Mom's Childhood Portrait

I finally finished this portrait of my Mom for her Christmas present. She had brought me a little picture one day that was taken of her (at Lake Michigan I believe) when she was three. It's a super cute picture, little toddler smirk on her face, very nice lighting, great colors. The photo was actually in great condition, not faded or yellowed, so that made it easy to work from. I did also scan it into my computer and enlarged it to work from.

For this painting, I was focusing on mixing the correct colors and not going over and over an area on my canvas a billion times. I did pretty good on this I think, trying to break old, bad habits. I could have payed more attention to colors and warms/cools etc. when I painted the sand, but I got a bit bored with that part. I really enjoyed using bright, clean colors to depict the sunny day at the lake.

I painted my first set of bare feet! They turned out great I think, I was quite happy. (They look better in the real painting). The hand, on the other hand, was all blurred out, so I had a little trouble with that, but it will have to do for now.

I'm still working on my brother's Christmas/birthday present painting, but hopefully that will be up shortly!

Baby Doll tomatoes

This pastel portrait was something I did a few weeks ago for my adopted grandma at the frame shop. I spent about five hours and was working from a very old 1"x2" photo (and I didn't even draw the whole photo).  I have pretty good close up vision, but I definitely had to scan the picture into my computer and enlarge it so I didn't go crazy trying to see the details. :) I also had to make the woman look happy and not like the sun was in her eyes like she did when the photo was snapped. That was a fun little challenge. "Grandma" was very happy.

I love doing portraits, and if you or anyone you know would like a portrait done come talk to me! I usually work in pencil, charcoal, pastel and oils (full color and oil wash).