planning on building a proper storage unit for them, but until then, they are simply on some scrap pieces of lumber to protect them from any moisture. Anyone in need of a painting? I would love to clear some of them outta here! Nikki, do you see the one of you there? Want it?

Anyway, I am planning on painting in an extra bedroom, but because we also use it as an office, I don't have room for all of my supplies. So, I am planning on tackling a rather large project (for me) this fall of making one of our (icky) basement rooms into a craft room! I am actually really excited about it. I will have a place to do art, wrap gifts, package paintings and store all of my supplies! Stay tuned for photos.... I will hopefully be starting this weekend!

Back to Blogging :)

Pears
(we installed these at my mother-in-laws recently)
NFS

I'm back! A lot has happened since I last blogged and it all kinda threw me out of sorts, but I am ready to be a part of the blogging world again! First of all, we moved our businesses out of a retail spot and back into our home. I had been painting there so my whole studio was hauled back to our house and it still is sadly in a state of disarray. I have two easels in what we call "the studio" which is really a small bedroom but most of my supplies and paintings are currently in the basement in a storage area. aggghhh. We have moved all of Mike's landscape design supplies and whatnot back into our house as well and it currently resides in the attic. I need to get a move on organizing everything because I have orders for the holidays! I'm excited to be painting from home again, just as long as I can banish most of the clutter that has seeped into our little abode.

Secondly, I did have surgery last week so I spent a few days mostly in bed. No worries, I am in good health and ready to be creative once again. I owe a big thank you to all of our friends and family that brought us meals and cookies! We have such wonderful friends.

Last, but certainly not least, a good friend of mine had her baby, Micah Eleanor on October 24th. Liz is a faithful friend that even follows this little blog! She is always an encouragement to me, makes me smile and is just an amazing woman. Her daughter was born 11 weeks premature and weighed 1 lb 15 oz. She is a beautiful little girl with awesome parents and she is doing well and gaining weight. I love reading Liz's blog daily to see pictures of Micah and see how she is doing. Check it out and keep them in your prayers!