Gavin and Lucah Finished

I have finished these two paintings and will be matting and framing them this week.  I'm pleased overall and think I learned a few things along the way.  I have to thank my fellow blogger, Bob Witte, for critiquing and helping me to adjust certain areas.  Always nice to have another set of eyes to see something.

Gavin and Lucah progress

Gavin above, Lucah below

I have held my breath this morning and started laying in color for hair.  Geez, I hate doing hair!  I never feel very comfortable with painting hair and I'm always afraid that I will ruin what otherwise might have turned into a good painting.  Anyway, not finished as you can see.  Also not sure what I will do on the background of each.  Decisions, decisions!

Gift for Freddie

The painting that I posted on July 9 of Chandler became a gift for my son for his 43rd birthday, which is today.  43!!!  How did that happen?  Aren't I only 43 or so?

I have found time to paint this past week and will be posting some of that maybe tomorrow.  I worked on the portrait of Ted a bit more and made alot of progress on a painting of our grandson, Lucah.  These grandchildren that you see paintings of are now 14, 13 and 11 (Chandler, Gavin and Lucah respectively). I just love some of these little snapshots of when they were younger.

I'm also planning to do a painting of my husband Jim, that includes our first yorkie, Zoe.  Before I tackle the painting, I have been doing small practice paintings of Zoe but not with much luck.  I am having trouble doing a dog.  I can do them in pencil but watercolor is another story.  Geez!!!

Gavin in her Dallas Cowboy fan gear, WIP

I'm not totally happy with how this is turning out but I'm determined to try some things I normally don't succeed with, like using more colors on the face.  When I go back and review Ted's work, I see that I am far too concerned with local color and not so comfortable in adding other colors.  I also seem to soften edges much more than he does.  I need lots more practice!!!!

Chandler, WIP

I just love the  expression on Chandler's face here.  It is a snapshot taken when she was about 18 months old, or so.  I worked on it this week and think I have the figure about where I want it.  Now the dilemma is the background!  It seems that I am often unhappy with the background and therefore, ruin some of my paintings.  Poo!!!! A perfect example is the painting in an earlier post titled "Farmer Gavin".  I was pretty happy with the figure and then could not get a background that I liked.  Hence, I will probably not post the finished version of that and will try again from that same photo of her. 

We are attending a family and friends reunion party today.  I hope you all have a marvelous Fourth!  Stay cool and enjoy!  Thanks for reading!

Another of sweet little Gavin

Here is another I did recently of Gavin.  I think she was maybe four years old here.  I had a lot of trouble with her hair and finally resorted to scrubbing most of it out and trying the technique that Jan Kunz uses.  My wonderful husband is great at googling and finding stuff for me.  That was the case when I was ruining her hair!  Anyway, I'm mostly pleased with this one but I do plan to do another painting of this same pose.  Mostly this is the method that I learned in Ted Nuttall's workshop in March.  http://www.tednuttall.com/  That is the method I generally use but I am beginning to experiment with other techniques and combine some of them to see what the outcome is.  Practice, practice!!

Farmer Gavin

This is a work in progress of our granddaughter, Gavin, when she was about three years old, I think.  I have always loved this snapshot of her.  In the photo she is in a pasture with cattle in the near background.  She looks so self assured, as though she is just making the rounds in her own pasture. I still have work to do and I hope it will be a success.