Family Portrait Commission

Began a large family portrait commission last night. It's of a very beautiful family. Currently I've blocked in and started detailing mom. This is about 1.5 hrs of work so far.

Finished

Update

Laying in the upper background as I don't want to smudge the painting after my putting it in. I'll put in the lower background later once the car is almost complete. I've also worked on the windows, and some more shading/highlighting. I'm thrilled with how it's going so far. In person the colors are much more velvety looking and blended well, the camera picks up some weirdness. As you can see I have several reference photos. Many are of the actual car, and some are of the same make/model. It's easier to see some of the details on the other reference materials.

Next Commission

Next commission I'm working on and it's my FIRST car ever. It's been fun so far though. Alot different from what I normally do in that the shape has to be spot on. The basic black has been blocked in and now I'm going back and adding in the shading and details.


Shading and adding details

The black I'm using is a mixture of dark blue and black. It's giving me a much nicer, richer black then just flat black pastel would.

Beginning to block in

Line drawing and filling in of the decal words

Background

This is the last picture on this piece. The background has been tweaked and now this portrait is sealed and FINISHED! I'm happy with the way it turned out. Hopefully the client will be too.

Tweaking

Tweaked the eyes on the brown dog and also it's pony tail. Made it messier per what the client said was more true to the animal. This is an update.

Final Update

This is the final update. I'm waiting to hear from the owner on if he would like anything tweaked. Otherwise this will be sealed and ready to go!

Update

Been very busy today trying to get this peice done. I think I'll probably have 15 hours or so on this piece when it's finally complete. Still have work on the brown dog to do. Then I have finishing touches on all the animals and the background to figure something out on.

Update

Boy talk about a tricky painting! I'm about 90% done with the black dog, 90% done with the kitty and now I've moved onto the brown dog. Lots of work to go but heres an update.

Struggling

Wow I can't believe how much I'm struggling on this dog. It's a tricky little thing because it has hair going in every direction. Also, its owner wanted the bow in its hair, which is fine, but that adds to the weirdness that the hair falls in. It almost adds a poof to the top of the head and then a waterfall of hair.... No complaining, I enjoy a challenge.

Much work to go still! I have atleast 10 hours on this piece so far.

Added in the lights. I need to blend these in and tone it down. Also the bow needs alot more attention.

Blocked in and ready to detail

update

Next Commission: 3 Pets

My next commission is for a lovely man who wants his 3 pets painted for his wife for Christmas. Two of the animals are now deceased so this should be a pretty special gift. This is how far I've gotten after about 4-5 hours. Still a lot of work to do on this kitty to go, hopefully I'll finish with it tonight though and I'll move on to the next animal tomorrow.

Finished

Baby Girl WIP

Presley

Baby Boy

Update on Baby Portrait

New Commission: Baby Portrait

I began a new piece yesterday. It's a beautiful portrait of a baby looking down. I'm using pastels and colored pencils and it's on suede mat board. Finished dimensions will be between 10x12 to 11x14. I've been working on it for the past day and hope to have it done sometime tomorrow or Thursday. I have about 6 hours of work into it (darn I hate how long it take for fixative to dry! sure cuts down on productivity).

I plan on coloring the overalls with more green that way it really pops out from the blanket. Still a lot more work to do, but I'm pleased with the progress so far.

Close up of his cute little face.

Began blocking in color.

Koala Scratchboard

Ok so this is the next piece I decided to work on. Its going to be a koala hanging out in the trees. This is a scratchboard piece. My first real scratchboard actually, so it's a learning experience for me. I'm going to post these pictures as a WIP (work in progress) so you can watch the progression.
Up close picture of the koalas mouth and chin.

Close up of leaves

The whole picture done so far.

1st Place Winner!

So excited that my giraffe portrait won 1st place for it's class/division. It's 11x14 colored pencils on suede mat board. This was the first time that I used suede board and I can honestly say that i had a really hard time with it. The results were good though :)

Giraffe WIP

Starting my first suede mat board project. I can already tell that I don't like this surface. Hopefully I get used to it and it starts to grow on me.

Tiger Finished

Well, finally....after about 30+ hours, I can officially say that this tiger is done! If I could give any advice to other artists reading this, it would be: DON'T GIVE UP. There were many many many times during this painting that I wanted to scrap it and do something else, the problem with that though, is that I have that feeling with EVERY painting I do. Just take a step back.....come back again and keep going. Often times you can fix the issues that you have with the piece and you'll begin to feel better about it.

Tiger