Henry WIP Continued...

So...here's where I am today. The blue shirt is my preference to the pink one in the ref photo as he's definitely a "boy" boy...and he doesn't like that shirt anyway. This is with one pass on the blue...gotta decide how much darker for that shadow to go, but needed to at least get some basic blue in. I also did a light purple wash over his shadow side of the face and took the sun spot down a bit...it was just too bright. Added some scarlet lake to the jaw in deep shadow...right on the edge...but it doesn't show up in this photo. I do sorta like the way his left shoulder blends into the background and I was going to lighten the background...may just leave it now so I'll keep that lost edge there.

Henry WIP Continued...

Here's where I am today with "Henry". I went into photoshop trying to play with adding more color and taking color out...and I'm leaning toward adding more warmth. Just can't make up my mind how far to take it. It did help a tad to add that background darkness, but I'm thinking I should put the shirt in before fooling with the skin tones any more. Do you think I'm just putting making those decisions off until "tomorrow" (as Scarlet would say)?

Henry WIP

Here's another portrait of one of my darling grandkids...Henry. I thought this was an especially good photo with all the drama of the shadows. I'm having a bit of trouble in deciding what to do with the shadowed side of his face, but will hopefully work it out. I've used yellow ochre/perm rose on the sunlit side, and with a very pale purple glaze and an overlay of yellow ochre/perm rose/burnt sienna for the shadow side...I'm still working out the balance of dark and light. Since I'm really not a portrait painter, this is a real challenge...but...how do we learn if we aren't challenged? I'll try to finish this up tomorrow.

Koi In Color

I've been AWOL for the past few weeks and am trying to get back into the swing of painting almost every day. Just told friends yesterday that I seem to have the "I'll paint tomorrow" syndrome (sorta got that from Scarlet...ha). Anyway, my artist friends on Painting Friends have all done a version of this same photo, or one similar, that one of our contributors (Ann Buckner) posted for us. We've got this little challenge going amongst ourselves to post a painting on the 20th of each month and we're trying to "think outside the box". I'm a dismal failure at that as I'm just so literal with my paintings that I just paint what I see and I usually work from a photograph rather than any plein aire or studio setup on site. Hard as I may try, the loosey goosey painterly technique usually escapes me. I did get rather loose with the water on this one, and it was fun.

Artcolony in Chicago

What a fabulous group of friends I have miracleously wound up with through our Artcolony blog. A group of 10 of us met in Chicago last week for a "reunion" although most of us had never met face to face...only on our blog. It was probably one of the most wonderful weeks of my life (and I'm getting pretty old as of last month...ha). These gals are from Texas, California, Maryland, Minnesota, Indiana, Wisconsin and Indiana(Texas is always the biggest contributor to most stuff...heehee). We had such a wonderful week of laughing, giggling, sweating, walking, celebrating...the whole "enchilita" as we'd say here in Texas. It would take a book to relive all our "exploits" from learning to ride the mass transit train...the EL...to doing the "highbrow" stuff of enjoying the Art Institute and Cultural Arts Center to enjoying a stroll through the Oak Park, Illinois Farmer's Market. Never saw so many gorgeous peonies (we can't grow them here in Texas...too hot!). Talk about hot! Most of our photos show we ladies "dewing"...that's sweating...as it was probably a record breaking heat wave for the Chicago area. But, we managed. The gals are...starting top of the stairs...Debbie Cannatella, Jane Freeman, Cindy Agan, Kaaren Oreck, Vernita Hoyt Bridges, Janel Belich, Mary Jansen, Ellie Sethman, and me...what a "congo line".

Artcolony in Chicago

This Friday a group of artist friends from Artcolony are going on the most wonderful adventure...10 of us are meeting in Chicago for a week of fun, bonding, and "just whatever comes up". Many have been friends for years through the Artcolony blog, but have never met...some have met a few...but now we will be meeting eachother face to face and we are so excited. I'll be posting some photos (have a new Android phone and it takes the best photos) if some of the gals will show me how...I'm still learning how to use this techie's dream of a phone. We have a full schedule of fun things to do and places to go, but we're mostly looking forward to meeting eachother and the special bonding that we know will take place. So...I'm packed and ready to go, so stay tuned for the adventure.