Custom Portrait of Bessie
12″ x 12″ Oil Painting on Gallery Wrapped Canvas
©2010 Leanne Wildermuth
All Rights Reserved

This lovely painting of Bessie was a well received Christmas surprise so this is his post-holiday unveiling! Enjoy!

Custom Portrait of Max (#2)
12″ x 12″ Oil Painting on Gallery Wrapped Canvas
©2010 Leanne Wildermuth
All Rights Reserved

I’ve painted Max a second time now, this time as a “teenager” (view his previous puppy portrait here). This lovely painting was a Christmas gift so this is his post-holiday unveiling! Enjoy!

This update is long, long overdue!

I’ve spent the last couple of days inserting all of my projects to date into my portfolio. I can’t believe 2010 is almost over!

I’ve added over 20 things to draw to my portfolio, so if you see yours here, please pop right on over to your project and leave a comment. It is so helpful to have feedback on my projects so new and old clients alike have a good feeling for the quality of my work as well as my trustworthiness and reliability!

I’ve even been able to add a few photos of framed pieces (Moggie, Lilly and Joey’s portraits) which is really neat! I love having photos from clients to share!

I’d also like to thank each and every one of my clients who entrusted me with their projects. It’s incredible to me to look back over the work I’ve done just this year and see such a variety, which means that many people put a lot of faith in me to be creative in whatever medium their project requires. That is a very cool thing, and I feel very blessed to have the opportunity to create in such a variety of ways. I never get tired of it – and don’t think I’ll ever narrow down to just one “thing”, even though I have contemplated just that on numerous occasions as many people recommend a specialty – I just can’t do it!

Thanks again to all of you for your continued support on my artistic journey. Love and hugs to you all!

Custom Portrait of Moggie
8″ x 10″ Oil Painting on Linen Canvas Hardboard
©2010 Leanne Wildermuth
All Rights Reserved

Here’s the final image of Moggie’s fourth portrait, this one is an 8×10 oil painting. Her previous portraits were all in graphite (See Moggie #1, #2, #3) so painting her in oils was a real treat!

My schedule is filling up SO fast, at this rate I will be busy until at least the end of November. I have 11 projects in queue now – quite a variety! I’ll be working on a few custom graphite portraits, at least one in oils, a few blog designs and a couple of photo album designs. I am very excited and blessed to have great clients who keep me creative in so many ways.

I’ll update again very soon with more new work!

I’ve completed Moggie’s portrait! Her whiskers, and suitcase have all been revisited with a couple more layers with very fine brushes and I think she’s just stunning. I am pleased as punch with how she turned out!

Things have definitely picked up around my house so the past few days have been busy busy busy, go go go – and I have not had the chance to get her portrait uploaded here for you to see. I’ve sent the photo to my client for review and approval as well so I’ll be varnishing and scanning and shipping the beginning of next week.

Thanks for popping in for a visit! I’ll post the scan next week some time and hope to find a few moments in the next few days to catch you up on all the other day to day things I’ve been up to. See you soon!

I’ve got a couple more progress shots for you of Moggie’s portrait! The top photo shows how I began working in her stripes first and what the portrait looked like when I began filling in her coat. I thought it was a neat comparison shot to the final under painting beneath, so you can get a better idea how I work through a portrait.

The first thing I work in is the background and foreground, if there is one, and then I paint in the facial features – eyes, nose & ears – then stripes and solids. The only part of the painting that is completely finished at this stage is the gorgeous mustard background. I’ll paint in each hair on her coat again individually – under painting it like this just covers the canvas in the darkest color so I can start laying actual fur over the top.

I might not finish this piece until next week. I don’t use black, since it’s not a natural color found in nature. What appears to be black in my paintings never is – it is a combination of indigo and other dark values found in the painting. For example, Moggie’s “black” is indigo and raw umber, with a touch of burnt umber and yellow ochre where the light is bouncing off of her coat. Indigo seems to be the once color that takes the absolute longest to dry, even when using a medium to speed drying time! Neat little tidbit for you artists who are following along! I quit using black a long, long time ago – doing it this way makes the color so much more real, and rich.

Moggie and I will see you again soon!

Both of my girls are back to school and that means I’m back at the easel! I’ve kicked off my week with Moggie’s portrait, working in the background and the under painting of the blue suitcase that Moggie is lying on in this portrait. This is an 8×10 oil painting on a linen panel, in case you’re wondering! I’ll be finishing this painting by the end of the week, so stay tuned for those updates.

I’ll also be working on another cat portrait, that one is a graphite drawing – as well as a few site designs and updates for clients, so I’m diving right in!

Summer is coming to an end and the kids are getting ready to go back to school. I’ve cleaned and organized the studio so that I can paint/draw and photograph more efficiently, and now it’s time for me to get back to work!

It’s always tough to work on projects through the summer months with the girls home – I would much rather soak up all that time with them – before I know it they’ll be gone all summer and I’ll have studio time year-round!

The kitty above is Moggie, I’ve drawn her portrait several times already but this one will be a full color oil painting. The sketch is done and I’m ready to work on the background color, which will be a nice creamy golden mustard to match her tabbiness (sitting in a blue suitcase, holding a blue NY Giants drink cozy). It’s going to be a really sweet portrait and I’m excited to get back to the easel!

Hope you’ve enjoyed your summer!

Custom Portrait of Joey
(Chestnut Horse)
12″ x 16″ Oil Painting on Linen Canvas Hardboard
©2010 Leanne Wildermuth
All Rights Reserved