New work

Embedded in a sidewalk in Seattle, across the street from Green Lake.

It's been a long day and it's only 2 p.m. L-o-n-double g.

I'm working on a painting of a costa rican volcano..hold on and I'll take a pic with my iphone.
Odd, yes? I set this aside a week ago and am just getting back to it. The sky is all done. The problem with painting odd things in nature is that they don't look "real". Oh well, I'm committed to seeing it through. This volcano is in Costa Rica, it's called Mt. Arenal. You can barely see this, I know. I'm starting a new portrait and am going to try an old technique involving an underpainting of burnt umber and then a "dead layer" of a whitish blue which makes the skin all creamy and glowy if it works out. Keeping my fingers crossed for cream and glow.

Finished Portrait

I'm very happy with this. I think the peaceful and happy Shannon shows through.
16x20" oil on board. Click to enlarge for detail.

Last update till it's completed

update

click to embiggen. I still have some work to do on the jaw, etc, yada, yada, yada. On to the bigger picture now.

progress

Starting to get all blendy now, adding more colors for depth and highlights. I've been up since 4:30 working this morning; worked till 11:00 last night then jumped out of bed this morning. I'm bound and determined to see what I can do with this piece today. I'm having a ball doing it.

I've set myself up for an interesting bit of work at this point, sort of like painting yourself into the corner of a room. Since I wasn't at all convinced that I could properly complete the portrait part of this picture, I decided to start on the face first, going against everything that I normally do. So now, once I've completed the figure, I'm going to have to work past it and do the background without touching the face. As I am wont to lean in too much and don't use a maul (yet), it's going to be tricky work. But I'm all about a challenge, so bring it on. Well, within reason.

and continuing

I can tell now that this is going to work out. Will it look like Shannon? Eh. Hopefully. But I think it's going to come together. Lot more to do tomorrow. Please paint, stay nice and wet until tomorrow morning.

And by the way...who's a BRAVE girl for posting an insanely close-up picture of a work in progress? Oh yes, I am.

Oil portrait/landscape

Soooo...I'm working on my first portrait in about 15 years. Oye. I used to do a lot of watercolor portraits for people, but oil...nada. This will be interesting. I'm completely and utterly unsure of how this will turn out, if it turns out at all.

Weird

A little "extremely sick with a disease and fading fast."

Sort of, kind of starting to look...eh...human?
This is my niece-in-law, if there is such a thing. I'm sure there is. This is Shannon and she has the most amazing bone structure. I found this photo on her Facebook page and really wanted to give it a go. The background in the photo is grassy farmland but in my painting, Shannon will end up in a boat with a body of tropical water behind her and island-y hills in the distance.

If you've ever watched a portrait artist doing an oil on You Tube, you know that there's about 50-75% of the time when you say, "Ugh, looks like crap. That is NOT going to work out in the end." But somehow it does. Well, this isn't like that. Because honestly, I'm not sure it's going to work out in the end! At the moment it is at least progressing and the bones of it looks like it's coming along. I need to make some changes but I won't lead you down that merry road of wondering what I'm going to try to fix.

If it doesn't work out..we'll never speak of it again. Shhh.