Different Strokes from Different Folks- end of the year challenge

Pastel, 5x7 on paper. For this challenge, Karin Jurick put 130 names in a hat, and paired artists off to paint each others portraits. 130!! When you have a chance, check them out!

Chloe's Doll - 9x12 on board

Sorry it's been so long since I've posted. I threw a surprise party for my husband's 4oth birthday (I'll try to post some pics!), and the last of our guests left today. Hopefully, I can paint more regularly now. I must admit, I'm feeling a bit rusty.

Natalia- 9x12 on board

Thought she could use a bit more work, so I refined her features.

Natalia - 18x24 on board NFS

This lovely girl is my good friend's daughter, Natalia, at our last open studio. I had so much fun doing this project because she is such a joy.... as are all the Camilo girls. Interestingly, my favorite parts of the painting are the areas that took the least amount of time to paint..... her pants, shoes, and sweater folds. They seemed to paint themselves. What a blessing it is when that happens!

I seem to struggle with feature placement when I try to fill in local color as I'm "blocking in." For future portraits, I think I will try laying in the mid-tones first, then going back in with my lightest lights and darkest darks. Fortunately, there isn't only one way of doing this, I just have to figure out what works best for me. Also, I purposefully made her neck a little short to avoid cutting off her hair line. I regret that now (I don't think it would have hurt the composition).... because it seems to have made her head a bit rounder then it is in person. But as Matisse once responded to a critique of his anatomy depiction, "This isn't a woman, but a painting." Ha! Creative license is a beautiful thing.

Anyway, all in all, a successful experiment. Thank you, Natalia, for being such a sport!

This will probably be my last post for the week. I seem to be fighting a cold and have a busy weekend coming up I need to be ready for. Stay healthy everyone. It's cold out outside!