New Painting Inspiration

My sister and 17 month old niece are coming to visit from Florida! We've been running around the house trying to baby proof and clean. I see lots of inspiration for paintings in the near future! I can't wait to dive into the paints and capture the picture above. She so reminds me of "Boo" in Monsters Inc...what do you think? The paint brushes will have to be put on hold for a few days so I can enjoy time with my sweet family. Then I will tackle 2 different texture jobs for 2 different clients, and do a mural for another...then, maybe I can fire up those portrait brushes!

Here is a portrait I did of my baby girl (almost 13 now, how time flies!!) when she was about my niece's age.

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Painting Progression: Grapevine

Grapevine

The above is a painting I did the other day of some grapes. This is the progression: I begin by sketching the main shapes in, and then fill in all of the negative space with thinned down paint, about the consistency of watercolors. At this point, I don't worry too much about color as I will be building up layers of paint, getting thicker with the top layers.

  My main goal is to cover the white and use colors in the general color scheme I plan to paint with. I lay in thinned colors of the leaves and the grapes.                                  




Again, I'm not too worried about using the exact color tones. This 1st layer is painted very quickly so I can get the white canvas colored. (sometimes I will tint the canvas a solid color (light pink or sienna tones, or other depending on the subject matter) before I even start the drawing process. This way, as I begin to work details I don't have to worry about white specks of canvas showing through, and it gives the painting a nice glow. Now I can hone in on detail and color.

I want this painting to have contrast and I want it to illuminate, so I've decided to make the background a dark olive color. I continue to keep the olive color fairly thin, but not as thin as the 1st layer. I begin adding some of the details to the leaves and vines, and I create shadows and variations in color. It's important to think about light source and how it affects different surfaces to create  shadows.

I want the painting to have movement and interest, so I pick up some of the colors I will be using in the grapes and add subtle touches into the background. This also creates hints of other leaves that might be behind the main subject. Creating lights and darks on the grapes will give them the illusion of depth. You don't always have to highlight with warm colors. As you can see on the grapes that will be more in shadow (lower grapes), I've used light blues and greens to highlight.

I want the top grapes to be illuminated so I use much warmer tones, but to create consistency I still use touches of the surrounding colors.







Final results:

To buy prints of this painting, click here: prints of "Grapevine"

To buy the original painting, click here: Grapevine Original Painting