"Willis Has The Blues"

This watercolor portrait was painted from a photograph I took of a man in Ocean City, Md this past sumer.

Willis is a street musician who plays on the boardwalk. I was drawn to his long dreadlocks, wiry whiskers and interminable stare.

New Portrait Commission

What a busy, busy month. I finished up several portrait commissions, started a mentoring program through the Portrait Society of America and worked on a few other paintings.

Below is one of the portraits of a client and her sweet dog, Addy.

A Watercolor Pet Portrait of Ludwig

Left: A full-sized value sketch preceeds the painting. This is where I study the features and work out the values (light and dark areas) then transfer an outline of the sketch to the watercolor paper.

Right: The finished portrait

This little guy is Ludwig, a beautiful German Wirehaired Pointer, whose distinctive feature is his wonderful, wiry coat. Ludwig's fur is made up of a multitude of colors, depending on the lighting, but my favorite part to paint was his unruly whiskers. Luddy, as his owner calls him, has a very sweet temperament and was a joy to work with.

The reference photograph I worked from was taken in a natural morning light that had cool highlights and warm shadows. Perfect for the color palette I ended up using.

My client had planned to present this portrait to her husband for a surprise birthday present. However, he was a little too sharp for us and our fabricated story of why I was at the house that day to photograph didn't fool him one bit. No matter, Ludwig's portrait turned out beautifully and made a great gift.

Sunshine, Sketches and Strong Women

Sunshine
Last week was our family vacation at the beach. Vacations with teenagers are fun; we went para sailing, go-cart racing (Is my family really that competitive? They actually ran me off the track!) and walking the boardwalk. I did some reading, a little bit of painting and even got a hint of a tan (sort of, if you look real close).







Jake buried up to his neck, and Stephen doing the honors.













The view from our front door, Yves taking a stroll.

Sketches
I didn't get much time to paint on vacation but I did pull off a few quickies of beach people.










Strong Women
Two books I read recently. One was "This Child Will be Great" by Ellen Sirleaf Johnson, the first woman president of Liberia.

The other one I am still reading, "In No Uncertain Terms" by Helen Suzman, who was in the South African Parliament for 35 years and an outspoken advocate against apartheid. If you like biographies, particulary those about amazing women, you may be inspired by these stories.

Now...back to work!

Oil Painting of Betsy

I finished up an oil portrait of my mother-in-law Betsy this week. The intent of this portrait wasn't to create a formal portrait for posterity. What I really wanted to capture was a particular mood and feeling. I'll leave it up to you to decide what you see or feel in this painting.

The title is "Tot Ziens", which means see you later in Dutch. It was a phrase she often said to us.

Watercolor Cats

Just finished up a triple pet portrait. These cuties are all from one family, each with their own distinct personality. The challenge with this commission was to photograph each cat individually and show something of their uniqueness, yet making sure that all three photos worked together as a solid composition. Not as easy as it sounds. After 100+ photos, hours of photo groupings, color sketches and various corrections, the easy part was the painting. Now all that's left is to frame and enjoy.

A Watercolor Landscape with Figures

"Discovery", watercolor 17 x 20"

This is a little different approach for me. Usually my focus is on the figure(s), with the background being secondary. What inspired me about this image was not only the boy in the photo, but the landscape of the buildings and the way they were pieced together.

I was in a tourist shopping area in Jamaica, where everything was manicured and picture perfect, kind of like a Jamaican version of Disney. I decided to duck behind some of the buildings and this is what I discovered.

Mily: A Watercolor Pet Portrait

May was a crazy, busy kind of month. Studio time involved several portrait commissions, including a triptych pet portrait; five exhibitions to prepare for this spring and summer; and three portfolios to send out. Below is a recent completed pet portrait.

Mily is a beautiful American Bulldog with a sweet personality. She was such a pleasure to photograph and paint.

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Step 1: Small color value sketches. I do 6-12 sketches before deciding on a direction for the painting.

Step 2: Full-sized value sketch.

Here is where I get to know my subject

better and work out any value issues.

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Step 3 & 4: The painting as it progressed.

Starting with an excellent reference photo is crucial to the success of the painting. I rarely use existing photos, instead preferring to take my own. Taking over 100 photos for a portrait is not unusual. I find that even with that many photos, only about 3-4 are suitable for the portrait.

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Beautiful Milly--framed and ready to go to her permanent home.

Life Drawing: A Fine Art Exhibition

June 5 is the opening of Double Door Gallery's juried figure show. The show includes, not only a finished painting, but the original sketch that was done from a life drawing session.

At left is my submission. Joanna the Belly Dancer is one of our favorite models. The painting is titled, "The Dancer" and was done in oils.

The quick sketches below were done from our bi-monthly figure session.

Portrait Society's Annual "Art of the Portrait" conference

What a wonderful four days it was. It was jam packed with demos, critiques, networking, discussion...where do I start? How about a few highlights:

1) A drawing session with Tony Ryder. His drawings and paintings are magnificent. It was very cool to see him work and have him critique our drawings.
Below: Tony talking about his process;
one of our models, Mike; my 20-minute sketch of Mike

2) A painting demo with Mary Whyte. Mary is one of my favorite watercolor artists and a sincerely inspiring person. Not only did she demo, but she also gave a talk titled "Creating Your Best Paintings Ever" and was part of a group panel discussion on "The Business Side of Art".

Below: Mary painting from a live model, her finished demo

Other highlights:

Portfolio critiques

The National Portrait Museum

Painting demos by some of my favorites: Scott Burdick, pastel artist Judy Carducci, Chris Saper, Dawn Whitelaw and too many others to mention

An absolutely wonderful presentation by Richard Schmid

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I'm totally spent, but in a good way. Once again, I am fired up and thinking, "You know, I think this is truly possible..."

Peggi Gets Her Groove Back: A "Faces and Figures" Sabbatical

What is the best word to use for taking a leave of absence? I kinda like sabbatical. It sounds so restful, which is exactly what I've been searching for.

I sat down one day and listed everything I've got going on. The list was way longer than I care to mention. The result? I decided there was just too much life happening in front of a screen. Time to cut down on blog posts and comments, ignore google alerts, Facebook messages and Twitter "tweets", and save those nonessential e-mails for the next day.

Let's face it, do I really need to know who's having a bad day on Twitter, who sent me a virtual drink on Facebook (what's up with that?) and which thousand "watercolor portraits" posts to read or write. Of course I plan to check in on my favorite blogs periodically. You know who you are, don't you? (Manon, Vikki, Robin, Linda, Elaine, Kristy, 100 swallows).

So, if you don't hear from me in a while, it just means I'm getting my groove back!

above: Beatitude, watercolor figure 2007

Blog Filler - Figure sketches

Now isn't that a tantalizing blog title? I've been a tad busy this month with commission work, conference planning, portfolio updating, a show to jury, gallery work and an upcoming art demo. Whew!...and nothing to post. I do have some sketches and quick studies from the past three figures sessions with a live model. As you can see, my sketches are rough and unfinished. My goal is to learn to work quicker and be able to finish a figure in a 15- to 30-minute pose.








1) Sepia and charcoal, 30-min sketch
2) pencil, 30-min sketch












3) watercolor head studies, 15-min sketches










4) charcoal, 15-min sketches

Jake at 13

This is a portrait of my skateboarding, grafitti-art loving, sweet teenager Jake. I have been painting and drawing him since he was little but this is the first time he nodded his head in approval of his portrait.

This pose is so Jake. He is often deep in thought and likes to discuss some serious issues like religon, the universe and Seinfeld episodes.

This painting is one of a 3-part painting demo I will be giving in April.

"Beyond Faces & Figures"--Celebrating The Art of Portraiture

Just sent out my March issue of "Beyond Faces & Figures". If you want to take a peak, you can find it here.

If you would like to receive this quarterly newsletter in your inbox, you can sign up here. Be sure to include your mailing address to receive a set of free notecards in the mail.

I never use e-mails for any other purpose than to send out my newsletter and an occasional exhibition update.

Shannon's Portrait In Watercolor

This is a portrait commission that I was working on this week. At left is the full-sized value sketch and composition.

After meeting with the client and an hour-long photography session, we decided that the simplest design would be the best approach. Shannon is a very pretty girl who exudes a good deal of confidence and friendliness. Adding background elements or a complicated design may have taken away from that.

After tweaking the composition, I started layering the skin tones with quinacridone colors and transparent pigments. This kept a nice glow in the painting even with subsequent layers.

I saved the opaques (mostly Cad Red and Turquoise) for the end to punch up some dark areas.