Francisca

Francisca is a sweet little girl that I could put on paper over and over.  We recently helped her and her family when she had appendicitis. 

Here's the start of my project:

For my paintings I use Prismacolor pencils and their Artstix for backgrounds or other large spaces.  Then I usually blend the colors with Turpenoid.  I'm still in the experimental stage with using Turpenoid (so, still making a few mistakes) but I'm really enjoying this.  I love how I can turn fairly light applications of pencil into rich, creamy surfaces.  It also means that I can work faster, as I don't have to be quite as careful to have perfectly even strokes and the colors will still melt together well. 

For this picture I decided to remove the distracting stripped background and created this lovely blue as the start of the project.  This really matched the reflections off the side of Francisca's face, so I was trying to draw out the blues in her skin tones.  I used a lot of reds and blues in this and I was pleased with the way it came together.

And here's the finished portrait:

Beverly & Rocky Completed

Well, I finished this a couple weeks ago, but I haven't been online much at all since then.  We actually live in the dark ages still where we have no phone or internet at our house.  Usually once a week we drive an hour and a half down to our "office" in the city to do all our communicating with the outside world.  But enough jabbering, here the completed painting:

Beverly & Rocky

Colored Pencil

9"x12"

Progress on Beverly

Here's some photos of my progress on this project.  I've been wanting to work on it more than I've had the time for it, so it's not finished yet.

Getting closer to finishing her face...and on to her hair.

Now I'm working on Rocky, the puppy.  These are all the colors I've used so far on the puppy. 

Hopefully I will get a chance to finish this in the next few days so I can post the final painting.

Beverly in Progress

This is the next picture I'm working on.  This little girl Beverly (at least how it sounds to English ears) was a next door neighbor of ours for several months.  She talked about 60 miles an hour in a really high-pitched voice, and couldn't listen worth anything, but you've never seen a cuter little girl.  Their family gave us the puppy, Rocky, she's holding.  When we went for a walk, she made sure to be there to carry the poor puppy the whole way. 

So, we'll see how the rest of the picture develops.  I haven't drawn fur in years and the fact the puppy is white will make it that much harder.  If anyone has any comments or critique of any of my stuff, please feel free to leave a note -- it would be appreciated.

Recent Paintings

Here are my most recent paintings, that I've finished in the last couple of months:

Shy Neighbor
Colored Pencil
9"x11"

A Smile
Colored Pencil
9"x11"

Every time I see this little girl I want to draw her again.  She just has a sweetness about her.

Milton
Colored Pencil
9"x11"

The Initial Scoop

I've always loved art and I'm self-taught.  When I was pretty young I discovered that colored pencils were my thing.  I primarily paint portraits, but I also want to adventure into some still life painting that involves textures from nature. 

I live in Honduras, in the mountains, in the jungle.  Most of the people I paint are kids from our village and the textures I'm interested in are to describe the natural beauty that surrounds us. 

This blog will be my journal as I seek to improve my skills and dedicate more energy to my Prismacolors.