Preparing for Art Classes/Commission

I’m starting my art classes on the journey of collage and mixed media so I thought I’d better do one as an example. I’m also working on a commission and do practice runs like this and sketches before committing to canvas.  Cute little doggo!

Here’s my initial sketch:

This time I decided to do the background first. After that some of the shadows...

Time to add in some darks.  Rather alarming, isn’t it? :) I tell my students that if they spread the darks around it won’t be alarming.  Right now the focal point is on the darkest darks.  Need to move them around a bit.

Here we go - adding more textures and shadows into the work.

The following is the finished piece.  I like leaving my works on paper loose looking.  There were so many warms in the dog that I needed to change the background to cool.  Much better.  

Red Panda Painting

In order for people to understand what size canvas I’m working on, I like to have a shot taken with me holding it. Here it is! Now you can tell what size it is (24x36) and see that I wear super goofy hairstyles when I work at home.  NPR, you have your ‘driveway moments, and so do I.

Also note my lovely long green hair growing out of that head planter.  Pretty fantastic, huh? When I planted those two little plants, they were six inch sticking-up hair. :)

Portrait of a Son

Ah! Haha! Our oldest son has a great red beard of which he is deservedly proud. I included maps in the collage because he travels a lot and a crossword puzzle which my dad worked. He aced those puzzles until he died at 96. Seemed fitting to honor that creative, intelligent and ever curious heritage of ours. I love that I captured his wry sense of humor and beard-pride. 

Yes, I do commissions large and small.

My Current Painting Commission

Here’s a small hint for my current work in progress, a commission which is getting close to being done. I do commissions on all requests, and the process is really quite fun for the buyer as well.

More on this soon when 1) it’s finished, and 2) I have buyer approval!