Tuesday, February 2, 2010

Thank God, I thought I had forgotten how to paint!

Well, the Savannah's face is starting to look like her, maybe not perfect, but it's getting there! I had the underpainting in brown and white, and now I'm putting the color in. I guess i see in color so much better that it's easier now. But I like the way a painting looks when it started with monochromatic. Here's the rest of the painting, still monochromatic, still a little awkward, the couch is too big and the shoulder is at an uncomfortable looking angle, but all can be fixed. The couch will be a luxurious looking dark burgundy velvet. I think I will put some kind of subtle 1920's style wallpaper on the background, something that looks like it has textured images rather than colored images, I think. Her hair will also be a bit more strawberry than blond, which is a challenge because the girl used to have light red hair, but it's almost black now! I have to refer to wedding photos.

It's like an old fashioned version of photoshopping.... cut and paste and rearrange. The couch isn't something that either of us were ever near, and the dog was not allowed near the expensive velvet dress, so it's all assembled from different images.

Well, hopefully after this I can get some actual paid commissions... well, to be fair, I think a website is quite a lovely payment. Actually I got quite a deal. I think I came out ahead!

I'm really excited about where this is going!


Monday, February 1, 2010

Etsy is up, the Website is up!

Go to http://willowdarcy.com and check out the new layout. It's a bit simplified. I haven't sold anything on Etsy yet, but hopefully as I put more and more stuff on there and get a handle on it, I can get enough viewers that I will sell something! Just go to my website and click the "Etsy" button on the top. Click on the "Blog" button and it will bring you right back here! Thanks to Legacy Specialties for the design of my lovely site. Such a nice way to navigate. Google sites has limits, so sorry about the white spaces under the thumbnails, I really don't know how to get rid of them!

Thursday, January 28, 2010

Savannah's Portrait

Finally worked in the studio today. I had forgotten that when I do a portrait, even if I have a photograph and use a projector, I still need to draw the face with pencil on paper. I won't yet show a photo of the painting itself, as I don't want to create a bias for the viewer, as I am still working on likeness, but I think I did a pretty good job with the pencil sketch of Savannah's face. I transferred the drawing on to the painting by putting a layer of oil pastel on the back of a copy of the drawing and drawing over it on top of the painting. Well, here it is. I am really glad I have a scanner and a printer, it makes these things so much easier. She looks a bit like the Mona Lisa, smile and everything. Wonder if I could get her to pose for me again and do a Mona Lisa update.