I finished two of the four Lovebird portraits yesterday, Rosencrantz and Lionel. Much of the detail is lost in the digital photo, especially with the rosy plumage in their faces. Hopefully their eyes dry a little faster this time, they took several days to dry after that first layer. I don’t think I can wait that long to scan them, and I’m not sure my client can wait that long to receive them!

I’ll finish up the other two gals today.

I worked on Elsie for quite a while yesterday, basically just painting in her dark fur. I’ll wait now until this layer is dry before I paint her ears and her next coat of fur. I love this look though, it reminds me of pen and ink. If it weren’t for the smell of oils in my studio, you might think so looking at it, too. Every single brushstroke will give her portrait that much more dimension, and it’ll make the painting that much more interesting to view.

Elsie’s eyes nearly painted themselves yesterday afternoon. Usually when I work in the eyes and nose, I know when I finish the underpainting what I’ll need to do to complete them on the next layer. She’s different, though. She’s been staring at me through graphite just waiting for color.

This connection I feel toward her is going to result in a portrait that surprises even me, I’m sure of it.

I’ll finish up her underpainting today.

Cheeky’s underpainting is complete, this gorgeous fluffy kitty is getting his second portrait painted in a larger size (6×6 from 4×4), since momma liked the first one so much.

I’ll be working on one more underpainting today, so back to the studio I go!

Here’s Willie’s underpainting, in stages, as I progressed on his pretty tuxedo kitty cat self today.

The first thing I always complete is the background. There’s a hint of teal in his eyes and the whites of his fur, so I pulled that into the background to bring out his eyes more. I finished his background last weekend – but with everything else going on I hadn’t had a chance to show you that yet.

Today I began with his eyes, then nose – then ears. Then I stopped and giggled because that just looked silly – so there you have it. Silly tuxedo cat portrait in progress.

Stage two was getting the colored tones of his fur down. Blues, greens, reds and creamy tans are nice reflective colors on a black cat – they go down first. Then I went back and deepened just some of the darks – particularly his cheekbones and eyes. After I worked in all of the dark fur areas, I pulled medium shades into the white areas and will lighten that further with the next layer of oil.

And there you have it. I wanted to show you that second progress shot so you can really get a feel for how I paint fur. I literally paint one hair or very small groups of hairs at a time for the underpainting – and then I’ll paint probably two more layers of fur, more individually for more depth.

Here’s a fun 10″ x 10″ monochromatic oil portrait of Stacie I just completed. Stacie is an enthusiastic teenager with bright blue eyes that I photographed for this portrait last weekend. She asked for greens – lime being her favorite color. When I started working the piece, I decided to leave her eye color alone since they’re such a beautiful shade of blue – and I love the way they pop against the lime.

These are quick paintings, and since I couldn’t continue the lovebirds (indigo isn’t dry yet), I decided to spend a few hours doing this one. These don’t require an underpainting, so they only take a little while to complete, painting wet-in-wet.

My monochromatic paintings consist of one primary color (green), one light (yellow) and one dark (indigo) to contrast. Including her original eye color brought my color palette to 5 colors for this painting (french ultramarine & white).

Makes ya smile, doesn’t she? She’s a pretty young lady, sweet as pie, too.

 

From the top – left is Rosencrantz, right is Lionel.
Bottom left is Guildenstern, right is Jean.Here are the birds underpaintings, you can see their first work in progress shot here. There’s a big difference now in how that background color enhances each of their portraits, it’s really working nicely, warming them up and really showcasing each of them.

Each of their paintings will get another layer of paint before they’re finished.

I completed the background for Elsie, and called Catybug in to have a look at it. I had to hold it up against something to show the difference in color, since it was late afternoon when I finished it and the light was going south west and fading fast. My studio chair was a good spot, the seat is black, the back is honey oak.

She came out to the studio and her eyes opened wide. “Ooooh! I LOVE THAT COLOR! What color is that??” she said. I had no idea how to answer that question, either. Well, it’s not quite red, it’s not crimson – it’s not aubergine, it’s not burgundy, raspberry, or fuchsia. Umm…

“You invented a NEW color, mom?? Woah…”

Maybe I did. And maybe I feel like a pretty darn cool mom for letting some painterly intuition drive my color selection for this background. I know it might not seem like much to you, but choosing these background colors is a big deal. It can make or destroy the portrait, in my eyes.

I invented a color. This is a combination of permanent rose, alizarin crimson, brown madder and yellow ochre. Now I just need to name it, and call Crayola.

Custom Portrait : Greg & Kim
4? x 6? Oil Painting
Canvas Panel
© 2007 Leanne Wildermuth
All Rights Reserved

This painting can also be seen in my portfolio, here.