Swap Portrait Finished

I'm calling this finished! There are things that I would like to see done better but I've gone the limit of my paper in those areas. So, rather than take a chance on messing it up, it's time to stop. I had a great time doing these portraits and participating in the swap; it's really piqued my interest in doing portraits. I have my next photo picked out!

Featured Artist

For Thanksgiving this year, the family came to our house for our traditional get together. It was a great day, my cooking wasn't too bad, and my seven-year-old nephew stayed the night with us. We had movies and popcorn, and Collin, who is an art lover wanted to make a drawing. Armed with paper, prisma markers, and colored pencils, he sat down and created this drawing. So, he is my first featured artist. Originally, the drawing was for me, but Collin decided he wanted to give it to his Uncle Tommy--as you can see, it's personalized!

Second Exchange Portrait

I have been working on this exchange portrait for three days now (I think). This photo is so much more detailed than any other portrait I've done to date. Of course, that's only two others recently so I can still consider myself a beginner! I'm trying really hard to get this just right so my exchange partner will be happy with it. This was so much fun, I'll have to be sure to do it again next year!

Exchanging Portraits

Every year WetCanvas has a portrait exchange for Christmas. I SO wanted to sign up for this exchange but my portrait abilities are just minimal! I didn't want whoever got paired up with me to be disappointed--though I have to say, regardless of the portrait outcome, it really is FUN!! Anyway, I DID sign up and I have been working on the portrait from the photo provided by my partner. Mostly, it's finished but I still have time to look at it for a time and do some tweaking.

We still have til the first week of December on the exchange so I paired up with another member for a second portrait--I just started working on hers today!

Both of these photos are something that I never would have done had they not been given to me in this exchange. So I learned a great deal and probably will not be as apt to pass up something because it looks difficult.

Learning from Demos

A week or so ago, I visited the Piney Woods Art Guild for their Sunday afternoon meeting. The demo of the day was in acrylics. I have never tried acrylic, so I decided that I would start doing a small project after each demo I see; this way, I learn something new and see if I like a new medium at the same time! So, this is my acrylic project. It's not quite finished I don't think. But I'm not sure what to do next. I made my own ground as I didn't have anything to paint on. I did this by taking a thick piece of chipboard, sealing it, painting on a coat of gesso, a coat of acrylic and sealing again. It seemed to work ok but sometimes the paint pulled off; I'm not sure if this was my ground or my method of painting.

A Little Progress

Things have been a little hectic in the last few days and Ihaven't had much time for art. Here is a little update on the mosaic project. So far, I'm happy with the look!