Portrait Commission Step by Step

My girls take piano lessons from the famous, lovely, and talented artist Angela Henrie. Some of you may know her name from her line of jewelry or her blog. She has 8 kiddos just like me. She even has 2 boys and 6 girls just like me (and my Aunt Joanna). I just love her, and my kids do too. I also dig her hot pink kitchen! Who wouldn't want to cook in there!

Here is Art Girl at her recital. Did I mention that Miss Angela is very Classy? Yes she is. I think it is from going to the same High School as me, Mountain View.

Here's Mini Me playing Brahms Lullaby.

Well, I begged Miss Angela if I could paint a portrait of one of her kiddos and she said "yes". So here is how I go about making a portrait for someone.

Step one: Arrange a meeting with the client and discuss what you want and the clothing. Angela really liked my paintings of angels and wanted one for her little Winnie. For her clothing, I draped and pinned some silk fabric on her and set her in the light the way we wanted. They both wanted a dark blue background and so we set up a black poster board behind her to set the values.

Step two: Talk with the model to loosen her up. As you can see Winnie was a little shy at first but we took care of that with a few jokes. Then, I just shot with the camera to get the model used to idea. The best shots will never be the first ones...ever. So relax and shoot away.

Step three: Have your model grow some angel wings right before your eyes. This might take a few minutes so be patient. Just kidding, we used some costume wings and propped them up to approximate what the lighting will be on the painted ones. Also, note how Winnie is starting to warm up and smile.

Step four: Choose which pose you like the best. Sometimes this can be agonizing and sometimes it is very easy. Winnie is so cute that it was hard to choose, so Angela had me email her a few shots and they had a family vote. They chose this one. The family just loves the way she smiles. Me too.

Step five: I did a mock up of what the wings will look like and the colors I would use for Angela's approval. I juiced up Winnie's skin a little with some color in her cheeks and made her eyes just a teeny bit bluer. I put in the blue background and of course, painted in some wings.

"Winnie" Angela's Angel. 2011

And here is the finished painting. See how easy it is? For you guys, not for me. I love painting angels. I think there will be more angels in my future. I'll keep you posted.

Kid's art class

I have been having a kid's art class. We painted Halloween scenes on panels with acrylics. The kids do all their own drawing and painting. I am pretty impressed. Look how happy these kids are. I love teaching kids to paint. They are so eager to soak up my vast knowledge of painting Halloween creatures.

My monkeys are good at making art. So are their friends.
Scary. And messy. But I cleaned it up.
Look how good these paintings are! I am impressed.
My B made this cute girl. It sits on my entry hall table. Love it.

Eight kids?!? Really?

I was in the plastic surgeon's office the other day...for Fifi, not me... and his very beautiful assistant asked me how many kids I had. Boy, there's an awkward silence waiting to happen. Nothing like being a frumpy older mom with a stitched up baby in a place where everything is very beautiful and cosmetically enhanced. And, well, a little superficial.

So, I just told her. The truth. Eight kids. 23 to 3. Two boys, six girls. All mine. Same husband. Can I have a tummy tuck now? (Not really about the tummy tuck part -but a girl can dream can't she?)

Now here was her reply. She said, "I wish I had had more kids, you are lucky."

What? Of all the places one would expect to be looked at like a freak, I wasn't. In fact, I was admired. That made my YEAR!

It just goes to show you that having kids is a great thing. Some people think I am very fortunate. Even the beautiful ones. And after all is said and done, if I just lose a few more pounds and raise a few more dollars I just might be back for that tummy cutty offy thingy.

Sugar and Sweets

Oh Man! I just read a post from an artist mom's blog and I can't stop laughing. You have to go here and read this. Seriously. Tears, man. Every now and then I go blog hopping. I don't know if that is the official term but I'll go to a blog and link to another blog from the first site and so on... you get the picture. I don't remember how I got to this woman's blog and I don't know this person but she is right up my alley.


http://pamily.blogspot.com/2008/10/sugar-and-sweets.html