First New Angel Painting For The New Year

I did it! I actually finished one of my paintings in the first week of the new Year! It was so tough just to find time to close myself off in my studio and to do nothing by paint…but boy, did it feel good! Christmas is all put away now, and it’s back to concentrating on other things, painting being one.

I haven’t got a title for this one yet, but it was painted from a vintage black and white photo of a little girl. I colorized it in the colors I chose and made her a sweet angel. I like the way she came out, with a gentle, peaceful look on her face. I will have a title for this soon, and then place it on my Etsy shop.

I wish everyone the best of health and much happiness for the New Year! Enjoy and check back soon! Thank you. :))

beautiful angel

Vintage Sea Captain Portrait in Pastel

Vintage Sea Captain completed! I wanted to try painting something very different than what I am used to painting…and this was it! I just loved painting him!

Pictures of Sea Captains from the past always fascinated me. Their faces look so worn and rough, but also seem like they have a story to tell. I found an old black and white photo and colorized it the way I think the colors would be, and it was cool seeing it come to life before my eyes. I think I would like to try  more like this in the future. Hope you like him!

Vintage Sea Captain in Pastel

 

 

 

 

Portrait of Lincoln Completed

Well, the portrait of Lincoln is finished. I am happy with the result, but it does look like I may have to make his ear just a wee bit larger. Otherwise, I am happy with the way this turned out…considering it was from a black and white photo, painted in color. It was so interesting seeing the picture being transformed before my eyes.

Anyway I put some of the stages this went through to the end (please visit the post before this one for the very first stages of this painting). I hope you like it.

Ahhhh….what should I paint next?

The shading in the face , the flesh color, the eyes with wrinkles and lips all done. Hair is just blocked in with eyebrows and beard. Shirt somewhat blocked in.

More highlights in face, ear is started and highlights in hair and beard

Cool blue jacket, huh? Looking’ a little snazzy! Not really! They say to use blue, or some kind of under color paint under black so it doesn’t lie flat on the paper. It makes it more luminous.

Anndddd..the final result! Jacket with black paint and highlights in both hair beard and jacket. It’s complete!

A Different Kind Of Portrait…Abraham Lincoln

Hello!  I just wanted to share a new pastel portrait I am painting that’s somewhat out of my territory….Abraham Lincoln. I have always wanted to try my hand at painting this portrait since I saw the movie with Daniel Day-Lewis and Sally Field among others. If you haven’t seen it, it is amazing.  It feels like Lincoln is alive again, as Daniel Day-Lewis does a tremendous job, playing the part.  Anyway, I know many others have painted him, but I did this because I had to…for me.  I guess it’s like saying  thank you for everything…for what he stood for and had done for this country, and I wanted to feel a closeness…to the history…the legend. I don’t know. I just had to.

But here are the beginning stages, and I have done more than what you see here now and it is coming out amazing.  I feel like I could touch him. I am painting from a black and white I had found of him and painting it in color. I actually had to look up what his eye color was, which they say is grey…like mine! So I can’t wait to share and  to see what you think. Now go and watch that movie!  I’ll be back in a few to share.  Thanks for following.

The background. I wanted it to be this brown, sepia color with some highlights thrown in behind him. I will have to touch it up near the end stages.

Now this is looking pretty scary…and cool at the same time. I am getting pretty excited at this rate, and I can’t wait for the eyes.

Lady Mary Crawley/Michelle Dockery Portrait from Downton Abbey

Being a fan of the drama series Downton Abbey, I just had to try a portrait of Lady Mary Crawley portrayed by Michelle Dockery.  I just love the pose! Hope you like her.

The first stages of the painting

The finished portrait with digital frame

Meet Mason, My Latest Portrait

I  finished a commissioned portrait not too long ago, as a gift from a mom to her daughter (for Mother’s Day) of her baby son. I was not a friend of this woman on Facebook, so I never got to see all the rave reviews that other people were seeing and sharing. But, she was very happy I heard and so this makes me happy.

I couldn’t believe it when I first saw his photograph, the expression on his face was priceless and I couldn’t wait to try painting him. It was a lot of fun.  So here he is, Mr. Mason! So cute!

Mason – A Pastel Portrait

Portrait Of Aster Continued…

Hello everyone!

I have two more stages completed to show you here on Aster’s portrait.  I somehow feel hesitant to show these, as I am so used to showing beginning and end stages of all my portraits…not really the “in between” stages, which are the most difficult. That’s the stage where I usually feel like things are not working out or that the end stage is not going to be what I expected it to be. It’s the stage where placement of hair, light and shadows really matter, and  I have to keep touching up, adding and taking away. Balancing colors of lights and darks… it can be very intense, but very rewarding in the end. So please understand that what you are seeing is just the beginning of adding shapes and shadow and light.

Aster reference photo

The first stages of the hair, shadows and highlights on face. A simple gray and white background get placed in so we have somewhere to start.

Here you can see I have added the background just to have some color to frame the face for now. I will be adding some more color to this background near the end of the process, to bring everything together. Maybe some warm browns and touches of pink and turquoise that are in her shirt. You can see also, I added a little squiggle of turquoise near her neck reminding me what the color will be. Now I can make sure I keep her face color warm.

This stage more highlights are added to hair, more colors to background and shirt color is added.

As you can see here, the color is added to her shirt now, the shape of her hair is slowly being added and with more highlights. You can see touches of color now in the background or turquoise and pink with the grays. But here is still much more to do!  So sorry for the color here too, as the glow from my light is making the colors a little more yellow than they actually are in this picture. The cloudy days here prevent me from getting a good picture!

Anyway, the last pictures are yet to come and this is where I get really picky. I have to know when to stop touching it. It’s when I need to realize that nothing more can be added or taken away, it’s completed. Hope you like what you see so far. It’s almost done, Kevin!

Back to the drawing board!

 

Pastel Portrait of Kenzie

This is a new portrait I just completed of my niece’s daughter, Kenzie.  The reference photo used was when she was much younger, so I had to add little changes like more hair and wisps of hair behind her neck. Believe it or not, this portrait took me awhile because of the bow on her head!  That was the most difficult part.

Anyway, it was all good.  I dropped it off to the happy parents and wouldn’t you know, as small as Kenzie is, she kept staring at the reference photo and the pastel portrait that they had placed on a shelf, and her eyes kept darting back and forth like she knew it was her. She was smiling too, and that makes it all worth it!  Another one done! Next!!!

Portrait with reference photo

The completed portrait

Commissioned Portrait, A Special Gift

I don’t know what it is, but whenever I do a portrait I somehow feel connected to the subject somehow.  I guess when you spend a week or so going over the eyes several times to just get them right, or smoothing out the cheeks, adding color here and there, wrinkles and subtle touches that define the person, it’s hard not to feel a connection. You are not only painting a picture but expressing an emotion with the sparkle in the eyes and the curve of the smile. You want it to feel like the subjects are there in the room with you, and if they passed on, they feel somewhat alive again. I guess that’s the best way I can explain it.  That’s what I try to achieve in my portraits.

The commissioned portrait came from a woman who wanted to give it to her father as a gift, It was of his parents. This portrait was really special to me because first, it was my first couple portrait.  And second, I found out they both passed away on the same day. All I kept thinking was how they must have loved each other so much, they could not even leave each other.  So, it was even more important for me to get this right. The only thing was, I only had a small picture to do the portrait from, and even when I blew it up to get the details, most of the fine details were missing, like the woman’s eyes.  I could not see the colors of either of them as well.  I had to ask what the colors were and hope for the best.

I guess in the long run, it was right on or at least very close, because the woman said her dad cried when he opened the portrait as a gift. And that is what it’s all about.  To make it that “real” that it touches someone that way, I can’t even explain how it makes me feel.  It’s God given and I believe that, and I just want to do the best that I can with what he gave me. It’s a gift and I want to share it to make people happy, and so far, it looks like it’s working. I thank him everyday for it. Have a gift, give the gift.  Pass it on.  🙂

The completed portrait on it’s own

The portrait and the original photo

Bertha, A Pastel Portrait

This is a pastel portrait I recently did for a brother-in-law of his mother who is about 87 now. It was mentioned to me that they were thinking of having a portrait done and then it was never mentioned again. So I set out to find a good photo from another sister (so it would be a surprise).  The best photo from all the photos that she gave me was this one you see here from a wedding. In the picture you can’t tell, but she has macular degeneration of her eyes and she can barely see. The color of her eyes were hard to make out from the photo I was given only because her eyes now show up dark or even black in a photo.  The first thing I had to do was find out her original eye color so I could paint her eyes first. I googled her original eye color and then painted them from the photo reference.  It made all the difference. After that, I filled in her hair a little and closed her lips, as this always makes a nicer portrait. I like it to feel as if the person I am painting from a photo, looks like they were sitting right in front of me. This is how I feel the portrait came out. She looks about 10 years younger with a beautiful, coy (somewhat mischievous) smile. This is SO her personality.

After making the slight changes to her portrait from the photo,  I believe the portrait of Bertha is beautiful and will be enjoyed and hope to be a lasting tribute for years to come.

Bertha Photo Reference

Final Portrait