New commission pencil up

pencil up

Just as I was finishing up the Greencastle streetscape, got a new commission.  This will be a gift from two daughters to their parents of the house they grew up in and is now sold.  She asked me to add a wheelbarrow planter to the yard, a pumpkin on the stairs, and a squirrel to the yard.  All easily done, even though my personal history with squirrels is pretty shaky.  LOL This is a horizontal siding house with asphalt shingles.  The landscaping and window treatments  will make it quite pleasing to the eye.  It’s bigger than my last few at 14″ x 9″.  Gift giving season has started for me.  I have a pet portrait in the wings.

Greencastle colored

Greencastle shops

I’ve mostly finished the watercolors on this one.  It took quite a few sessions to build up the golden yellow and the green.  Lots of use of the very little brushes for the details, too.  All told, I am pretty pleased.  I will let it sit for a bit now before I list it as I think it needs slightly more shading.  And I now have a home portrait on the table as well as a cat portrait in the wings.  Fall is shaping up to be busy.

Green castle inked

Green castle inked

It took a while, but I finished inking the Greencastle storefronts.  This has a nice mix of brick and stone with wooden accents around the doors and windows.  That detail under the overhang took quite a long time to ink, but it sure adds to the buildings’ character.  So many colors to paint there.  I’m glad that I wasn’t the one who had to  get up under the eaves and do it.  So unique to small towns, don’t you think?

Greencastle streetscape

Greencastle shops

Last month we drove through Greencastle, Indiana, on the  way to Oshkosh, Wisconsin, for the EAA Airventure 2017.   On the way back we stopped to take pictures of its downtown.  I seem to have found another small town square with interesting storefronts.  Hooray! There will be several drawings possible from this town square so I will have work layed out for a bit.

I finished the dog portrait

Peiper

Silly me. In my eagerness to start the watercolors, I forgot to photograph the inked phase, so here is the finished portrait.  What a cute little dog this is.  After I started the watercolors, the overhead perspective from the photo made her harness start to look more and more like a neckerchief.  I had to widen the base somewhat to make it look right.  It wasn’t so apparent in the pencil up or even the inking, but about half way through the watercolors, the orange harness fabric started to bother me.  I widened the base with the ink.  Fortunately, that area is in shadow, so I could get away with it.  In the end, I am pleased with it.

A new dog portrait commission

Dog portrait

A dog commission came up recently while I was working on the little book, entailing a sudden change of gear.  I hadn’t done a commission pet piece since last year, so it was a nice surprise.  The client saw Gizmo the cat’s portrait posted on my instagram account and inquired about one for himself.  It’s a cute little dog, don’t you think?

Watercolored title page

The front and last pages (folded in the middle)

I watercolored what will be the front piece and end page.  I am debating going back and putting sky into most of the bigger landscapes.  Originally, I thought that I needed to leave the space white for the words, but upon reflection, the writing should be easily visible through the blue sky and I think the expanses maybe need some color.

Any opinions on that?