I painted for 10 solid hours yesterday to complete this gorgeous car in time for my client for Christmas. I’ll have to overnight it, but that’s ok – I am SO excited to show you the final scan of this painting once it’s dry. You can see this painting as it has progressed here. This is my first “official” custom car painting. I’ve done sketches of cars and a colored pencil drawing back in high school – but this rocks. It’s entirely different from pet portraits, obviously – the line work and edges are not so forgiving. I love a challenge though – and I love a good artistic stretch. This was definitely it! This painting has to be seen in person to really appreciate – because the reds overwhelm the lens of my digital camera. It’s a rich, beautiful red with cherry red lightening it up. It’s glossy without being pink – the treads on the tires are deep and show slight wear – the chrome is gleaming. The background color (payne’s gray) is not blue, really, and it looks like she’s sitting on a showroom floor. I’ll scan this piece and share the final detail shots in a couple of days.

I worked on this little 4″ x 6″ Father & Daughter portrait yesterday since I was waiting for paint to dry to get that Sweet Ride finished up (which will happen today). The green is not really grass green, it’s more a drab olive into a nice warm gold. So if you don’t mind, pretend I did an accurate color correction, or just gasp in awe or something dramatic when you do see the true color.

On the Sixth Day of Christmas, my true love gave to me
(wrapped up in a PB&J)
7 Swans a-swimming,
6 Geese a-laying,
5 Golden Rings,
4 Calling Birds,
3 French Hens,
2 Turtle Doves,
and
A Partridge in a Pear TreeI’m so very glad you’re enjoying my Sandwich Bag Doodle art! The girls really get a tickle out of their bags during the day – they even show them off to their friends! The only problem – Catybug said my handwriting is getting sloppy. “Clirubnas? What’s Clirubnas?”

If this keeps up, I’ll start putting pressure on myself to make them little masterpieces instead of quick whimsical doodles. You can see it happening already, now that I’ve broken out the colored sharpies. Full color sandwich bag art? Ugh – whatever happened to spending 10 minutes braiding hair in the morning? Now I spend it coloring on ziplocs, and whip up a ten-second ponytail.

As long as the song is stuck in your head, I’m good.

On the Sixth Day of Christmas, my true love gave to me
(wrapped up in a PB&J)
6 Geese a-laying –
5 Golden Rings,
4 Calling Birds,
3 French Hens,
2 Turtle Doves,
and
A Partridge in a Pear TreeOkay, so I don’t have a yellow sharpie and had to improvise, and the calling bird – what the heck did you expect him to be doing?

I’m not sure what’s going to happen after tomorrow, unless I make sandwiches for the kids over Christmas break and bag ’em up. I just might – unless I feel the challenge of getting everything on one little ziploc is overwhelming. We’ll see how that goes!

Custom Dog Portrait : MacTavish
12? x 16? Oil Painting
Traditional 3/4″ Deep Wrapped Canvas
© 2006 Leanne Wildermuth
All Rights Reserved

see face detail on this painting…

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Caution: Wet PaintI just completed this lovely Scottie portrait, several more layers of fur have been added to really make his coat shine and give him dimension. I deepened the shadows just beneath him, and signed the painting – which means I feel finished – however there may be slight changes by my client before the painting is officially complete. I’ll scan him when he’s finished and you’ll see more accurate color, the background tones are hard to capture with a digital.

View the entire progress of this dog painting here.

Two Turtle Doves and
a Partridge in a Pear Tree.

Again, with the nudging, please go vote for your favorite pretty Christmas tree.

I wanted to share one more work in progress shot before I finish up this portrait – the darkest darks. I’ll be doing a lot of lightening now, layering up to the lightest lights.

There’s a big difference in this one from the last work in progress, you can view them all here. He’s really coming to life – the next image you see on this dog painting will be the final photo and then the full scan & detail shots when it’s dry.

a Partridge in a Pear Tree.

Also, please go pick a pretty Christmas tree to vote for. I’m not sayin’ you gotta vote for mine, but mine’s in there. Just pick the one you like.