Stripes Hooligan is in Art Comes Alive 2015

I was just informed that my colored pencil painting  "Stripes Hooligan" was accepted into ADC's ACA 2015 exihbition in Cincinnati. https://www.facebook.com/ArtComesAliveCincy?fref=ts

That is a lot of letters!  It is a fancy affair.  I might actually have to get dressed up:)

 

Finished and accepted portrait commission

Ha ha,  Just kidding!  My recent post of the "finished" commission was about two more full days and a lot of erasing away from being finished. My client was happy with first edition, but not completely.  She asked me to make the bangs more "blonde" and soften the bags under the eyes.  And if I didn't mention it before, she asked me to change her teeth a bit from the photograph.  She never liked them.  So this is what doing commissions is all about! And this is why contracts are a good idea. Changes take time. In this case though, I couldn't charge her for my extra efforts.  The changes were too subtle. And the teeth were part of the initial agreement.  Unfortunately, working this small, forced me to erase back almost all of the cheeks and face in order to lighten the bangs and find the correct over all values. Once completed, this little graphite drawing took as much time and effort as a full color 8x10"!  It was very difficult, but worth the tricks learned.  At one point I was terrified that I would have to start all over again.  But, the Fabiano Artistico 150 wt Hot Pressed paper, which was recommended by an amazing artist friend of mine Alan Woollett, turned out to be quite forgiving. So here is the really, not kidding, for sure, finished 7.5x 8.5 graphite commission of a small girl.

Colored pencil commission takes a surprising tack.

This is a first!  While working out the composition for a full colored pencil commission , I sent a picture of the pencil sketch to my client.  She immediately shot an email back asking me to "STOP!"  She liked the pencil sketch so much, she wished to buy it as is. Of course I'll "clean" it up a bit before I let it go.  Here's the most recent photo.  I will continue to darken a little here and there and  brighten a highlight or two. The piece started out as a horizontal, but the client wanted  me to show pool water, so now it is square.  Interesting development, wouldn't you agree?