Back To Painting…Yay!

My gosh, it’s been awhile since I have posted any paintings I am currently working on, as Christmas always throws me off. I don’t know how other artists do it, but I am just so busy doing Christmasy things in December, I just can’t, and don’t seem to have, the time or even the concentration to paint!  I need to be in a relaxation mode, and the month of December is NOT that!

So anywayyyyyy…  In the beginning of this month, I kept procrastinating  just picking up the pastels and begin painting again.  Then one day,  I just sat down and grabbed one of the few unfinished pieces sitting in my art room, and started, just a little at a time. “Get in the flow… get in the flow…you can do this!”, I kept saying to myself.

So here are two of the paintings I am finishing up…John-Boy Walton (who I have always loved by the way…and we need more shows like this) annnndddd an Amish Boy peeking over a quilt on the clothesline. The Amish boy painting I had originally posted in November, when I just started him, and I can’t believe this is how long he has been sitting unfinished. I am now going to finish him, and try to come up with a title for this painting. My goal now is to do 12 amish paintings for a new calendar, but we will see how that goes.  I would love to do more angels as well.

In the meantime, these are the beginnings of the two paintings, and I WILL keep you posted! Enjoy!

 

Getting Closer to being done every day!

John-Boy Photo

John-Boy Painting, Beginning Stages

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Meet Everly….A Christmas Portrait

Hello! Yes, it’s me again. Finally back from  the Christmas rush and craziness. A much needed break gave me some new ideas for the New Year.  Can’t wait to try some new pieces (and finish some half-done ones) that are on my list to try.

But I did want to share this portrait  which was one of two I was commissioned to do for a Christmas gift. This is Everly, and her expression gives her awesome personality away!  I couldn’t wait to try her, even though as every new painting is, looked  a little challenging.  At the end of it all, I was pleased with the result, as were they, which makes me VERY happy!

I attached  the photo here along with my finished painting. I don’t know what it is, but every time I look at her happy expression I can’t help but smile myself. Such a cutie!

The cute photo

The finished portrait

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

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