Michael - My latest 2.30hr unfinished Oil portrait from a model

Here's Mondays 2.30hr portrait from a model

Michael
30 x 40cms
Oil on canvas
I'm pretty happy with this one although due to the limited time I painted his face 1st and clothes later and you can tell.If I was to finish him off I'd put a few darker and sharper lines through his shirt and more pinks to even out the overall effect. He is quite a character!
Michael is a professional artist's model and you can tell the difference as he brings 'something' to his pose..

Rhiannon & Storm

Here is the finished portrait of Rhiannon and Storm.

You can see photos of the portrait being created in an earlier post.

Rhiannon and Storm

c 50 x 60cms image

 Framed Oil
' Absolutely thrilled with the portrait of Rhiannon and Storm. You have done such an amazing job.'
Rhiannon and Robyn

 Hung on my wall.

An enjoyable day

I had a lovely studio visit on Tuesday. Shelley her dad and daughter watched me paint some of Zarley's portrait and  had a look at the weekly portrait sketches and the landscapes I have .They enjoyed watching Zarley's portrait start to come to life.
We had fun talking , had afternoon tea and they departed with quite a few paintings under their arm.
 If you'd like to come along and watch me paint and see where I work just contact me to arrange a time!

In memory of Rambo

Rambo passed away several years ago and the portrait I created will be a birthday gift. The lady knows it is coming but hasn't seen the result so she should be very excited.

Rambo

 12 x 16 " image 

 Framed Pastel

 I love knowing I'm a part of making someones day so special!

You can see more of my portraits at 

www.suelinton.com.au

I bring your photos to life in paintings that will touch your heart!

 Satisfaction guarantee

Rupert the Belgian barge dog

I finally finished off the pastel of Rupert I started as a demo about a month ago.


He's got a really unusual fluffy coat that was fun to do.

Rupert

23 x 28cms image

 Pastel

The photo I was using had Rupert looking cuddly and relaxed with his ears back. His owner asked if I could put them forward as this was more typical of Rupert. I'd usually say it wasn't possible as when a dog has it's ears forward the eyes and face shape are different to if it has them back but I think we got away with it here ( below). I just suggested his ears which works as they are usually partly obscured by fur anyway. 
Altered portrait -

Now he looks like he is ready to go on their  next big adventure!

I really enjoyed the Doggy Day Out on Sunday

We had great weather , sunny light winds, even a little warm although I was ok in the shade of my awning.
I got to meet some nice people and their dogs and enjoyed sketching everyone's dogs. The sketches went down really well.
I would have loved to see the stage events but I couldn't get away for long. Spunky Puppies next door had some amazing coloured poodles and a small dog made up to look like a bumblebee complete with wings!I think it may have won a fancy dress comp on the day.
 I wish I'd thought to take a photo of it.They dye the dogs and it gradually grows out.
 Here are a few pics of the day. I should have got someone to take a photo of me sketching but I didn't think of it.

I also didn't think to take photos of the sketches except for the last 2 I did. Here they are remeber they are only 15min odd sketches from a moving dog so they won't be as finished or as accurate as my usual portraits. They are A3 ( 30 x 40cms size ).

An Australian shepherd puppy. I loved the colour of his fur!

Kelsea a Samoy . I had fun getting the lovely soft look of her fur.

Here is some of Spunky puppies handiwork

Grr!!

He doesn't quite look mean enough does he..I think he'll have to 'grow into his new look & get a new attitude..lol's

Poor old Zeuss..

 Zeuss

My horse Zeuss is very sensitive and has been eaten alive by mossies lately. He's sleep deprived from stomping and snatching at bugs.
 I had him up today to go for a ride and was grooming him and asked him to move his hindquarters over.He's really good with that sort of thing so when he came towards me and circled the wrong way for 2 laps and then tried to back up before he finally realise what I wanted I knew it was going to be an interesting ride!.lol's

Another hint was his constant yawning and him going to sleep as I groomed  zzzz... I'd just sprayed the bugs so they were giving him a bit of a respite and he was making the most of it to get micro sleeps.
He was too tired to muck up on the lunge and I was very impressed at how light , responsive and good he was to ride.I wasn't going to ride him very long or hard as I felt sorry for him. I asked for a fast canter and then to slow it and  he stumbled badly. It's a grassed arena and he can stumble occasionally but it doesn't worry me as he always gets it together. 
 I thought he'd had it today ( so did he). He went down onto his nose and travelled along on it for 4 or 5 strides before he managed to get up.He is a very comfortable horse to ride and even his stumbling rarely unseats me.
 I finished off soon after that as he was going well and I decided to quit while we were ahead.
 It wasn't till he was unsaddled that I saw his nose was bleeding from the inside so it was a painful stumble.. Poor thing. He seems ok though.

He looks alert but that's just because I called him and he thinks he's going to be fed! lol's.. See his left nostril..

After the ride although he was like that before!

Monday's portrait from life Saskia

Saskia kept a lovely smile. She was amazing. She even fell asleep while modelling still smiling!
I love the zap of this portrait and her hair..I just have to figure out how to keep that zap as i refine the portraits. My self portrait looks drab next to this one.

Creating my self portrait

The portrait group I paint with are all painting a self portrait for an exhibition at the end of this month. I've left it a bit late but at least I've started.
I'm painting myself without glasses as a lot of the portrait will be painted looking in the mirror and I can't see myself from that distance with glasses..( that's my story and I'm sticking to it..lol's)..No it is true.
I started with a photo to capture the concept and I used the photo to get the sketch accurately done.

I'm painting in acrylic paint and this is just getting the angle of the head and relative distances of the length of the nose and eyes etc..It's pretty rough as I'll be constantly correcting it until I feel it's right.At this stage I just want to be sure the whole portrait will fit on the canvas.

 

 I quite like this stage but I have to change it as it's incorrect.The left eye needs to go down , the face shape changes a bit as does the hair shape. When I had the photo taken I had a narrow strappy top on that makes me look like I haven't got anything on.The shoulders are too distracting anyway so I'll add a shirt later.

This is more accurate.The photo was taken outside in flat lighting .Now I want to add a spot light for a bit of extra interest with the lighting.

Adjusted sketch with lighting now coming from the left and highlighting the left side of my face and hand. Not a bad start. I can see the left eye is still a bit big but I'll adjust that as I go to Oils next. From now on I'll be painting mainly with the mirror. Typical.. The first thing we tell the model at portrait classes is to take up a pose they can comfortably hold for 3hrs at 20mins a time..So what do I do.. My neck is going to kill me! lol's The next stage will be to introduce colour in Oils. I want this portrait to be very colourful.

Here I'm starting to come back and cover the whole portrait in Oils. Here I am now using a mirror and I have a spotlight on myself.I used a photo to get the general proportions and drawing right because the pose was hard to hold.

Covering the face

A bit further along

My face is roughly done in the one above now to do my hand and roughly cover the rest of the canvas.

Now to refine my shirt and apron and generally get a an accurate likeness and lighting on  my face. This is the stage where it slows down . I can fine tune the face for 10 hours and you probably won't even notice the difference in a photo.

This photo is a bit lighter than the previous one. That's the photographer. The last one was a bit too dark.

This is many hours later.. spot the difference lol's..Sometimes I can work for hours and when i compare the painting to earlier photos it seems I've even gone backwards..argh!

Getting pretty close I think. The eyes aren't as vibrant as the photo my camera loves to enhance that colour blue and nothing else which makes it hard to photograph certain paintings..

 I'm a bit disappointed as I really wanted this painting to be very colourful. One problem is that half of my face is in shade so it's hard to do a lot with that and I need to keep the focus on the side being hit by the light which means keeping the other side darkish so the highlighted side has impact.

 Finished..

'Making a mark' 

Sue self portrait -2012

I'll post a photo of it in the exhibition when I get photos . This photo is pretty accurate colourwise.Some of the earlier progressive photos aren't. I used a better camera for the final photo.It's a hard painting to get a decent photo of.

 Here we are at the exhibition.

Note the size of a 40 x 50cms image. A framed portrait 40 x 50cms image will be even bigger and makes a stunning focal point in a home.

Tania -This weeks 2.30hr portrait from a model

 Tania

 30 x 40cms 

unfinished Oil on canvas

Painted from life

I'm pretty happy with this portrait. It has captured the light nicely .I deliberately left her eyes less finished than usual as I liked the blue coming through.Thanks for sittting so well Tania.

Zarley's creation - Here is the reference photo for my next portrait - Zarley.

Ashley contacted me from Canada wanting a portrait of Zarley her Portugese Waterdog . Zarley had a stroke recently and had to be put down.

' Zarley was loyal and devoted to a fault - he would have gone to the ends of the earth for me.'  Ashley

He sounds like he was a great dog . I'm looking forward to doing him justice in a portrait.I will show his eyes in the portrait.

I love the writing on his bed . It says  ' If my dreams come true it will rain bones!' We have cropped the original photo so  Zarley will be larger in the portrait.

His portrait will be a 40 x 50cms unframed Oil on canvas that can be rolled and sent in a tube to keep shipping economical . Ashley will frame him later.

Here's a few photos to show progress so far..

I was getting a bit worried at this 'ugly' stage..lol's. I decided to start on his face first .I usually do the whole portrait at once but i wanted to get past the ugly stage quicker!

 

Phew.. I can see it's going to come ok..There is a long way to go yet! 
His face isn't finished yet but I'll go and do the rest of the portrait and come back to it later.

Here's where I'm up to about 55% finished. I've covered the whole canvas except for the white area with the type.I now have to finish that and refine Zarley's face and body and the bed.

I had several background colour changes in the process of creating Zarley. I sometimes felt I was chasing my tail and would never be happy!
Here I've changed it to green

Because his portrait is on a piece of unstretched canvas and had some ripples in it ( which will come out when it's framed)  I had a problem with sheen showing on the background. I had to take the photo at an angle to reduce this.

A bit further along  refining Zarley.

I decided I didn't like the green so went back to the purple / mauve. Now I have to integrate the rest of the portrait with the background colouring.

 The finished portrait. 
In memory of Zarley
c 40 x 50cms unframed Oil 
" It looks AMAZING!!!!! I love the painting!
 Ashley

Today's happenings

It was a beautiful sunrise this morning and turned into a very hot day 33 degree C.

I just watched this fellow ambling past.

 He was being dive bombed by an irate Peewee. Maybe it was her chicks that are in his belly.He's certainly had a good feed! The roos were a bit uneasy about him and hopped off.

Pre Race banter - the creation of my Equine art prize entry 2012 prize entry so far.

I decided to get an early start on this years entry as I was too rushed last year and didn't like the result.
You had to go to a racetrack and take photos to paint from and the theme is 'At the track'
I'm not sure what I'm going to call it yet but something like ' Pre Race Banter ".
Here I'm just quickly drawing in all the horses etc to get them to sit together and make sure they fit on the board.

It's really rough and I soon realised the horse was all out of proportion so I redid him with shorter legs and a smaller body. 
I had placed a different head and neck on the front horse rather than use the one in the photo so I had to adjust things so the head etc is the right size for the body and make it look natural.

I'm enjoying painting very roughly and not worrying about whether I have a likeness. It doesn't matter if it looks like the horses and jockeys - they can be generic. Although knowing me the jockeys probably will look like the people by the end..lol's

Here I have the two main horses in and I quite like it although the front horse is still a bit scrunched up proportion wise.

I've got the general idea laid out now.
 I'm not sure if I'll keep all the other horses in but they can stay in for now. Grr I just realised the rear horse and jockey are too big so I'll have to redo them.

Thanks goodness for acrylic paint! I just painted out the horse so it was white again and now I'm putting some lines in to give me an idea of how big it should be. Painting is all about trial and error..making each stage more correct than the one before until it's finally ' finished' ( which is subjective!).

 

That's better!

That will do for now. I'm still not sure what colours I'll make each horse or whether it will have they'll be in a scene or just a coloured background. I'll see what I think as I go along. I love the way I can do whatever I want! 
It's tempting to make the rear horse a grey but I think that will draw too much attention.You have to think of the overall effect and whether a change will get you closer or further away to getting the painting saying what you want it to say.

I want the focus to be more on the jockeys rather than the horses.
I just found out I can't change the colour of the horses and the portrait has to have a likeness..oh well..I'll make the necessary changes.Lucky I found out now and not when it's finished!

  I've started to cover the whole painting in colour. At this stage I wasn't sure whether to leave the extra horses and jockeys in the background so they are are left partly covered so I can put them back in later if I want. 
I decided as I was running out of time I would take them out and I think it's the right choice as it's less cluttered now.

I usually finish off the whole painting at once but as this one is so big and would take a long time to get interesting I decided to humour myself and start on the front horse so I would keep enthused..lol's 
The front horse is now started in Oil over the acrylic underpainting.
I'm having a problem with sheen on the front horses rump so I have to take the photos from an angle which distorts the painting and doesn't really do it justice.

Here you can see the painting at an angle and how it is distorted.I decided I needed to get the grass the right colour so I could judge where to go with the rest of the painting.

Here I've roughed in the rear horse and rider. You can see the sheen problem in the photo.

I 've started to detail the front horse. I've added a bridle , breast band ,and made his hood more accurate, I've also roughly done the colours on the rear jockey and put a bridle on the horse.

Now I've roughly done the colours on the front jockey and put a bit more expression on the horses eye. Slow but steady. I've softened the background. I'm not sure if that's how I'll leave it but it's good enough for now.

The front jockeys face is roughly done..

 

What a difference it makes where I photograph the paintings! I have a spot in the studio that's a bit brighter so I moved the painting there.This photo is probably a little light compared to the painting but the quality of the photo is so much better! I've done a bit more on the front horse .

Ok that's the latest for now.I still haven't finished the front horse and rider but I better move onto the rear one.The challenge for me will be not to get bogged down with detail.I want impact and the story to be more important!

 I've now roughly done the rear jockey.Since this photo I have finished off the rear horse and done some more on the front one.I've also subtly suggested some foliage at the back. Now I just have to pull it all together.
 I've started on bringing the whole thing together. I decided to change the background and subtly suggest a misty  day.The rear jockey is roughly done and I've started to detail the rear horse although it will always be more suggested than the front one.

More detail , some gloss on the rear horse and still fiddling with the front one. the original photo was taken on an overcast day and I am adding sunlight on the horses so that is quite a challenge!
 I originally was going to have another horse and rider to the right of the rear horse but I decided against it and chopped the unused excess board off the RHS. Eek! No going back now!

Here I've added some suggestion of sun on the back mist.Sorry the painting is wet so we have some unwanted sheen in the photo.

Finally - finished ..I think..no see latest below

The final version is below - I decided that the grass needed to be made lighter and a few minor changes to the rear jockeys face.I could keep fiddling but this will do!

Pre race banter
 Oil
 59 x 65 cms image size

Here is the painting framed.
This is for size only . The previous photos give a better indication of colour etc.