Hmmmm?

I found a scrap of this picture in a box of old family photos.  It is a small little torn piece that is probably about one and one half inches square, in very bad shape with the bottom of the photo not even there.  It has been folded and refolded over time so there are some bad breaks in the paper.  It intrigues me though and unfortunately I have no idea who it is.  My mom was the last person who could have identified it and she passed away almost three years ago.  I made a copy of the photo and started this painting.  I am doing it in the style of Ted Nuttall and am pleased at the progress.  I have placed it on my bulletin board for now so that I can see if I think it needs anything else.  What do you think?  And if there are family members reading this and you have any idea of the identity of this child, I'd love to hear about your thoughts on it!  BTW, this is on 300# Fabriano Artistico paper. 

A Word in Private

I have not been blogging lately due to holiday commitments.  I know everyone can relate.  The title of this post is what I have decided to title the latest painting I have been working on.  Below you will see four pictures of the progress.  It is not finished but I am very pleased with how it is turning out.  This is my first time to ever do an animal.  Plus even more intimidating, is the fact that this is on a full sheet of 300# Arches cold pressed paper, 22 by 30 inches.  Seems huge to me!  This painting will be for sale when it is finished.  Surely living in Fort Worth, it won't be hard to find a buyer!  Wish me luck!

In this first shot above, I had started working on the figure and laying in warm tones as under coat colors for the horse and saddle.

Then I added richer colors on the horse and saddle.  Sorry I don't have a shot of the rest of the under colors before I started adding the texturing on the horse and saddle.

Above you can see the beginning of the textures on the horse and the saddle leather.  Also there is a pink-coral wash on the background.

More work on the texturing as well as adding a violet blue wash over the background and adding salt for texture.  Still more work to do on the figure, horse, the mane and other parts of the leather pieces.

Absent!

I have been absent a bit lately.  I had a week long visit from a very dear friend who now lives in North Carolina.  We have a great time and I did not paint for that week.  I have done some painting since then though and also got my new camera!  Hurray!  A Nikon D5100 with two lenses: a 18-55MM and a 55-300MM.  Now I can get those great candid shots of folks to use as subject matter.  In fact the camera does so many different things that it will take me a while to really explore all that I can do with it.  Anyway, that is my birthday, anniversary and Christmas gift for this year and I couldn't be more pleased!

I have done a bit more work on this one of Brazos.  I was not liking how the clothing and hat seemed to not be a part of the whole, so I added some loose colors and strokes to the background as well as letting the colors overlap on his clothing and hat.  I like it better now. 

And more work on my sweet little shot of Freddie when he was four.  I really like the way this is turning out.  I want to do a bit more work on the background, add some richer colors to his hair and then call it finished.  I'm going to shock everyone and do a painting of how he looks now soon.  With this new camera, I have lots of motivation to get some new photos to use.

Hope you have all been well and are enjoying this marvelous early fall weather!

Freddie at four years old

Well, I can't even count how many times I have used this old photo of my son as subject matter.  Charcoal, pastel, graphite and at least four watercolors!  I love this shot of him.  He's now 43.  Guess I should get some current shots of him to use, huh?  Anyway, this is on Arches 300# cold press, quarter sheet.  I work mostly on quarter sheets especially for portraits.  Somehow those faces drawn on a half sheet look so overwhelming to me!  Huge!!

I think this fellow is finished

Time to call this one finished.  It is so hard for me (and I guess lots of other artists) to know when to stop.  I was thinking of doing more on the background but I think I'll let it be.

More work on Jim

So here's what I like on this one : the hair and sunglasses.  What I don't like is the outline of his goatee below his lip.  I need to soften that and lose the edges there.  I did a bit of wash for the background but I will add more later.  Same with his shirt.  I want to keep it loose but the area on our left is not finished.  For now this is on the wall bulletin board for a rest and a fresher outlook.

A couple finished pieces

I'm pretty happy with the way these boots turned out.  This is one of the pieces where Soon really focused on having me add LOTS more color and pigment.  I really like the look.  My son of course has already said that he wants the one for his next gift!  Still spoiled at 43 years old!

Here's the completed piece of the little African girl.  I'm anxious to do this again on my own and not in Soon's class.  I want to see if I learned what she was trying to impart.  There are a few changes I would make such as cropping most of the clothing out.  I think I would like the focus to just be on her face.