I've finally completed a belated wedding gift for my best friend's sister (who was married in June of last year). When my BFF got married in 2011, I did a painting for her wedding gift. It was a painting she had seen when we were together somewhere and it stopped her in her tracks. I later went back and photographed it and decided to paint it for her. It was a scene of four girls in Victorian/Edwardian dress on a beach facing away towards the water with a little dog and sailboats in the distance. I modified it slightly to personalize it. My friend has three sisters, so the four girls were perfect. I had all the dresses be the girls favorite colors, which most already were and only changed one dress from a pinkish orange to yellow. I also took out the original little dog and put their two border collies in. My friend was marrying an engineer who works on an "articulated tug and barge" so I put it in the water among the sailboats, so he could be part of the painting as well. I don't know the original artist, as I couldn't read the signature on the painting. I tried google and found similar artwork which was probably the same artist, but never found that painting. Here is my version. Acrylic on canvas, 12"x24"
My friend and her family all loved this, and when her sister got married this past year, she really wanted a "sister painting" also, but set in a nature, garden setting with lots of flowers. Her wedding reception was in their back yard with lots of beautiful flowers everywhere, lights and lanterns in the trees, very earthy and pretty.
This painting was going to be more of a challenge, because I wasn't copying from something else and I had to make the whole thing up myself. I used countless references I found online and my own photos and mashed it all up into one (hopefully) cohesive composition.
Sister Painting II, acrylic on canvas, 20"x24". I put the two border collies back in here and my BFF's cat she got last year. I have the dogs chasing a rabbit, but don't worry, the rabbit gets away. ;-) Of all the references I used, I never copied any of them exactly, even from my own photos. It all just kind of evolved on its own.
This girl is my best friend, since her favorite color is pink and she is standing my her little kitty who is swatting at some fish in the pond. She is the oldest, and the matriarch of her family.
This is the next youngest sister, the one I did the
painting for.
The third sister, who I actually had to model for, since I could not find a reference that had exactly what I wanted. The hair though, is not mine. ;-)
The youngest and the tomboy of the family, which is why she doesn't have a fancy hairstyle like the rest. ;-) I think she may actually be my favorite girl here. I love the way she is sitting, I love the way her hair is flowing and the strap carelessly falling off her shoulder. She might show up in some other artwork later on. ;-)
Hope you enjoyed! I actually really love the hairstyles on the girls, and the 3 girls with the intricate styles were a bit of a challenge and I found an interesting way to paint it. I'll save that for another post. :)
Last year, I got an offer though one of the various art related emails I get to test some new paints. I was told I would get some acrylic paint samples, and when I had tried them I had to fill out a survey and get a free paint brush as a thank you. Good deal!
Well, the paints showed up MONTHS later, after I had given up on it. I had been getting emails asking to please complete that survey asap, even though I hadn't gotten the paints. When they finally showed up I tried them right away and tried to do the survey, but I was told it was expired. I emailed them and explained I had only gotten the paints the day before and to please let me fill out the survey (I really wanted that damn paint brush). But they never responded and I was out of luck. The paints were also in tiny little containers, barely enough for a small painting. I got I think 4 colors, the three primaries and white. So I grabbed a little 4"x6" canvas and painted a sky and sea. Very simple, but I thought pretty cool that with dark blue, red and white I got the variety of colors of blue ;-)
So I had this little blue canvas for the last year, unsure what else to do with it. I thought I'd put a boat in there somewhere but then thought that was too boring, too expected. A boat on the sea? How original!!
Then it hit me...Sharks! I don't see too many paintings of sharks, so that could be fun. I've always loved Shark Week on the Discovery Channel, which is where I'd seen the "flying sharks". Only in this one specific place (I can't remember where) the great whites leap out of the water after their prey. Now that would make a cool painting. So yesterday, I did this:
And since it was kind of a funny little painting, I put a pirate ship in the background because, well, why not.
Acrylic on canvas, 4"x6"
Here's the most recent painting I did, another commission for my neighbor. He had asked me to do a painting for him to give his wife for Christmas, and after I completed it (sorry, I forgot to take a picture), he asked me to paint their Christmas card, which had pictures of all of their animals on it, seven dogs and three horses.
His wife does dog shows with some of these guys, and the grey dog on the far right is like a national champion pure breed or something. I don't know much about these things, but it's pretty cool that they have one of the top show dogs in the country. They get on tv! So this is the painting I produced from the card:
Acrylic on canvas, 16"x20"
The black and white dog, 2nd from the right, was in a different position on the card, but he had sent me a couple of photos of her for the other painting I did, and I liked her better in a different photo. The way she was cocking her head and the adorable expression in her big brown eyes was just calling me to paint. I'm not really a dog person, I prefer cats..but this little black and white girl, Eva, is the cutest dog ever.
This painting was probably the easiest painting I've done in a while. Most of the commissions I've been working on in the last several months have had me in a fit of nerves and some tears because I just couldn't get something right and they took me a long time to complete. This painting almost painted itself. It took about eight days total, which for me is lightening speed for a painting.
I have to say, it's pretty funny that I've been getting all these commissions in the past 6-8 months. I never had that many before, maybe one or two in the last several years. Then, this summer, I opened my Etsy shop for custom wedding gown sketches and bouquet watercolor paintings, and suddenly everyone wants me to paint.....animals (mostly dogs) and landscapes! Two subjects I don't actually paint, which is why I had a little trouble with some of these projects haha. :) I'm grateful for them though, for the extra income and the experience in painting things I hadn't before. And everyone was very happy with their paintings, which makes me happy too, of course!
