Bella! What a funny picture! This is going to take some imagination, and some help from photoshop to find some detail in the lower half of her face, but the pose is too funny to waste. I can’t wait to get started. I hope you’ll follow along with the progress! First things first, though. Gotta … Read More “Portrait Marathon: Bella is up next”
Christine’s Hamilton is coming along nicely. The original reference photo had a lot of detail, which is good, but it was taken in low light, with no real shadows. Maybe a very cloudy wintery day? Anyway, the light was cold, and it was hard to see his golden fawn patches. At my request, she sent … Read More “Portrait Marathon update: Hamilton progress 1”
Yeah. I should never post these until I’ve slept on them. Looking at the portrait this morning, I felt the background was too busy, and too yellow, that it competed with Tiger’s gold and busy self. H agreed, so I softened up the daubed background, and cooled it down, with some washes of warm and … Read More “Tiger: Done, only more so!”
Tiger is all done! Thing P did get back today (see my last post to make sense of that), thank goodness! It and I went back and forth, lighter and darker, cooler and warmer, working nearly entirely on the stripes for several hours (whew!!) The colors in real life are more complicated and intense than … Read More “Portrait Marathon: Tiger is DONE”
Edging towards completion. I love the brindles, don’t get me wrong, but sheesh! SO much WORK! LOL! And, like Tiger’s mouth-frills, his stripes are also very distinct, which means, of course, no fudge-factor. They are also the main source of information about his shape in this picture. There are very few actual shadows, so the … Read More “portrait Marathon: TIGER progress 2”
Tiger as of tonight. I didn’t get as far as I’d have liked. (Am I really going to catch a cold? Bleh.) But, just to be different, I started with the eyes this time. It kind of weirds me out! These eyes, floating in a hazy scribble, then in this glowing fog …. Well, it’s … Read More “Portrait Marathon: TIGER progress 1”
Thanksgiving was great, with lots of family fun and food. I’m re-charged and ready to PAINT! Jennifer’s Ruler TIGER is up next. Jennifer sent me a wonderful photo to work from. Look at that happy boy, with the jaunty tail! Cropping and getting a general idea for background got me this final reference image. Now, on … Read More “Portrait Marathon: TIGER’s turn! (I stand corrected!)”
Tuck is done! Between the last installment and now, more detail. Detail, detail, detail! Smaller and smaller brushes, very few larger area washes. I guess I could talk and talk about every brush stroke, but T-day dinner is at our house tomorrow, and I need to get into the kitchen now! Lori, Thanks so much … Read More “portrait Marathon update: Tuck DONE”
Well, that’s looking better! Still a lot of work to do, but you can see more what’s going on. If you glance back at the earlier post, and see the hot pink bedding, with the weird blotches of darker color, I hope you, like I am, are soothed by this new more sumptuous deep red … Read More “Portrait Marathon update: Tuck progress 2”
Lori and I had to work out a better reference photo for Tuck, but we finally settled on this one. This is cropped and enhanced to usability. I had to recreate his muzzle just below the nose where the picture ended before his nose did. Look at that sweet houndy face! Isn’t it interesting how … Read More “Portrait Marathon update: Tuck progress”
