Works in Progress Update

Hello!

I've been immersed in painting and forgot to pay attention to the hours going into these.

_

Twin nieces portrait:

It's pretty far along but it's got a lot more to go. I'm purposefully not letting you see it straight on till its complete, so you can't critique as easily a work that's incomplete! No complaints, you're lucky this is even public yet!

_

Friend Portrait:

Still not quite ready for color. But will be soon.

_

I will be starting two more portfolio portraits within a month or so. One of another friend, and one of a little 3 year old girl.

Thanks for visiting!

Works in Progress Update

Hello!

I've been immersed in painting and forgot to pay attention to the hours going into these.

_

Twin nieces portrait:

It's pretty far along but it's got a lot more to go. I'm purposefully not letting you see it straight on till its complete, so you can't critique as easily a work that's incomplete! No complaints, you're lucky this is even public yet!

_

Friend Portrait:

Still not quite ready for color. But will be soon.

_

I will be starting two more portfolio portraits within a month or so. One of another friend, and one of a little 3 year old girl.

Thanks for visiting!

Works in Progress Update

Hello!

I've been immersed in painting and forgot to pay attention to the hours going into these.

_

Twin nieces portrait:

It's pretty far along but it's got a lot more to go. I'm purposefully not letting you see it straight on till its complete, so you can't critique as easily a work that's incomplete! No complaints, you're lucky this is even public yet!

_

Friend Portrait:

Still not quite ready for color. But will be soon.

_

I will be starting two more portfolio portraits within a month or so. One of another friend, and one of a little 3 year old girl.

Thanks for visiting!

Twins portrait: Day 3

This is about 5 or 6 more hours of work since my last post. The tube of paint is Old Holland (my favorite brand, though I can't afford many of their colors, some are up to $70 for that size tube!). Cremnitz white is the color, an affordable color but one I need to not be sloppy about since it is a lead paint. There are many other kinds of whites out there, but none as lovely as cremitz white for my style of painting.

Lots of Activity!

Things I am up to in my studio right now:

Coloring Book:

I have begun another history coloring book for Bright Ideas Press. This is for Mystery of History III, and so far is my favorite coloring book to create yet! This book covers the Renaissance! Yes! There is a huge amount of art and imagery to pull from.

Family Portrait:

This commission is a gift from my friend to her future mother in law. It's from an old photograph of them about 20 years ago. I am really thankful there are a lot of things that are nice about this picture to make it work for painting! Good lighting, sweet expressions, and I really love the two visible hands. I'm getting close to completion! Just one or two afternoons left for work on it!


Twins Portrait:

For my sister's 30th birthday I am painting a portrait of her twins! Painting baby fat is so much fun!!! She already had her birthday and she knows this is coming, so I may post progress occasionally on here. This is just the starting outline I did today, about 3 hours of work:

"Portfolio Piece":

I am working on some ideas about how I want to include more negative space in my portraits, along with some other thoughts floating around in my head about what I want my portraits to look and feel like. I am going to start working on some more pieces of my own (this includes the twins portrait) starting this month. My friend is also going to pose for me next week, giving me the opportunity to start to put a few basic ideas to canvas. My goal is to work towards having portraits that are much more unique to my individual artistry. I would like to have a more consistant progressive body of work. I'm not expecting this portrait coming to be incredible, but an exciting a stepping stone in the right direction! Look forward to my work to come!

I Need Some Negative Space!

I've been thinking today about how my life needs more "negative space".

In art, negative space is the quiet area of a piece of work. It is the shadow space, the blank paper, or the area that has little or no detail. Negative space creates a place for the eye to rest. It enhances the experience and/or subject of the work.

If you go to one of my first posts, "Meet My Sketchbook", you will see how instead of crowding my pages with creative explosions, I like to leave much of the paper empty. This choice in my drawing first began accidentally. I once drew a tiny picture of three musicians on larger paper. The plan was to crop it down after I drew it. But once the drawing was complete, I realized that the space around them was perfect! It was like the musicians needed that space in order to fill it with their music! If I didn't leave the musicians "breathing room", it wouldn't have the same feeling, it would simply be a small representation of musicians.

For the "starving artist" what often occurs is that it requires work-work-work, create-create-create in order to pull it together to survive and be able to be an artist at all. The pages of my life have no quiet spaces. Besides painting and drawing, I work as a salon receptionist. I also pick up other random jobs to meet needs such as socks or immediate necessary car repairs. Why is it that I have trouble focusing on my art? Where did my energy for creating go? It's because there are no negative spaces in my life. The sketchbook pages of my life are crowded, busy, and messy. There is no room for the music. When I sit to work, I feel the pressures of time and other commitments that I need to meet. I need the negative space to give me a place to rest and pull together my experiences, who I am, and what I may have to offer others through my work. Then when I do have my tools in hand and meet my medium, I can focus on what is before me and freely commit myself to it.

Several years ago my friend bought the drawing I described, I will try to see if I have an image of it somewhere to share. Somewhat related is this little poem I wrote for my friend before passing the work onto him, entitled As the Flute:

Created to be empty
But not to be bereft
Created to be filled
With our maker's breath

Could your life need more negative space, too?

Papers everywhere!

Nicole must be doing illustrations for Bright Ideas Press again!