Elizabeth Whelan

Starting on the skin tones - oil portrait with tractor

2012-02-18T18:22:00.001-05:00

Making progress! I got Dale's basic skin tones in, and will start adjusting them next. Plus I have to add his beard and hair as he looks pretty odd without them!

But first I am mapping in where the checks on the plaid shirts fall. What's good about the plaid is that the lines of the fabric design will go a long way towards making the body feel as if it is more dimensional, as you can see from the bit I've started painting in. What's bad is that it's a lot of work! However, that's all part of the fun of painting, and I know the results will be worth it.

You can see I did a lot with the background of the wooden barn stalls. I needed to be able to get a sense of the color and value of the area behind him and the tractor, and so this is almost near completion. I still have work to do on the stall dividers, but I'll do that at the end when I am adding the highlights all around.

One thing I have to do is go out to our barn and look at the John Deere there to get the color right on the next pass on the tractor! It needs to be a much more intense green.

Oil portrait - starting on the rough color

2012-02-15T09:30:00.001-05:00

Now I'm adding some color in a very rough, chunky manner. I want to get paint all over the canvas and I love this stage, but I am always trying to put detail in too early so in order to hold myself back I am using some large brushes and working on values (relative lights and darks) as well as getting the colors in the right direction.

Although I wanted to work on the background first for a number of reasons, I have to be careful to stop at about the same point on each element before moving forward. In the end, the subject of the painting is Dale, and most of the detail needs to be on him -- followed by the tractor.

I started on the background first so that I could incorporate some of each color I use into the other elements in such a way that the effect will be very subtle by the time the painting is finished, but will help unify all the elements. So although Dale's shirt will eventually have a different green on it, it will have some aspect of the green from the tractor which will make the painting look more cohesive. I will do a little of this same thing -- bring background colors into the main subject -- at the end as well, but it will have to be very carefully done at that point.

Right now I am basically slinging paint around! The only frustrating aspect of this is that Dale's face, which I want to be working on, is not looking very Dale-ish at this point, and it will be a few more steps into the process before it does. That's what keeps the artist coming back to the easel though, You feel a drive to get to that point where the real person is up there on the canvas!

Next step is to 'rough-in' Dale in the same manner, then I'll start going back to all the background elements and the tractor and tightening them up using more detailed brushes, more accurate strokes, making some things sharper, others softer. This will be an ongoing process until the painting is complete.

A tighter drawing

2012-02-01T20:05:00.001-05:00

Here's the next step -- a tighter drawing with more depth. I am starting to add in the massed darks but I need to put down the raw umber and start adding some color...

New painting in the works

2012-02-01T20:00:00.002-05:00

I've been painting a variety of subject matter this winter and it's time to post some of my progress. I've got an oil sketch going here, and am using a thin mix of raw sienna, black and raw umber with a medium sized filbert brush.

The canvas is 3' x 3' so I've a lot to cover which should cut back on unnecessary futzing around!

Final version of Sarah's portrait

2011-08-10T21:57:00.001-04:00

Here is the finished portrait -- we just had the unveiling today on Martha's Vineyard, so I hadn't wanted to upload the final image until Sarah had seen it for herself. I believe she is very pleased with it! It's going to be entered in this year's Martha's Vineyard Agricultural Fair, so stop by the Ag hall and look for the art division. (The Ag Fair is a wonderful island tradition, with many interesting divisions to enter everything from livestock to needlework, baking to knitting, with my favorite events being the Antique Tractor Pull and the Skillet Toss!)

To see a larger version, just click on the painting.

Portrait of Sarah - more work on her features

2011-02-20T18:26:00.000-05:00

I put in a couple more days work on this portrait, getting the features more accurate and working on the overall contrast. At this point I am finally ready to work on the hands, and I'm looking forward to it. All those interesting shapes!

I've been working with the same palette, but I need to add some different colors for the beads, which I'll use to break up the large back and foreground areas.

Oil Painting - a portrait of friendship

2011-02-14T10:51:00.000-05:00

This portrait painting was done in January, and the client kindly gave me permission to put it on my site. It's a smaller canvas, 9" x 12", that was perfect for showing the subjects in an informal way. It was a real honor to be asked to paint this portrait, and to make the recipient happy! That's the best part of portraiture, in my opinion.

A portrait of Sarah - making progress

2011-02-13T20:23:00.000-05:00

I'm starting to get somewhere! To get to this stage I started to focus on Sarah's face and although I haven't yet painted the full extent of the modeling, the features are becoming more lifelike. I also moved her eyes and mouth around a little to get them closer to the correct placement, and started to accentuate the contrasts in her clothing and the background.

Next, I need the background a bit more finished so that I can determine how the skin colors work when they are in close proximity. And I need to get to the hands before I do any more work on her face, so that I can bring the whole painting along together.

A portrait of Sarah - getting the main colors in

2011-02-09T07:51:00.000-05:00

Here's where I am as of this morning on the oil portrait of Sarah. I have blocked in all of the color areas and developed some, such as the clothing, quite a bit in order to get a sense of the color and value so that the skin tones have something to be weighed against.

It took me a while to decide how to handle the background and foreground, both of which will eventually suggest the million-billion (!) beads that she has in her studio, without painting each one individually! Her studio isn't this dark, however I wanted to make sure the focus was on Sarah -- this isn't a portrait of her bead boxes, after all! So I took a bit of license, and the background will get a bit brighter as the painting proceeds.

Below is a photo I took in between this and the drawing stage, while I was working on everything but the skin. I did so much work before getting to her features only because I wanted to resolve the problems of showing the velour-like texture of her shirt, and what would be the direction of the background, before I got to the details. Once I was satisfied with the direction of both of these I could breathe again!

My palette for this painting is as follows:
Ivory black, flake white, Paynes gray, Windsor blue (very strong blue-red), raw sienna, yellow ochre, cadmium yellow med., Naples yellow, cadmium red hue, burnt sienna, raw umber, burnt umber, viridian and sap greens.

Back to the studio today to start correcting proportions, do something about her mouth (!) which right now looks as if she has a hockey guard in it, and get the hands worked up to the same level of detail as her face. As I go along I will work on the back and foreground so that the painting stays tied together.

Portrait of Sarah - drawing in paint

2011-02-03T19:34:00.000-05:00

I'm working on a portrait of Sarah Young of Vineyard Sky Bead Design, showing her working on some jewelry in her Vineyard Haven studio on Martha's Vineyard.

This is the first stage of the painting. I've toned the background, and drawn in the dimensions and proportions, with a lot of extra information that will remind me what I wanted to do, as I get further into the portrait!

As I add in color most of these lines will be covered up, however the exercise of looking closely at the subject, measuring the proportions and beginning to block in the darks, really helps me to get a good likeness. Some artists like to start in color immediately but I enjoy drawing in paint like this.

I am using a 22" x 28" linen canvas suited to portrait work, and this drawing stage is done with thin mixtures of raw sienna, black, and raw umber.

Next I'll be putting color on the canvas in the areas where the darks are the deepest. This will mean a lot of work in the background on the right hand side, as that area (shelves with lots of containers of beads) will be quite dark with some detail.

I haven't quite decided whether to take the painting all the way up to the edges or let it fade off, but I'll have that figured out soon. Perhaps taking it up to the edges but losing the detail is the way to go -- I'll have to noodle on that!

This first stage goes rather quickly, and I can't wait to get on to the next step!

Back at the drawing board!

2011-01-09T22:03:00.000-05:00

Well it took far longer than I'd anticipated to get unpacked, and I am still not sure where my pads of tracing paper are, but studio life is returning to normal. Tubes of gouache everywhere and the smell of workable fixative in the air!

Moving is disruptive at any time, however moving to somewhere really beautiful has an added layer of distraction. When you work for yourself it can be hard to sit down and get to it. Many freelancers I talk to have little tricks they use to get motivated, and I've got a couple myself.

As a great motivator for work of all sorts, I go for frequent walks in any weather. It leaves me ready to create, either because I am so glad to be in from the cold, or so inspired by the natural world... some days it's hard to tell which!

And I swear by audiobooks. Somehow the combination of a good book, a hot cuppa, cats lounging by the woodstove, and a sketchpad for jotting brings all sorts of ideas to life. And when I'm ready to get down to serious work, the story keeps me from straying from my studio! If music is better suited to what I am doing, Pandora.com is my ally.

So right now I am working on some new business logos, illustrations for an event, a children's book, a portrait in oils, and quite a bevy of other projects. It's a great way to spend these wintry days, and at the rate the wind is blowing outside, tomorrow's inspired walk might be very well be a short motivational jog!

Brave New World

2010-09-07T11:33:00.000-04:00

This week marks a move to the Elizabeth Islands, a lovely chain of islands between Martha's Vineyard and the mainland. Lots of outdoor activity and adventure, good for creativity!

In this beautiful setting I have changed my business focus a bit -- I am now concentrating on illustration and fine art commissions, while still creating logos and artwork for design.

So if you need a new logo or custom artwork for your site and printed materials, get in touch! If you need an illustrator for your magazine or book project, my traditional and digital brushes are at the ready. Commissions are currently being accepted for paintings and linocut prints -- please email for details.

On that note, stay tuned for a new set of linocut prints available for purchase in 2011, as well as new oil paintings and gouache illustrations. For those of you who have been waiting for the 'Two skunks' limited edition of prints, they will be available in early December!

As I revamp my website and make the necessary moves to have everything operating smoothly by the end of the year, I'll occasionally update via this blog any happenings of note. In the meantime, thanks for your patience as Elizabeth Whelan Illustrator enters the second decade of freelancing!