I LOVE It When the Portrait Starts to Come ALIVE ...

I'm continuing to glaze the pink/orange mixture on the face and neck ...

I've not looked forward to the hair, but I've started ...

I've taken the masking from the eye high-lights, and touched up the iris and pupil - may need more - and I've placed the shadows for her shirts. The very dark blue is a blue/black mix, with indothrene blue glazed over all. The lighter shadow is cobalt blue.

The shirt I've done with a mixture of phthalo and cobalt blue.

I'm taking the day off riding. I'm not sure if it was the weather or not, but when I jumped off Bruno's back yesterday morning, I felt like I was coming down with a flu. I forced myself to drive over to my hay supplier's farm to check out the hay before he delivers it. Then I came home, fed Bruno lunch, and went back to bed for four hours, wrapped up in every quilt I own. When I got up around 4PM,  I was still feeling weak and dizzy, and the weather was really feeling ominous. Then for 5 hours, we had the absolute Mother of a thunderstorm. For almost an hour, the lightning and thunder were literally non-stop. The rain was torrential. When there was a lightening of rain, I went out to check on the lad. Bless his horsey soul, he was fine, and just standing in his shed watching the light show. Any other horse I've had would be panicking, running around in the storm. So we stood together for a while, and watched Mother Nature do her thing. Then, Pat and I took the dogs out for a quickie before bed. Still not feeling quite strong enough to ride, so I'll paint. Then this afternoon, I'll head out to put up some posters advertising my upcoming open studio on August 18 and 19, and put a few more invitations in nearby mailboxes. I'm ready, and looking forward to my show - I just hope lots of people show up!

As always, your comments are most welcome!  

Humming Along Nicely ...

I left Rhonda here last night ...

The cap was done w/w with indanthrene blue, then the dark area was glazed again when dry with a blue/black mixture. I'm glazing a lot on the face with quin. red and a touch of quin. burnt orange. The eyes have the first w/w wash of aureolin and cobalt blue.

I'm playing around everywhere on the face, glazing on thin layers here and there as I see them. I've also painted a thin glaze of burnt orange over her eyes,  and dabbed a bit of cobalt blue on the perimeter. 

Still working all over the face and neck adjusting colors. I am using various mixtures of quin. red, quin. burnt orange and cobalt blue. I've also gone around the perimeter of the iris with indanthrene blue.
Tomorrow I'd like to get the eyes  and the hair done.

As always, your comments are most welcome.   

She Is One TOUGH Woman ... or ... A Portrait of My Riding Instructor

My trainer, Rhonda - sweet, kind to the animals, an excellent instructor, and tough when the situation calls for it. I've always admired her coloring. She looks so "peaches-and-cream" healthy all the time.

My sketch

1st very thin glaze of quin. burnt orange

A grey glaze for the shadows

Flesh color over face and neck
Looking very weird at this stage

Some local color, and 1st glaze for the eyes

More local color, and starting the lips

Rhonda has been invaluable to my horsey life. She found Bruno for me. She referred me to Andy, the great hay supplier. She has been a help with training and health issues with the horses. And she is just an all-round good, up-beat person.
I first met her about 8 years ago, working in a dental office in Langley; she was a patient. Then, a few years after that, I was having problems with a young thoroughbred I had, and she came to help in his training. The horse did not straighten out, and I gave him back to the rescue group from which I had acquired him, but I stayed with Rhonda as a trainer. Yes, I basically ride dressage, and she is a hunter/jumper rider, but her knowledge is great, and her attitude is fabulous. As long as I have been painting with portraits, I have wanted to paint her. Her coloring is enviable - all year round. So here is the start of my 1st attempt ...

As always, your comments are most welcome!

Another Portrait from Beginning to End

Sketch

Grays for shadows

Start flesh tones and eyes.
It really is looking quite scary at this point!

Hair roughed in. More color in the face.

Yet more hair and face colors.

Two glazes of a black in shadow areas of cap. I wanted to use ultramarine, and it doesn't go as dark as I needed here.

I painted light and scrumbled colors for the gown, and  an irregular wash/application of ultramarine for the background. I may have to glaze a bit of pink over part of her face, as the blue seems to have drained some of the color from her face, but I'll wait till tomorrow, when I can see it in daylight.

As always, your comments are most welcome.

Andy ... Beginning to End!!!

Sketch

Grays for facial structure

Flesh tones

Some facial features

Shirt, hair, adding depth to face

More color on face

The grizzled, rougher look

Background


Had a busy and productive day. Riding lesson - a tough one for Bruno and me - at 9 AM. Then I moved 20 bales of hay, to make room for another year's supply. Did a bit of painting. Had a wonderful nap. Back to painting.
My riding instructor is the person who introduced me to Andy, when I was looking for a new hay source. I showed her the painting after our lesson, and she said, yes, it did look like him, but needed to be rougher looking. So I spent my painting time today roughing up Andy, and I think it worked quite well.

As always, your comments are most welcome.

Thank You, Prabal ...

I thought I had finished at this point ...

then I went over the foreground cobalt blue with a w/w glaze of ultramarine

added a bit of ultramarine to the bee' shadow

Then I received an email from Prabal Mallick, at http://michael-learns-to-paint.blogspot.ca   He asked a "what if" question - my favorite type of question! What if you darken the background behind the bee? So I did - a graduated and a flat wash of quin. burnt orange below, and another of cobalt blue above. I really think it makes the painting a much better composition. Thank you, Prabal!

As always, your comments are most welcome.

Another One I HAD to Get Out of My System

I started with the warm reflected light around the base of the window ...

I very lightly painted the shadows w/w ...

Worked on the wings and legs ...

Some yellow {aureolin + quin. gold} on the body ...

Started some of the detail - mind you, with something this small {about 5.5 x 7.5 inches}, it's almost all detail.

This is as far as I got today. It may need a bit more oomph!

This was the reference photo. The soft contrast of the cool and warm shadows, and the reflected light and images are what attracted me.

As always, your comments are ever welcome.