New Year's Resolutions or how NOT to paint a mural!

One of my New Year's resolutions is to finish the mural in Peanut's bathroom.  I started it last Christmas break and I'd REALLY like to finish it before she decides she's outgrown it and wants to repaint the walls!

This is my first attempt at a mural and I've certainly learned what not to do:

• Don't ask a child - especially a creative one - for their ideas.  Peanut wanted the walls of her bathroom to look like you are underwater and have people swimming on the ceiling, looking down at you.
• Don't make the entire room part of the mural.  Keep it to one wall, or better yet a portion of a wall.
• Don't use every color under the sun.  Limit the colors used so you're not constantly switching colors and cleaning brushes.

Only one of 2 boxes of paint that we're using!

• Don't go for a realistic look.  Cartoon creatures and environments are much easier and quicker to paint.

So I did rein Peanut in a bit and suggested we lose the swimmers and peerers on the ceiling (which is just downright creepy), but her mural in progress still has a beach, a seal, coral, a crab, an underwater castle, a sunken ship, a dolphin, fish, a sea turtle, a treasure chest, an octopus, and 2 mermaids.  No wonder it still isn't finished after a year!

Here is the mural in progress -

The "beach" section of her mural is above her tub surround, with everything lower than that being the underwater portion.  There's a forgotten pail and bucket of shells on the beach and a cute seal climbing up the rocky shore.  We chose .8 miles for the distance on the beach sign because she was 8 years old at the time.

The other day I finished the first mermaid, who is holding up her mirror, which is surrounded in shells.  Peanut chose the colors for her tail.  I still might add some sparkle to her tail but otherwise I think she turned out pretty good, especially since I just made her up without any type of reference photo.

The Oldest helped and added the sea turtle.  She really did a wonderful job!  He looks like he's just chillin'.

Merry Christmas!

This red ornament is on of my favorites - other than the ones the kids made, of course.  It's glass and I love the way it captures the light, which is what I wanted to capture here.

Happy holidays everyone!

Christmas is almost here and I'm ready (almost)!

So, I'm finally getting a chance to post.  The presents are wrapped, packages are sent, cookies are baked, and the Christmas cards and letters went out yesterday.  Whew!  I'm a little behind with the Christmas cards I know, but I needed to wait until I could get Middle Child a haircut.  For some reason he didn't want me to cut it.  Silly boy!

Our Christmas letter was a quiz again, but this year's quiz was 3 truths and a lie.  Each question was comprised of 4 statements, 3 which were true and one was a lie.  The goal was to pick out the lie in each set of statements. I don't think anyone is going to get a perfect score, because Dear Husband and the kids took the quiz yesterday and nobody got them all correct!  These are truths and lies about our own family!  Okay, I admit there are some  tricky questions in there. Good thing I'm not a teacher - the students would all be crying and I'd be getting barraged with nasty emails from the parents. Better to work alone, I think...

I've always enjoyed arts and crafts, but didn't begin oil painting until after James was born. I went through a period in the late 90's and just into the 2000's when I got in to painting ceramic Santas. Most of them have since chipped and broken in our many moves since then, but I found a few that were still intact when decorating for Christmas.  Aren't they cute!  I loved adding all the little details. Usually, my Santa was a bit more flashy that just a red suit with white trim...  he wore stripes, plaid, and other patterns and drove a sleigh with leopard print seat.  All but the first few have my "trademark" - a patch sewn on by Mrs. Claus with her lip print.  Even his fab clothes needed patching once in awhile and, let's face it, Mrs. Claus doesn't have much to do in the North Pole.  You can see this the best in the bottom right corner on the knee of the tall Santa and the hood of the round one.

Never fear, I'm still working on my 50 by 50 goal.  Recently I've started a painting of one of my favorite holiday ornaments.  Which I'm hoping to have done by Christmas.  Here is the step-by-step progress of laying in the background.  In the photo in the top center, I've put in the dark areas, but haven't started the background.  I first added the darkest areas and marked where the tree lights would be.  Little by little, I worked from dark to light and from background to foreground.  The background still needs some details, but I need to work on the ornaments first. Once they're finished, I'll return to the background and add just as many details as needed, so that the focus can be on the ornaments, not the background.  It doesn't look like much now, but it's going to be beautiful once those ornaments are in!

The Best Harry Potter Birthday Party! Part 2: The Hogwarts Express and Sorting Ceremony.

Here are more photos from our Harry Potter party for Peanut.  All the details of our Hogwarts Express and sorting ceremony follow the photos.  Enjoy!

Our Hogwarts "Great Hall", complete with house banners and house points.  We made the banners and purchased dollar store vases that we filled with colored popcorn for the house points.  During the party, points were added to or taken away from the 4 houses...  Professor Snape (Dear Husband) kept finding excuses to reward Slytherin and penalize everyone else. The girls loved teaming up against Snape!

Check out the sorting hat I made!  I found the directions here:

http://littlefuryous.tumblr.com/post/99683184657/paper-bag-sorting-hat

I think her paper was thinner than mine and her sorting hat turned out more wrinkly, but I love the way mine turned out.  I added a paper pocket (about halfway up, on the inside back) for my cell phone, so that the sorting hat could talk.

After the guests purchased their supplies in the shops on Diagon Alley (quill, notebook, wand and pet- see my prior post on this), they were instructed to go to platform 9 3/4 where the Hogwarts Express would be leaving shortly.  They made a "train" line behind the conductor (You guessed it - Dear Husband again!) and wound around the house making train noises, periodically being interrupted with "Aaaanything from the trolley?".  We made a "trolley cart" with a laundry cart, tablecloth and large tray.  They could buy Licorice wands, chocolate frogs, lemon drops, jelly slugs and Bernie Botts Every Flavor Beans with their remaining wizard money.

Upon arriving at Hogwarts, the girls were taken to the great hall for the sorting ceremony. Dumbledore (Middle Child) greeted them and after a short welcoming speech, turned the floor over to Professor McGonagall (me!).  One by one, the guests sat on a stool and had the sorting hat placed upon their heads.  The sorting hat commented on their attributes (bravery, wisdom, dedication, ... or whatever) and called out their house.  

[While the guests were on the train, I called Dear Husband's phone, put mine on speaker, then put it into the pocket in the hat.  That way, he could sit in another room and be the voice of the sorting hat.  We "sorted" the kids based on a short quiz that they took as they arrived at the party.  There are many sorting quizzes online and we just modified one to work for the ages of our guests.]

After the sorting hat called their house, McGonagall fastened on their house tie (felt ties we made). We ended up with 2 Hufflepuff, 3 Gryffindor, 2 Ravenclaw and no Slytherin which worked out well. Peanut was thrilled to end up in Ravenclaw...  she was so worried!

Once the sorting was done, Dumbledore announced the feast (pizza).

Stay tuned for part 3 - attending wizarding classes!

I've finished "The Thief" ... Finally!

We hung up "The Thief" for the Harry Potter birthday party as a replacement for "The Fat Lady" entrance to the Griffyndor Common Room.  It looked so good on our walls, that I decided to finally get it finished.

So I've been working on this painting on and off for at least 4 years.  To be honest, it's been mostly off, with the painting stacked in a corner of my basement.  I'm sure the few who saw it thought it was finished, especially after I used the partially finished work in a marketing brochure.  I think I put off finishing it because I was afraid I would ruin it.  Guess what?  It's now finished and I didn't ruin it - in fact the new changes made it even better.  Yay!

Detail of the face

Detail of the ill-gotten gains

What do I love about "The Thief"?  Well, I'll tell you.  I love the idea of paintings as portals to another world, so I painted a frame around the canvas (that's right, it's not actually framed) with this little guy coming through the frame and escaping into our world.  I also love the facial expression and twisted body position of the subject.  Middle Child was the model for this painting, but I intentionally painted him to look like  a character out of a Dickens story, with shadows under his eyes and messed hair.  I also think the nifty little still life he's clutching under his arm is pretty fun, too.  Yup, this is a keeper.

The Best Harry Potter Birthday Party! Part 1: Diagon Alley

I don't have a post about painting today because I've been totally immersed in planning (and recovering from) Peanut's Harry Potter birthday party.  We finally settled on a date the Friday before Thanksgiving, which was the following Wednesday.  That left only 5 days to plan and prepare - Yikes!

The family really came together in making this event amazing!  The Oldest had 4 costume / character changes and Dear Husband even wore paper goblin ears (which looked awesome!) to play a goblin at Gringotts.  Middle Child was fabulous as Ollivander, Professor Binns and Dumbledore.  We left Peanut out of the planning and numerous run-throughs of the characters, plot, and behind the scenes changes, which left her plenty of time to fret over which house she would be put into.  

I'm getting ahead of myself...  Today I'm only posting about Diagon Alley.  If you're not into Harry Potter or birthday parties, you can skip all my babbling and just take a peek at the pictures.

Our version of Diagon Alley - complete with a dementor!

The line-up of wands that we made for Ollivander's Wand Shop.  I'm particularly proud of these!

A few days before the party, an "owl" dropped letters onto everyone's porch saying that they had been accepted into Hogwarts School of Witchcraft and Wizardry and to meet at Madam Malkin's in Diagon Alley at 4:00 the following Wednesday, rather than platform 9 3/4.  That way the kiddos could shop for their school supplies together before boarding the train.

Click Here for our Hogwarts Letter

The stops the party guests made were:

Madam Malkins - Our coat closet was cleared and filled with any robes, capes, hats or gloves we could find.  Madam Malkin (The Oldest), measured each girl and helped her find a robe or cape to wear.  Because they hadn't visited Gringotts yet, she told them they could borrow the clothes for the day.

Gringotts - The next stop was Gringotts (aka the study), which the girls LOVED!  As I said, Dear Husband wore paper goblin ears, plus a sport coat and glasses at the end of his nose.  One at a time the girls approached the goblin and he gave them a hard time about why they were there, a lack of identification (an ID or a wand), and not knowing their account number.  Eventually, he dug into his desk drawer and pulled out a fabric bag filled with wizard money (poker chips).

Flourish and Blotts -  Once they had their wizarding money, the girls proceeded to buy their school supplies.  First on their list was a notebook and a quill, which they could purchase for 5 sickles at Flourish and Blotts.  The quills were made using cheap pens, ribbon and craft feathers and the notebooks were ones I had around the house that I covered with scrapbook paper.

Ollivander's Wand Shop -  Of course no wizard is complete without a wand, and for 7 galleons (or 7 blue poker chips) they each purchased one.  We made the wands shown above by sanding down the tip of a wooden dowel,  adding handles and designs with hot glue, and painting them with acrylic paint.  The Oldest and I got better at making them as we went along, eventually adding more elaborate designs like vines or a snake twisting around the wand.  Of course we had to go further and add tags with the wands' specifics - birch, veela hair core, 12 ", slightly bendy.  They were so fun to make!  The girls were told by Ollivander (Middle Child) that the wand chooses the wizard, so each girl put on a blindfold and approached the table of wands and let the wand choose them.  

Eeylop's Owl Emporium - The last purchase was to choose a pet from Eeylop's.  We had unicorns, dragons, owls, and cats.  We purchased Beenie Boos - a favorite of Peanut and her friends - which the girls could purchase for 5 galleons.  The dragons were particularly popular!

With their armfuls of supplies and a few extra knuts, the girls were ready to board the train to Hogwarts.  They were so excited when they realized that they could keep what they had just "purchased"!  

Another Favorite Painting

I wanted to share another favorite painting.  This is Peanut when she was about 6 months old.  So dainty!  I love the juxtaposition of the feminine dress with her expression and her rolls.  She looks like a sumo wrestler in a dress!

After she was born, she lost more weight than usual and worried her pediatrician.  Just like in the Clifford books, we were hoping for her to grow and boy did she ever!  Ladies would stop me at the store and ask her if I put rubber bands around her arms to create those rolls.  

A couple months after this, she began to slim down.  I love this portrait because I'm reminded of her at 6 months in all her chubby glory!

"Use Your Isolator"

Dear Husband gave me a wonderful Christmas present after Middle Child was born.  His gift of "painting lessons" got me started on my artistic journey.  I'm using quotes around painting lessons, because in this type of class everyone chooses their own subject and the instructor walks around giving pointers - not step-by-step instruction with everyone painting the same thing. This particular teacher was fond of saying 2 things:  "Use your isolator" and "Add yellow ochre". My next instructor basically said to throw away both your isolator and yellow ochre. Various workshops later and I've got a whole slew of tips from instructors, some of which are conflicting. Some I've incorporated into what I do and others I have not.  You just have to find what works for you.

What is an isolator, you ask?  It is a tool to help you see very light and very dark colors.  I haven't used an isolator in years,  but with the basically black Yashica and white Shaylee, I thought it might come in handy.  

Back in class, my isolator was just a note card with 2 holes punched in it.  Around one hole, the card was colored with black sharpie.  You use the white hole when looking at very light or "white" colors and the black hole when looking at very dark or "black" colors.  When surrounded by white or black, you can more easily see the true colors in your subject.

I made a fancy isolator the other day which also includes a gray and creamy color using scrapbook paper (pictured below).  Wow!  That is high tech!  Don't laugh - it works.  Look at when I compare the white to the light tones in Shaylee.  Now you can see that the color is a little gray with a hint of pale peach.  

So, if you're only seeing black and white, you might want to try an isolator!

Portrait of Shaylee the English Setter

I've finished the portrait of Shaylee and here she is.  I think she looks wonderful and I hope Dear Husband's niece does, too!  From the last version, I shortened her nose just a bit and otherwise it was just fine-tuning details.  I think she looks much more regal in the pose I gave her versus the reference photo.

I'm finding that I really enjoy painting dogs (I guess cats too, but I've never painted one) and children.  Anyone got a dog or kid they want painted?

A Portrait for a Piccolo

Two summers ago, we went on a family vacation to New England.  Before going on our trip, we planned to buy a piccolo for The Oldest to play in marching band, but ran out of time -sadly, a common occurrence.  In this case it actually worked out for the better, because when visiting Dear Husband's family, his niece offered us her piccolo that she hadn't played in years.  Fabulous! She wouldn't let us pay her for it, so I planned to repay her with a portrait of her baby - an English Setter named Shaylee.

Fast forward a year and a half and I'm finally working on her portrait...  Here are a few steps along the way.  After painting the background, I stopped taking step-by-step pictures because the fur required me to jump all over the canvas (with my brush, not literally, Silly!) instead of painting in steps.  My two younger kids had the day off school today, so I didn't get as far as I would have liked - imagine that!  But I think Shaylee looks pretty good so far.  I didn't realize that Middle Child took a picture of me painting (believe it or not, that is actually my arm), but I liked it so I decided to include it.  So, here I am painting in my kitchen.  Don't you love the classy way I taped my reference photo to a piece of torn, ratty cardboard - nice!  It does help help with light coming through the back of my photo.

Hopefully I can get back to her on Sunday while my paint is still blendable.  I've got a good start but still lots of fine tuning to do and details to add.  She's going to be so beautiful - just like in real life!

I have conquered the Yashica!

So I didn't get a chance to post on Saturday like I usually do because I was helping my girl scout troop make crafts for the upcoming holiday bazaar and because  I was still recovering from my prior fight with the Yashica and was having trouble making myself get in that ring again!

First the girl scouts -

Our troop chose to make American Girl doll accessories, bottle cap magnets, and barrettes to sell at the bazaar this Saturday.  If you're local, consider checking it out - feel free to contact me for the details.

One of my favorite doll items is a camping set, which includes a sleeping bag, campfire, marshmallows on a stick and s'mores.  It's so cute!  Here's Kit camping in my front yard, rocking an outfit that my mom made (I just love the little details she puts in all her clothes!).  I really hope the neighbors didn't see me taking these pictures.  They'd think I'm nuts playing with dolls while the kids are at school!

The campfire was made with sticks and orange tulle and we used polymer clay for the marshmallows and s'mores.  Half a wooden skewer was the perfect size for the marshmallow stick and we brushed the clay with pastel dust before we baked it to give the marshmallows a toasted appearance.  What's pastel dust you ask?  It is the powder produced when you run chalk pastels (which are not the same as oil pastels) back and forth on a paper.  We used orange and brown mixed together on our marshmallows.  Simple!

The girls had so much fun making these bottle cap magnets.  I just love them!

To make your own, you need:

Bottle caps, Mod Podge Dimensional Magic, paper, clear tape, magnets, Gorilla Glue, and small trinkets (aka junk).  First, you cut a 1" circle from your paper.  If you are using something like wrapping paper or images printed on your printer, you need to cover your image with clear tape before cutting it out so that it doesn't run.  We used scrapbook papers and stickers so we could skip this step.  Squirt a little Mod Podge Dimensional Magic in your bottle cap, add your paper and trinkets, if desired.  Let it rest a few minutes so your paper won't "float" when you add more mod podge.  Once your paper looks like it will stay in place, fill the bottle cap with Mod Podge Dimensional Magic, making sure to squirt it over your trinkets.  Let it dry overnight and glue a magnet onto the back of the cap using Gorilla Glue.  Easy and fun!

Now on to the Yashica -

I'm relieved to have finished "The Yashica".  This painting required so much precision - especially the letters.  I found it a bit tedious and really struggled against the texture of the canvas. The next time I face a subject like this, I hope I remember to use a wood panel instead of a canvas.  The smooth surface should make it much easier.

Here is the finished Yashica painting.  I do like the end result, so I guess it was worth the fight!

The Yashica Challenge!

Dear Husband has vivid childhood memories his father's camera - the Yashica A.  He remembers standing facing the sun with his 10 siblings (No, that is not a typo and, yes, that means there were 11 children!) while his dad captured their squinty faces forever on film.

The Yashica A is a twin-lens reflex camera - a type of camera that has been around since the late 1800s - made from the late 1950's until the late 1960's.  One lens is the shooting lens and the other is the viewfinder lens.  This type of camera opens at the top, allowing the photographer to hold it at waist height, look down through what is basically an inverted periscope, and focus the image.  

Enough of the history...  Since the Yashica meant so much to Dear Husband, I decided it might make a nice still life subject.  Little did I know that this old camera would kick my butt!  I am finding that it is much more enjoyable for me to paint people - or really anything else - than to paint this camera.  All the straight lines and circles are giving me a headache! 

Here is the Yashica after a couple of painting sessions.  Hopefully in the next week or two I'll have the strength to finish it!

Painted Halloween Pillow Covers

Happy Halloween!

Last year I was in the market for some Halloween pillows for the rocking chairs on my porch.  I knew just what I wanted - one that says "trick" and one that says "treat", made out of burlap.  I couldn't find them anywhere so I decided to sew covers for my summer outdoor pillows and paint my design.  I think they turned out cute!  A couple of bonuses:  They take up much less space in the off-season, because I just have to store the cover.  Once Halloween is over, I flip them over and use the bare burlap side for the rest of the fall season.

They're really simple to make - basically just a tight pillow case.  If you want to make one of your own, here's all you have to do:

What you need for one 18" pillow -

19" x 45" piece of burlap
19" x 45" piece of off-white cotton (This is used because you can see through the wide weave of the burlap.  I used a curtain-liner fabric that I had laying around.  You can really use anything, but just remember that bits of it will show through so you might want to avoid bright pink, etc.)
Acrylic craft paint and brushes (Gasp! Though I paint in oil paints, I use acrylic craft paint for projects like this because it dries quickly.)
A piece of cardboard or shirt box

1)  Cut your fabric - My pillows are 18", so I planned for a 1/2" seam allowance and left extra length (9") to tuck the bottom of the case up the back of the pillow.  If your pillow isn't 18", add 1" to the width and 9" to the length and cut away.

2)  Pin the cotton to the burlap and fold it in half so that they cotton is on the outside.

3)  Sew the long sides using a 1/2" seam allowance.  Leave the bottom open.

4)  Turn the cover burlap side out and insert the cardboard (to keep you paint from going through to the other side).

5)  Plan and paint your design.  If desired, paint a different design on the back.

6)  Once the paint is dry, stuff your pillow it and tuck the excess fabric up the back, as shown in the bottom right picture below.  Enjoy!

A Favorite Painting and Why I Love My Tripod!

The past week has flown by with family visiting from out of town and the 3 day houseclean beforehand.  The visit itself was a short one -  just about 48 hours - but we managed to tack on a 3 hour "long goodbye".  You know, the end of the visit when the hosts are pushing food and other items onto the guests who are running around in vain trying to find all of their belongings.  We unloaded a pair of dress shoes, some outgrown toys, 3 dozen cookies, a bag of coffee beans, snack size Doritos, a coffee cake and a package of sausage - we take the role of host very seriously!  Our guests managed to leave behind a water bottle, cell phone charger, and pajama top, all of which were discovered within minutes of their car pulling away, so they did their job well, too!

So today I'll just share another favorite painting and tell you about my newly discovered love - my tripod!

This is a painting of The Oldest and Middle Child when they were little.  I love this painting, but I never liked photographing it.  Because this painting is hanging in the darkest room of our house and it's too big to move, I just haven't been able to get enough light to take a clear photo.  And turning on overhead lighting or using a flash aren't good options because they both result in photos with lots of glare.  Now, with my nifty tripod, I can take a photo like this even on a rainy day!

The other day, I became frustrated trying to photograph a painting indoors.  I needed to use a slow shutter speed to let in enough light, but then my image was blurry - I don't have the steady hands of a surgeon that would be required to get this photo right.  Grrr!  Dear Husband happened upon the scene and, rather than bailing (often the best option when I'm cranky), suggested that I use my tripod. Hmmm...  Why didn't I think of that?  I'll tell you why - in my opinion was yet another thing to drag out that I'd have to put away later.  I decided to give it a try...  wow!  It worked like a million bucks! I set the camera to the self-timer mode so I wasn't even touching the camera when the picture was taken.  Finally - light and clarity!  Who knew?  Well, I guess lots of people did, but I didn't realize just what a difference it would make.  I'll show you...

The photo below was taken without the tripod - just using my best attempts at being steady.  It doesn't look too bad until you zoom into the details.  What a blurry mess!

Here is a similar photo taken using the tripod.  Much better!  My tripod has just solved all my problems!  Yay!

How to Choose a Frame - Part 2

Ordering a frame online is often the cheapest option.  I've used pictureframes.com since 2002, when I was introduced to this company at a painting class.  In the past, I chose them because they provided free frame samples and now they're my online pick because of their Personal Frame Shop.

My painting of the California coastline in a pictureframes.com frame.

Frame Samples - Yeah!

I ordered their free samples to see the true color and texture of the frame.  The samples were usually triangular scraps cut off when making other frames (Although sometimes I received a rectangular piece which also made a great headboard for a Barbie bed!), but it was enough to get a feel for what looked best with the painting.  Upon request, they even sent me samples of ALL their frames suitable for paintings on canvas...  3 book boxes full!  That was 10 years ago, so I don't know if they would still send that many, but their site says they have free samples available.

Personal Frame Shop - Even better!

This is the newfangled method to ordering samples and lining them up on your painting.

[Just an aside:  I used the word "newfangled" in front of Middle Child the other day.  It's a perfectly good word, but my kids think it's funny when I use words they consider old-fashioned.  Sure, it's been around since at least the 15th century - I checked the dictionary - but does that mean we shouldn't still use it?  I agree it might be time to retire "Who put a bee in your bonnet?", since I don't actually know anyone who wears a bonnet.  I'll bring it back if bonnets are again in fashion - could you imagine!]

So, back to framing...  Using their Personal Frame Shop, you can upload a photo of your artwork to see what it looks like in each frame.  Not only do you get to pick the frame by size, color, material, and style, but you also get to pick your wall color - genius!  That way you can see just what it will look like in your home.

WARNING - Using the Personal Frame Shop can suck up quite a bit of time with all the options available.  Last time I uploaded a painting, there were 186 frames available!  Still, I guess it takes less time than getting presentable and going to the store.

Blood Moon

Recently, friends invited us over to toast the blood moon.  Unfortunately, they were one day early (I'm so glad I'm not the only one who does things like that!),  but we had a toast anyway - okay, maybe two.

The good news is that the next night we were prepared, with camera and binoculars ready when the eclipse started.  We lined up in our lawn chairs to watch the moon... which was fun for about 10 minutes.  (Seriously, have you tried just staring at the moon for 3 hours and 20 minutes.  Who's got time for that?)  Instead, we decided to pop out every 10-15 minutes to check it out and take a few photos.  It really was amazing!

Here's my representation of the 9/27/15 supermoon lunar eclipse, based on my photos -

How to Choose a Frame - Part 1

To me, a framed painting looks like a finished piece of art, so I generally choose to frame them. When picking a frame, I consider the cost, size and overall look of the frame.  I also think about the wall color where I plan to hang or prop the painting.

Unframed, the painting above looks like what it is - a quick study.  (I know - pears again!  I wanted to use another painting as an example, but it didn't fit into the frame I had handy.)  Once framed, it looks complete!

Just like ready-made canvases, ready-made frames are less expensive, but they only come in certain sizes.  I try to use standard size canvases for my paintings when possible to help keep the cost of framing down.  You can find standard size frames to fit oil paintings in stores like Michael's or Hobby Lobby.  Local frame shops often give an artist's discount (from my experience, usually 25%), so they can be an economical option, especially for custom sizes.  While I prefer to support local businesses, sometimes the cheapest option is to order a frame online (coming in part 2!).

So size does matter in choosing a frame, but mainly it's the depth of your rabbet.  No, I'm not misspelling the other word for "bunny".  The rabbet is the notch on the back of the frame in which your artwork sits.  The diagram below shows a cross-section of a frame.  In this example, the rabbet depth is 3/8".  If you had a canvas with 1" depth, then 5/8" of your canvas would stick out the back of your frame and it wouldn't sit flush on the wall.  That's just tacky!

The other size to consider is the width of your frame (how big it is around your painting).  This is really personal preference.  I like a small painting with a wide, ornate frame, but my husband thinks that a small painting gets overshadowed by a large frame.  If I had my choice, I would use the widest frame possible.  It's good he's here to reign me in!

The overall look of the frame includes the style, material, finish, and color.  While this is personal preference, I consider the painting itself, the style of the room in which it will be hung, and the wall color of that room.  I like formal portraits in ornate frames and landscapes in simpler frames, because I feel like the ornate frame fights with the busy nature of a landscape.  Likewise, I would use a more ornate frame in my formal living room than in my more casual kitchen.  

So... I thought the painting looked good in the frame I had available, but check it out against the light blue wall on the left.  The frame gets so washed out!  It looks much better on the red wall on the right.  I would definitely not choose this frame against a light colored wall...  that's probably why this frame has been laying around.

Happy framing!

Oil Painting Portrait Update - Peanut is finished!

I finished my portrait of "Peanut" by doing a little bit of detail work and finishing her hand.  I kept the hand and shirt rather sketchy and put the most detail into her beautiful eyes.  It looks just like her - before she had most of her hair cut off, that is!

Background check...

How much does the background matter?  I decided to find out by painting 3 similar paintings (yes, I love painting pears!) with different background colors.  The background colors I chose were green, red and gray. 

The guys in my family chose the green background as their favorite, while the girls chose the gray.  I think the gray (why do some people spell it grey?) background really makes the pear pop.  Poor red got no votes! What's your favorite?

Paint a portrait in a day?

The portrait of the dancer and violinist below took a few months and caused a minor crisis in our home.  My family endured numerous dinners of frozen pizza, a house in shambles, and clean clothing shortage.  I'm proud to say they managed to persevere through these first world problems and even rose to the occasion!  As I got closer to my deadline, summer break began and I was painting 10 or 12 hours a day.  "The Oldest" was so helpful, making lunches for her siblings and for me.  That way, I could just stop painting for 5 minutes to shovel the food in.  (Asking her to feed the lunch to me while I painted seemed a bit extreme.)  After months of "hardship", the painting was finally finished and everyone lived happily ever after.  That is, until I take on my next portrait!

For our nutritional health and mental well-being,  I decided to try a new technique to portrait painting.

I usually start by painting a full underpainting, complete with all the details.  As you can see below, it just looks like a sepia version of my finished product, even including the violinist's bracelet and the sequins on the dancer's dress.  Color is then added, transparent in some places and opaque in others. Finally, I touch on the little details again and I'm finished!

This time, I decided to entirely forgo the underpainting and use the same techniques that I showed in a prior post when painting a pear .  The reference photo of "Peanut" is from a recent family vacation to Colorado, which I cropped to just show her head and shoulders.  I thought this would make a good portrait, because the viewer is left to interpret her expression.  Is she thoughtful? sad? concerned? suspicious? In reality, I think she was just tired because we were hiking on the Boulder Flatirons.  

(Just a quick word of advice for those thinking of hiking the Flatirons - don't send all the snacks and water with the slow group that only plan to go halfway up!  Those hiking all the way to the top get very thirsty and hungry.  And I know from personal experience, because that's what the rest of the family texted me after "Peanut" and I sent them photos of us eating ice cream while waiting for them to finish their hike.)

Okay, back to painting...  Below is the reference photo with the first 3 steps:  1. The Basic Shape (top right), 2. Draw the Shadow Areas (bottom left) and 3. Paint the Shadow Areas (bottom right).  The canvas is rectangular, but it's cropped here to a square, so that's why she looks so high on the canvas.

Next, I moved on with 4. The Background (top left) and 5. The Light Areas (top right).  On a still life, I would now add the reflective light; however, I didn't really see any obvious reflected light so I decided to skip this step and moved on to 6. The Midrange (bottom left).  Next, I would add the cast shadow (like the shadow under her nose and lip), but I had already painted those in step 3 so I moved on.  The "highlights" would be next, but many highlights, such as in her eyes, couldn't be painted until after the details, so I combined the highlights step and the details step into 7. Details (bottom right).

Did I finish in a day?  Not quite.  I still need to do some work on her hand and a little bit of fine-tuning. Did we eat take-out?  Sorry to say that we did.  Did the house look like it had been ransacked? Most definitely!  But it was only for one day, so that's not too bad, right?

Garden Harvest painting - from ho-hum to fabulous!

Check out what Garden Harvest looks like now!

How did it get from this....

To this! 

Oil paint is great, because if you don't like what you see, you can change it.  This applies to your subject or what you have already painted.  For example, if  you're painting a portrait of a pimply teenager (or even an adult - why do we still get them?), you can choose to leave the acne out.  My first version of Garden Harvest was looking a little pimply to me.  There were two HUGE, pre-prom zits - the composition and the lighting.

The Composition

In my original version, the subject was much too high on the canvas.  The dispenser felt squashed and there was too much empty space at the bottom of the canvas.

Remember Step One of my pear demonstration - painting a simple shape and look at it?  Well, I painted it, but I obviously didn't look at it.  If I had, I could have changed my composition and avoided the problem before I got the painting started.

To fix the composition, I removed the dispenser's cap to give it a bit of breathing room.  I also added those adorable garlic cloves to the foreground.  I'm kind of glad that I made this mistake, because the garlic cloves are now my favorite part of the painting.

The Lighting

The lighting in my original version was boring.  Everything and nothing looked lit up.  In other words, it looked like all parts of the still life were lit the same.  The dispenser and tomatoes just didn't glow!

To show that the light was moving from the upper left, over the handle towards the basil, I darkened the background on the left side of the painting.  I also darkened the tomato and leaves on the left and created some beautiful lost edges (where you can't really tell where the tomato and basil leaf end).   The bottom half of the dispenser was distracting to me, so I put that in shadow and added more shading to the right two tomatoes and the basil leaf on the right.  I highlighted the clump of basil leaves to show that the light was directly hitting them.

I did add a little bit more color to the dispenser's design, but the white areas (like the handle) were untouched.  See how it sings now with better lighting!

Now if you could only change what you don't want to see in real life that easily!

Want dramatic light? Just think inside the box!

When I first started painting, I would photograph my subject near a window to get the dramatic lighting I liked.  I would then paint from the photograph.  Of course, at that time it would take months to finish a painting, so painting from life wasn't usually an option.  A few-month-old apple doesn't look so appealing!

Once I began painting from life, I struggled to obtain the correct lighting.  I tried painting in an unlit room with a light on my subject and another on my canvas.  The problem was that if I had enough light on my canvas to paint, there was too much light on my subject so that it lacked drama.

The solution was to use a box!  Now I could paint in a well lit room, but limit the light to my subject.  Hooray!

We just bought a new printer, which wasn't so exciting, but it did come in a nice box!  Because this box is deep, it keeps too much light from reaching your subject from the front.  I cut a section out of the side toward the top, which is where I placed my lamp.  I use an adjustable photography lamp, which is great, because I can direct the light from any angle.

I chose to paint some basil and tomatoes from our garden.  I thought the olive oil dispenser we purchased in Italy would add some height and I balanced the white of the dispenser with some garlic.  Unfortunately, I only had a half head of garlic, so I had to lean it against the tomato and improvise a bit.

It looks pretty good, now let's turn the light on...

Wow!  What a difference!  The tomatoes glow and the basil has become translucent.  Much better!

Hint:  If you are painting basil under hot lights, put it in water.  Next time I will try the little water tubes florists sometimes use for individual flowers.  My basil wilted fast, so I needed to improvise and change my composition a bit.  

After a half day, "Garden Harvest"  looks like this.  Hmmm....  Not my favorite.  I think it needs a few changes.  Check out how I improve this painting next time.  Too bad I can't count it as a completed painting yet - still only at 2!

"Apple-Shaped"

I painted an apple using the same method I used for the pear.  I can relate to the shape!

Paint with me - How to paint a pear in 10 easy steps!

I'm going to create this painting in 10 easy steps.  I hope you join me in painting your own pear and post your finished product!

I started with an 8" x 10" canvas and my palette of colors (shown above).   You will need more Ultramarine Blue, Burnt Umber, and Titanium White than any other colors, so put 3-4 times more of those colors on your palette.  Make a mixture of half Ultramarine Blue and half Burnt Umber.  I refer to this as your “dark mixture”.

Using your dark mixture thinned with paint thinner, paint the basic shape of your subject with straight brush strokes.  My pear will be leaning a little, so its basic shape is a leaning triangle.

This step might seem silly, but it is really important because it gives you an idea of where your subject will live on the canvas.  Step back and decide if the shape is too big or small, too high or low, or too far to one side.  It is much easier to make a change at this point than later on in the painting process.  Trust me!

Again using your thinned, dark mixture, establish the shadow areas of the painting.  In this step, you will paint the areas of the background and subject that are in shadow (for example, the darker side of the pear), not just the shadow that your subject is casting. Continue to only use straight strokes at this point.  I like to paint both the right and left sides of the shelf or table edge in shadow, so the viewer’s eye doesn’t follow the shelf edge out of the painting.

Paint your shadow areas using your dark mixture and cadmium colors.  Here I added cadmium red to my dark mix to paint on and under the shelf and in the background and I added cadmium yellow light for the pear. Keep the paint smooth and thin, but you can use curvy strokes now! 

I’m into blue right now, so I wanted a mainly blue background.  I mixed thalo blue with black and white, for the background and for the grayer areas on the table.  I added my cadmium yellows to paint the reflection on the shelf.  I like to allow the brush strokes to show without making the background too busy.

Using earth tones (Naples Yellow, Yellow Ochre and Indian Red) and white, paint the light area of the pear.  I also used a little bit of my cadmium yellow light in the mix, but be careful not to add too much.  You don’t want your light areas to be the brightest, most color-saturated areas of the painting.

When painting the light areas, I use thicker paint and more prominent brush strokes.  I load my brush, paint a couple of short straight brush strokes in a circular pattern, then reload the brush.  As I reach the edges of the light area, the paint becomes thinner and smother.

I added a bit of reflected light on the bottom right side of the pear using my light color mix.  Add just enough reflective light to tie the light and shadow areas together, but not so much that it is distracting.  This usually looks a bit odd to me when I first add it, but looks good by the time the painting is complete.

For the midrange, I used brighter, deeper colors just a tiny bit darker than my light area.  I’m always tempted to blend too much at this point.  I try to just tap back and forth between my midrange and light area, then with a clean, dry brush tap between my midrange and dark area.

At this point, it is starting to look like a pear!

Using my dark mix with a little cadmium red light, I cleaned up and darkened the shadow cast by the pear.  A solid shadow line underneath the pear can make it look like it is floating above the shelf, so I used a broken shadow line to keep it connected with the table.

I loaded my brush with a mixture of white and Indian Yellow Pale and gently placed in the highlights.  I hold my brush almost like I would hold a knife when frosting the side of a cake.  When I first put in the highlights, I’m tempted to blend them (and they look a little blurred because this photo isn't the best); however, I remind myself that they will look good once the painting is finished.  Don’t blend them!

This is the really exciting part when the painting comes together!   To complete this painting, I

•  Added the stem
•  Darkened the shelf edge and where the shelf meets the back wall
•  Threw some cadmium yellow light into my background 
•  Added a "halo" around the pear 
• Crisped up some edges and blended out others to create lost edges

These details make quite a difference.  Voila!  My painting is finished!