A Country Boy

Here's my latest portrait. A Country Boy. He was so much fun to paint. I just loved his smiling face and eyes and painting his hat and clothes. I also enjoyed his character.

He is so different than most of the people I normally interact with but I think that I visited his world while paiting him.

I am really enjoying painting portraits. They are taking me about two weeks to complete which is a bit faster than they used to take me and I can see that they are getting better. What do I tell my students all the time? Practice practice practice!

I really must apologize that it's been so long since my last post. I really have been busy and it will continue right through to the summer. I just keep thinking that if I got myself organized that I would have more time but somehow it's not working that way for me these days!

Allisha

Here's my latest portrait. I really loved painting her. For the first time I started to play with the colors for the skin tones on my own. (As opposed to the way a specific teacher has taught me.) I began experimenting with the quinacridone colors but I didn't stick with them. In the early stages of the painting I added the brown tones on the neck and I didn't like the look of them. Then I mixed quinacridone magenta with burnt sienna for her lips and I found it made a great mix for the darker shades of the face.
It was a great learning experience as far as finding colors that work and colors that don't. I do not have a formula for mixing skin tones yet but hopefully some day I will.

I am so glad that I started the portrait painting group. It really gives me a time that I can concentrate on painting portraits. I'm always working on paintings for art shows as well as projects for the five classes that I am currently teaching that it's hard to find the time to paint portraits. I think now that I have the group I will focus on painting them more often. I've recently started a portrait that the subject is a little different for me. I sure hope it comes out good.