A Collage of Portraits and Aster’s Portrait

Hello!  Just putting up a small collage of some of the portraits I have done over the past year or so.  I am going to be putting up a post on my Etsy Shop for purchasing  commissioned portraits, and I wanted to group a small collection for easy viewing as samples. So here they are.  More portraits may be viewed by clicking in the “post tag” section on my sideline here under the headings “Portrait” and “Pastels”. Enjoy!

And also…I almost forgot….I will be putting up the final portrait of Aster, since sending it off to Kevin Williams as a gift. He finally received it the day before Christmas. So much had gone on that week, and things got put on hold. We were waiting for things to get somewhat back to normal,  and now I think we can finally share it with you. Please watch for it in a day or so. Thank you. Cheryl

A Portrait Collage

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Portrait Of Aster in the Works

Well, here are the beginning stages of Aster’s Portrait (Kevin Williams daughter) mentioned earlier.

As you can see from the reference picture, I could not really see Aster’s eyes very well, so I asked Kevin what color her eyes were. I knew they looked brown, but I wanted to know if they were dark brown or touch of hazel, light brown, etc.  He told me they were dark brown and so I do what I always do, and went on google to find a pair of dark brown eyes up close to see how they would reflect light.

Then I started with the base of skin color and lips, and then the eyes are always next.  I can’t explain it, but when I paint the eyes on all my portrait paintings, it seems like the whole portrait has a sort of life to it, and then everything evolves around that. It’s the feature that brings the whole portrait together.

As I am writing this, I have gone further with the portrait and I will put these up in a day or so and then it’s almost done. I am taking photos in stages best I can. So, this is basically the two main first steps in any portrait I do, and like I have said before, there is always a stage you go through where you think it’s not working out and you just want to start all over again, but it somehow  comes together with all the highlights and shadow and tweaking.

Then one or both daughters of mine come into my room, see it and say, “Wow, that looks awesome! That looks just like her”. And then I know I must be just sitting in front of the drawing board way t00 long and need a break.  Hope you like it so far! Back to tweaking and highlighting! Cheryl

Aster reference photo

The beginning stages…always looks a little scary

Adding the eyes with highlights…life is now in the portrait…it’s no longer a piece of paper at this point.

Amish Woman With A Pie Completed

Hello!  I finally finished!  Here she is. The days have been pretty cloudy here and so getting photos of my paintings has been pretty tough, so I think she looks not as clear here as she actually is. ( Sorry I have to use a watermark, but  unfortunately there is someone stealing photos from my blog and others, and selling them online, so I do apologize.)

Anyhow, I like the simpleness of the colors and the simple beauty of the whole piece.  The colors surrounding her, the browns and blacks, and with her holding that freshly made pie, makes the whole painting feel warm and homey. The brightly colored and quilted potholder,( which I actually own and was bought in Amish Country) was added for interest and to accent the blue in her dress. I think this brightens the painting just perfectly. Now she just needs a name!  😉 On to the next one!

Amish Woman With A Pie

 

 

Portrait of Aster -The Beginning Stages

Hello All! Just starting another portrait, and I figured I would show this “special” one in stages as well. This one is of Aster, Kevin Williams (from Amish365) daughter. I can’t wait to paint her, she is so cute!

Kevin has done so much for me with sharing my artwork of the Amish, I figured it was time to return the favor! So, I will try and show this one in more stages than usual, if I can. I tend to get real excited about a piece and realize I didn’t take many pictures, and then it’s done! I also promise to post the “Amish woman with a pie”painting up here too. She is basically done except for minor details, so she should be ready. Anyway, here she is….Aster in sketch form….and here we go…

Aster…The Sketch

Natalynn and Jack

I almost forgot to post these two portraits I finished of my nephew’s children.  I’m trying to see if I can finish doing all of the children in the family, just to do it and say I did it.  Hey, it’s great practice,too!

I do love the way these two came out.  I’ll never understand it, but I always get to a point in a painting where I feel like it’s just not working. I’ll just keep at it, change things, add color, erase things, add shading…..  and then suddenly it transforms into a beautiful finished piece. I still look at pieces I’ve done from long ago and wonder how I ever did them. I didn’t have all the access to instructional videos then, or anything! It was just library books, then!

But anyway, here they are..Natalynn and Jack…two pastel portraits.

Natalynn

Jack

Natalie’s reference photo

Jack’t reference photo

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

Two Little Cuties Portrait Painting

I just recently painted this pastel painting of two adorable, little boys that are grandsons to an ex-coworker of my husband, John. He lives in South Carolina, and so I mailed it to him and his wife. It was kind of a surprise.
These are the two reference photos I used for the painting. The little boy with the glasses is older now, so I had to change a few things to make him look older than this reference photo. It was a joy to do both of them and even happier that they loved it.  Makes me happy!

Reference photo

Reference photo

The Finished Portrait