I’ve just completed Stacie and Foo Foo (aka A Girl and Her Bunny) – what a sweet portrait this turned out to be, with the bunny love and the feelings I get when I look at this precious moment!

Of course I gave my own Dusty bunny some love while I painted, too, and she also helped as a reference when I painted Foo Foo’s nose. It’s always good to have a live model on hand. (Need to remember this for future paintings of loveable furry things that I do not have in my family yet.)

It’s been a while since I painted a person in oils, and funny thing – I used the exact palette I always use. Natural skin tones can be achieved with just five colors – yellow ochre, magenta, white and sap green for the majority and the deepest shadows, lashes & brows were done using raw umber tinted with magenta. I’ll be painting a couple more humans here in the next few weeks, so I’ll get plenty more skin time very soon!

Enjoy, and have a great weekend! I hope you’re healthy and keeping your snouts and hooves clean!

(snort, snort… swine flu… get it? We’ve got it!)

I’ve completed Stacie & Foo Foo’s portrait under-painting today, working in the base skin tone and shadows for further refinement in the next painting session.

I went at it a little earlier than I should have, my background wasn’t quite dry so I retouched that as well once I finished. I’ve got it sitting under the fan to expedite drying time so that I can finish this portrait yet this week.

Enjoy!

Front view

Side view

I’ve got the background and sides painted on Stacie & Foo Foo’s portrait, now this will have a day or two to dry and I’ll get the rest of the under painting completed and update again with another progress shot.

Enjoy!

This is a sketch on canvas of Stacie and Foo Foo – I’ll be starting their portrait this afternoon in oils. The gallery wrapped canvas size is 8″ x 8″ so it’s a nice size and will be so cute!

Bunny kisses are THE BEST KIND!

I’ve completed this pencil portrait of Audrey and Janeice, matted it and have it wrapped in and ready to present to Audrey today at Church. I’m not sure if all my little modifications are even noticeable to you, the eyes, a bit more blending in the skin tone and deepening, I’ve tweaked both of their noses – little things that seemed off to me as I kept looking back and forth from their photo to the drawing.

Here’s the piece matted and I’ve signed the matboard and it’s ready to drop into a frame, just in time for Christmas.

It’s been a busy week here in the studio, I’ve tried to get away a couple of times to get some Christmas shopping done – I’m so glad I can do so much of it online! Today I’ll be getting another piece ready, I’ll be drawing a brindle Pit Bull named Josie over the next week. I’ll also put together my Handmade Gift Exchange packages (Catie joined in on the fun, and her gift is just so cute!), get a hundred or so Christmas cards and postcards addressed, and attend the girls Church Christmas Program later on in the evening.

If you’re on Facebook – I did get the girls Piano Recital videos uploaded to my wall – go have a peek if you haven’t already, I’m so proud of them!

I hope you’re all doing well – and that you’re getting everything in order for the Holiday without panic! It always seems there’s less and less time every year, doesn’t it?

Another graphite pencil portrait that I’ve been working on, Audrey and Janeice. I started yesterday with penciling in the facial features and general outline – it’s pretty light but you get the idea of how getting these proportions is crucial as I’m working in the shading.

I started with Audrey, working left to right across the piece. Most of these progress shots are pretty rough, and even now I am still in my contemplating stage with the portrait since I notice things every time I look at it that need just a bit of tweaking.

Just like my previous portrait, I get the details down, shade in a medium value, and then return to blend, darken, and lighten or lift the pencil.

Audrey is all sketched in, now I’ll bring in the blender (a tortillion) and lighten with either a kneaded eraser or for this portrait, I’ve used a pink pencil-top eraser as the areas are much smaller and require a fine edge eraser.

Audrey’s portrait is blended now, though I’ll keep returning to it to make minor changes.

Moving on, I’ve begun Janeice’s portion of the portrait, roughing in those medium values.

Darkening in the hair, skin tones – her skin tone is really dark at this point so I lift a lot of that shading off with the kneaded eraser blend, and lift more.

This is the latest photo, and at this point I’ve gone ahead and signed the portrait and I’m calling it complete, however I am still going back every half hour or so and re-evaluating, making more tweaks as needed. I’ll post the final scan in my portfolio.

I’ve completed Jerry’s portrait and received the proof approval from my client, so this piece is now officially complete!

Much has changed since my last update, I’ve blended a medium tone over his whole face, then lightened and deepened further to get those final details. It’s turned into a very artistic yet lifelike rendering that I’m pleased to sign my name to!

I’m still working on a few other projects as well, another drawing, an illustration – and two blog/site design clients to button up before Christmas. Can you believe how fast the days are going by?!

I’m sharing a few stages of Jerry’s portrait with you today. Above, you can see I’ve already worked in his hair and have moved along to the left side of his face to work in the shadows. Initially, I’ll start with a medium value and work either lighter or darker depending on where I’m going in the portrait. I’m wearing a cut up sock (isn’t it cuuuuute) to keep the oils on my hands to myself and to prevent my wrist and hand from smearing the graphite.

Still working in facial features, darkening in the creases, browline, right eye.

Here I’ve got the portrait pretty well drawn in. I’ll go back with my eraser pencil (yes, it’s a pencil with eraser instead of lead, one of my favorite pencils!!) and also darken and lighten further. I’ll use my blender pencil (if there’s a cool pencil to be found, I’ve probably got one) to really give that depth and dimension to the finished portrait.

Overall, I’m very pleased with his portrait. It’s been a while since I’ve worked a two-legged creature (as June put it) and I rather enjoy the challenge!

I’m working on this graphite portrait for a client for Christmas – he’s a handsome fella, isn’t he? This shot was taken on his wedding day, such a warm loving look on his face – of course he was sharing that look with his bride!

So far I’ve lightly penciled in his features and just started working on his hair. I’ll post more photos as I progress.