Sunday, December 28, 2014

Giving hands

It was a beautiful Christmas this year with Sarah hosting the annual cookie party and cooking the traditional Christmas Eve goose, mom cooking the Christmas turkey, and everyone home for the holidays.  As we come to the end of another year lets not forget to embrace the spirit of giving and keep that spirit throughout the new year.

Sunday, December 7, 2014

Olive and Ernesto

For my sisters birthday in January I offered a commissioned painting of her choice.  Of course I could have guessed she would want a portrait of one of her dogs.  And in fact she requested a portrait of both her dogs (since the commission she has adopted a third dog named Lulu Bell) with a bayou theme.  She sent me a few photos to assist me in my composition but little did I know how much work is involved in a commissioned painting.  Well, after much effort I completed the painting in August but it needed time to dry and I also oiled it out and applied touch up varnish to give it a nice finished look.  I shipped it off yesterday and I hope she likes it.  Below is the final painting along with some sketches and color studies.
Framed painting
Final painting
Original sketch
Color study

Leelee

I found a beautiful portrait of Leelee Sobieski on IMDB and sketched this drawing in the order that William Maughan recommends in his book Drawing the Head - gesture, proportion, shadow shapes, then details.

Friday, December 5, 2014

David

At BACAA this Thursday I had the opportunity to work on a portrait.  I spent more time on measuring and proportions before rendering the planes and values.  I also looked for connecting lines, shapes, and values.