Rosita Conchita, aka Little Pooper

A gift for my niece's birthday--a portrait of her nutty chihuahua Rosita, post cancer surgery and minus two teeth. This piece is tiny--4"x4" and painted on a wood panel so the size and surface were a challenge. Wood is relatively non-porous so whatever you do sits on the surface as opposed to canvas or paper that will absorb paint in a little. It's more difficult to use my usual wash blending techniques as a wash will dry with a hard edge, so I needed to do more dry brushing than usual. There isn't much room for detail in something this size with the exception of the eyes, which are relatively ginormous. I was using my other niece's excellent photo so there was great reference to work from and I got a little lost in all the eye detail. Can't imagine doing this head much bigger. I'd get sucked into those eyes and never make it back out!

Bingo

Just finished this painting. The obvious challenge of painting Bingo was all the curly hair. A short-haired animal is easier because the anatomical shapes are readily seen and light and darkness define the contours. But a lot of hair disguises the body shape and throws light all over the place. Eyes are always an important detail and his eyes blend into the shadows and hair color so I had to create a very light photo reference to work from and there still wasn't much detail, so I had to emphasize what I could see.

As always, each painting is another step in the lifelong learning curve of being a painter. There's always points where I start wishing there was sat nav for artists to find their way through a painting. My method of dealing with getting lost is to take a break and do something totally different and come back to it or look at it in a mirror or upside down. Sometimes taking a picture of it helps, just anything to see it differently. Despite some moments of freaking out I'm pretty chuffed with how Bingo turned out.

Abby

A commission for friend Cathleen's new family addition. Painting anything black seems like a challenge. But if there is enough light hitting the object there is plenty of information to use for details and to create form. It's also fun to use different blacks and greys although mixing them on the palette is tricky as the paint might look too dark or too light until you add it to the canvas and in context with what else is there, it is very different. The red bandana helps add some interest and color contrast. 8"x10", acrylic on canvas.

Cindy

A memorial commission for cousins J&D's dog Cindy. She was a wonderful pet and FLUFFY!!! I'm quite chuffed at how well this one came out although her heavy coat kept throwing off my sense of scale. Usually it's not a challenge to figure out where things go but with so much of her anatomical structure hidden I was struggling a bit. Oftentimes there is a point in a painting when you know something isn't working, can't quite figure out what to do about it, and think it's time to paint out and re-start. This is a good time to take a break, go for a walk or ride, and think about something else. So that's what happened and after my break I came back and saw what to do. I painted out part of what I had done and re-adjusted the drawing. Then the rest came together painlessly. 16" x 20", acrylic on canvas.

Mesmerized

Despite being a serious Luddite I enjoy creating digital images too. This was done in Illustrator, which I liken to dragging around a piece of string. Fine tuning with the point handles is a real challenge for me and I have come close to throwing my keyboard or mouse. Yeah, I don't use a Wacom. They make me queasy for some weird reason.

The downstairs neighbors have two cats and there are three next door so I get a lot of opportunities to see them in action, or inaction as it were. They like to hang out on my porch and sit there staring--meditating? Contemplating the downfall of the two-leggeds? Remembering the numerical sequence of pi? Anyway,  that's what inspired this image.

Book cover

Some friends are putting together an anthology of writings that were created for a series of workshops that are based on Sullivan's Island South Carolina. My friends that put together the events call themselves Southern Sampler Artist's Colony and this is the cover for their soon-to-be-published book, "A Southern Sampler". I still can't believe this was the fifth iteration as the others all failed in some way. But at least I'm pleased with the results, as are the clients. Acrylic on canvas, 14"x11".

Emilie

I decided to do portraits of the kids that were killed in Newtown, CT and send them to their parents. I haven't done a lot of portraits but I figured I'm an experienced painter so I should be able to handle this. Because I use acrylic that needs about 10-15 minutes to dry I started four by doing drawings and then adding washes. This went pretty well until I started seeing places where the resemblance was off. I spent a lot of time correcting the drawings, then when I got a better likeness I added more washes to build up general shadow areas and then started adding color. Then I started having trouble. I'd fix a color issue only to notice a resemblance problem so I'd fix that but now the colors weren't working. Needless to say I'm in over my head but determined to carry on and hoping to get looser although I have difficulty adjusting details and staying loose. Emilie Parker is the first one I have finished. Her eulogy said that she loved to draw and would make cards for people so I felt a kinship with her. We probably would have had fun drawing together and it made me think about making art with kids.