It’s my turn II

Almost done, I think

First color wash

This one also turned out a bit dark, but I am holding off on the pastels until I let a little bit of time pass. It isn’t too bad a likeness

The Final Wedding Gift Commission

All inked up

It seems surprising, but all of the commissions the last two months have been for wedding gifts. I guess the wedding industry has gotten started again after the pandemic. I wonder if this was the wedding venue, for the reception, or just a building that is special for the couple.

Wedding gift commission

I have done quite a few of these wedding commissions now, but none more complicated than this one. Between the arched setbacks in the front, the stained glass windows, and mostly skewed perspectives reference photos to adjust, the layout was quite long and extensive. It took a long time to get the square tower to look square. I am happy with the final drawing, though, even if there is no color required.

All inked up

A very simple preliminary drawing

Frenchie Pet Portrait

Inked Frenchie

Pencil Frenchie

A special pet portrait for a special person.

The first 2021 commission

Vineyard pencil drawing

Inked up

My first commission of the year came two weekends ago. I had to work more quickly than usual because she wanted it by a certain date for framing and I was going out of town for a few days. Still, I got my visual days of rest between phases, even though I had two work sessions in a single day and it all worked out well.

It is not your typical portrait, being mostly landscape, but it is fun none the less. Lots of green foliage and not much building, but there will be red accents here and there to help the eye move around. I don’t normally have such a vista either, so it is somewhat of an experiment, too. All in all, it came out pretty well. I’m just glad it was only 10X8.

Red brick

Red brick facade

All finished with this traditional Southern red brick home. These bricks commonly feature an even coloration with not a lot of variation to it. The bay bump out and the half round window tops add lots of visual interest. That must be a rather spectacular two story foyer for an entranceway, too. Don’t forget to notice the angled soldier brick courses with a limestone keystone above the windows and garage doors. Lots of details added to make this a lovely home for a family to grow in.

Not a great deal of landscaping in the front, but it is still welcoming. The pink/white flowers are azaleas, another common southern home feature. I have tried to grow them up here in Indiana, but the are super sensitive to frost and often get burned. A large, blooming spring azalea is something to see after a dark and gloomy winter.

A last minute commission in 2020

I got a surprise home portrait commission right before Christmas. She wanted it for a gift for New Year’s and I am happy to say UPS made it in time. It is a stately home that raised children with good memories and is now being moved out of.

Final pastels on the third portrait

Pastels are on

Well, I’m finally done with this set of three commissions. This was an easy one. Red brick and lots of foliage (but no flowers again). The house itself was not complicated and I layed it out quickly. I was able to establish tonal and color variation with a lot less difficulty than the gray/green combination of the last one. Still, there is a lot of inking that goes on for a 14″X9″ portrait and it does take a bit of time. As long as I am clear on the colors, the pastels are a breeze and the shortest phase.

These were fun to do as I hadn’t done any home portraits since late winter/early spring. Now I move back to my own work. I am starting to actually sell on Society6 lately and I need to figure out what designs to add to the shop there.

Home Portrait Number 3

Pencil preliminary

Inked up

Here is the third of the set of three home portrait commissions from the last 2 months. Drawing and inking this was more in the normal time frame compared to the last one. The house and landscaping were fairly straight forward and easy to lay out.

This had a lot more foliage blocking the front view so I had to cut it back and move it around somewhat to expose a larger portion of the facade. Even so, that was a lot of greenery. The house itself is rather traditional so it was pretty quick pencil up and ink in.

It has been rather nice to go back and forth between these portraits and the landscape paintings. It helps keep it interesting.

Finished with pastels

This was a hard one. I probably had at least an extra day in each phase, if not two. The house itself was very complicated to lay out with its almost modular, broken up form, as were the trees in the landscaping. Colorwise, it is almost bi-chromatic (is that a word?) being predominantly gray and green. I had to find a way to accent with some other colors for establishing depth and visual interest. Fortunately, even if there were no flowers to speak of, I was able to use the pink of the garage doors and some yellow in the grass and trees to help break up the color. The chimney and the patio furniture helped some too. I ended up being pleased with it. It is actually one of the few portraits that I have done that I could see the finish of in my head before I started. Mostly I let portraits take me where they want to go. For some reason, this was different.