52 Portraits

There are a few blogs out there in cyberspace that I check regularly, hoping for something pleasant to briefly interrupt my work day.  Last week, while taking a peek at this blog, I saw that she was participating in a very cool project.  She had found it on this blog.    Each week they would take a picture of someone important to them.  The idea being that it would help them document their children’s growth, capture images of those meaningful to them, and provide good practice for their photography.

I love the idea and wanted to join the fun, too.  Since I am a portrait artist, I decided to tackle it through drawing and painting.  So each week I will be posting a portrait.  They will be made from scratch each week and will range in media, style, time spent, subject, etc.  I know it will be a great way to keep me active in the studio and will provide a wonderful opportunity to do what I love best- painting and drawing faces, without having to worry about it turning into a finished piece.  Maybe some will, but I imagine most won’t.  I’ll be sharing them all here.  Even the ones I don’t like.

Here is my first one:

It was a quick study in acrylic.  I found an old panel last week which which had this figure sketched out on it.  Who knows when I made that sketch but I do know the reference photo is of a friend of mine on my old raised front porch back in 2005/2006 on a summer evening with a candle in her hand and the full moon rising behind her.  I lost the original reference photo but found another photo from that day so I kind of made it up based on the colors in the other one.  I ended up time traveling a little while I painted it- remembering that porch, that house, my friend’s visit, and what my life was like at that time.

In other news, I finally finished knitting my first sweater.  It fits well and is very warm and comfortable.  It’s a cardigan style without buttons that is meant to lay open and has a huge hood.  The colors are a bit off in the photos- it’s a lovely deep earthy teal color.

Advertisement