A Christmas Angel

Here's the finished version of my little Christmas angel - she's so cute! As you can see in these last three stages I continued to work on her skin tone and hair, adding in different colours and shades for depth. Finally I worked on her eyes to make them really stand out as they are such a gorgeous blue. I'm sure she'll be brightening up her family this Christmas!

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A Christmas Angel

This gorgeous little girl is another portrait needed for Santa to deliver so the first three stages are done. I am painting her on a 16 x 16" box canvas and decided not to use texture paste on this portrait as her skin is so delicate I thought I'd let the canvas create any texture needed. I painted light shadows and a wash for the skintone first and made a point of bringing out her eyes, as these will be the focus of the painting. Then I added more colour to her clothes, hair and background and continued to paint fine glazes to gradually build up her translucent skintone. I can't be bold with the shadows on her skin as it will look too heavy so I'm adding paint very lightly and blending it in as I go (mostly with my fingers!!)

See some more examples of my child portraits.

A Portrait for Christmas

This portrait is now ready for Santa to deliver! For the last three stages work goes into getting the skin tone right by adding layers and layers of different coloured glazes. I added reds oranges and purples to lips, ears, neck and around the eyes; yellow and burnt sienna to the sides of the face, chin, forehead and under the eyes. I added light brush strokes of paynes grey to indicate slight stubble and used the same colour to darken his hair with highlights of titanium white to finish off.

See some more examples of my family portrait paintings

A Portrait for Christmas

My latest commission is a portrait for Christmas and it's a surprise, so if you have stumbled upon my blog and you know this gentleman, shhhhh!! The size is 12 x 16" on primed artboard and after sketching the basic outline I started painting the shadows in paynes grey and burnt umber. Next I roughly painted in his shirt, jumper and hair. I used up the remainder of the blue paint as a wash for the background before building up warmer shadows on his face and used a small brush to add a base colour to his eyes. From there I have started to apply the many glazes required to build up a translucent skin tone so for now he looks quite tanned and his laughter lines and shadows are well pronounced. I'm quite pleased with the first few stages - keep watching to see it progress!

Dog painting - Acrylic on MDF board

Freeway and Bee Bee are now finished and looking cute. The final piece is at the top plus a couple more stages to follow on from my last post: I darkened the background before working on Freeway's ears. Then I turned my attention to Bee Bee and tried to make the hair look slightly coarser than Freeway's. I kept fiddling, adding in more detail and making sure the colours balanced based on the photos supplied, et voila!! I hope they like their portrait (and the owners too!)

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Dog painting - Acrylic on MDF board

I am working on a new commission of two very cute dogs for a birthday present. I started by priming an MDF board size 16" x 24.5" and applying a yellow ochre wash to the background. After sketching in the dog outlines I added texture paste. This creates a slightly 3D effect as I pick out hairs that stick out and create a furry texture. Next I started to paint in Freeway's eyes, nose and muzzle before painting the dark areas in his ears. Then I moved to Bee Bee to paint the eyes, nose and dark arees of fur. I need to work on the background next but haven't decided whether to grade from dark at the top to light at the bottom or vice versa. The ears need to stand out so if you have any ideas let me know!!

Finn - watercolour of a black flat coated retriever

This soppy old dog met me at my car door window with a gruff woof, looked under his eyebrows at me and promptly disappeared off to present me with a teddy bear almost as big as him! He has a few grey hairs around his muzzle and a fabulous single white eyebrow whisker over his right eye. His owner wanted him painted in a similar watercolour style to other dog portraits she had in the house but I've still given him quite a lot of detail. As all photographers and painters know, black animals are the hardest to capture!

See some more of my dog portraits