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!