Solace from the War

This  isn't really a portrait, but it is a landscape/figure painting featuring a  young man lost in thought while fishing.  Actually, it's of my son who just returned from Afghanistan, and visited us recently.  He had spent a lot of time fishing  with other relatives when he visited them earlier, and wanted to go fishing with me, in spite of the cloudy, windy weather, and the fact the fish weren't biting much.  It wasn't until I looked at a quick photo I took of him later, that I realized he was probably  just finding solace from a particularly rough deployment in which several soldiers under his leadership  lost their lives.  It reminded me of  the Hemingway short story "Big Two Hearted River" in which the character Nick Adams had just returned from WWI and found solace in fishing that river.   I entered this painting in the Killeen Civic Arts Guild "Just Landscapes" competition, and I believe (I'm not sure) it received an Honorable Mention. 

Study for "Proud Guardian of Sylvette"

This is an attempt at painting one of the security guys at The McNay art museam in San Antonio.  He was in the early 20th century gallery, where there are several Picasso's.  One of the Picasso paintings is of Sylvette, a beautiful woman of whom he painted about 40 portraits in the 1950;s.  This  man was working security one night a couple of years ago, and a beautiful, mature woman came into the gallery, sat down on a bench facing the painting, and  pointed to it, and said "That's me!".  Joeseph, takes obvious  pride in telling that story.  I am working on a larger painting, and needed to do a study.  Yes, I know I made his right ear too big;  I didn't notice it until my wife looked at it and said, "I like it, but his ear is too big."  Joseph also didn't look so grumpy; I'm working on that too.

I'll try to post the finished painting later. 

TX State Senator Wendy Davis

This is not a watercolor, it's a quick portrait using Conte crayon (from France).  It is of TX state senator, the state sentator who tried a one person filibuster to protest against massive spending cuts in the education budget in Texas. 

Below is the watercolor, I tried.  Although it has more nuances in tone, I actually like the Conte better, considering the background of the situation.

Study for Pom Pom painting

This is a watercolor study I did a month or so ago, but didn't get it uploaded.  It is of a captian of a pom pom team from Mesquite, TX.  She was clearly the center of attention due to her superior gymnist/ballet type talents.  This was to see if I could do a decent portrait of her face before trying a larger watercolor figure painting, of which I am now trying my luck.  Size of paper:  8" X 5"; Windsor and Newton half pans.

Portrait of Whisper

I really like this one.  I completely darkened the background to accent the pretty rose color she was wearing.  I just purchased Winsor & Newton Artist quality Permant Rose half pan ($8.50 for one half pan!) but does it have a beautiful glow or what?   This and the earlier portrait of Whisper were painted on 5.5" x 8.5" 70lb sketch book paper.  I think it's time for me to try a little higher grade paper.   If any one who views this blog has any comments I would really appreciate your feedback.

Portrait # 1 of livesit #3

Here's my most recent watercolor portrait.  It's of Whisper, daughter of the woman featured in the last portrait.  I choose to use a bright background and make it look like she had just taken a break from playing the piano.

 

Portrait of Krystal

Krystal agreed to sit for a quick sketch and a few photos.  I worked on it over a week ago, but am just uploading this now due to a busier schedule than usual.    This one was done Winsor and Newton watercolor pans on a  5.5 " by 8.5 " sketch book, the same sketch book I used for the portrait of Anna. Like the Anna portrait, it took about two hours.