Have not been posting lately, as I have been quite busy the last few weeks. Had other projects to get done, and was commissioned to do some illustrations for a new blog. Also, been working on creating a promotional video for my art. Finally got it done and uploaded to Youtube. Gee, I feel all warm and techy inside. Let me know what you think.

Click here to view the embedded video.

Just finished this portrait sketch of a little boy at the beach. Love those pudgy hands and legs. It was done with Conte sanguine and white on toned paper. This drawing was a bit of a challenge as there were so many textures to render – soft skin, clothing, sand, wood fence, and grass. Usually, sanguine is used for portrait sketches, with not a big variety of textures. So I thought I would push my skills a little to capture the feeling of this little boy playing in the sand on a bright day. Notice how his leg and toes are lodged in the sand.

Conté sticks or Conté crayons, are a drawing medium composed of compressed powdered graphite or charcoal mixed with a wax or clay base. Conté crayons are most commonly found in black, white, and sanguine tones, as well as bistre, shades of grey, and other colors. Sanguine is a reddish (tending to brown) drawing medium that lends itself naturally to sketches, life drawings, and rustic scenes. It is ideal for rendering modeling and volume. In the form of wood-cased pencils or manufactured sticks, sanguine may be used similarly to charcoal or pastel. As with pastel, a mid-toned paper may be used for the middle tones.

One of my favorite drawing mediums, I like to do a sanguine sketch now and then just to keep in practice.  This is a recent anatomy study I did in sanguine, with my husband as the model. I love the way you can quickly capture a skin tone and create values simply by how much pressure is used on the paper. Sanguine was used extensively by 15th- and 16th-century artists such as Leonardo da Vinci (who employed it in his sketches for the Last Supper), Michelangelo, Raphael, and Andrea del Sarto. Sanguine was greatly favoured by the Venetian painters and by those artists, such as Peter Paul Rubens and Antoine Watteau, who were influenced by them. In conjunction with black and white, sanguine formed the technique known as aux trois crayons (“with three pencils”).

16 x 20 pastel portrait

After I had done a portrait of her grandfather, one of my clients wanted me to do her grandmother. This lovely lady was done from a good photo, but the client wanted the hairstyle changed as it was in another not-so-good photo.  This is definitely a challenge when doing a memorial or posthumous portrait, since you are not seeing what the subject really looked like in person. I combined the face with the other hairstyle as best as I could and my client seemed very happy with it.

As always, I guarantee my clients’ satisfaction.  If someone is not totally happy with a portrait, or wants some minor changes, I am more than happy to do so at no cost.  I know that sometimes it takes a few days to “live with” a portrait and then you may see some things that should be changed.

As a surprise for her, I also did another portrait of her grandfather, matching the background of the two portraits. That way they look like a matching set when hung together. I like doing surprises for my clients because it brings them so much happiness. To me, it is always worth my time and effort to bring happiness to someone with my art.

Zeke-16 x 20 pastel portrait

Meet Zeke! This adorable little guy was a lot of fun to do in pastel. This was done from a small photo of Zeke taken by a family friend. I love pudgy little baby hands, so it was fun making his hands look fleshy and cute. The hat has a subtle weave texture. The cell phone he is holding presses against those adorable chubby cheeks. It was a challenge to create all of these textures in a realistic way, but I think I accomplished it.