I guess I haven’t written about my artistic endeavors since I did the Cooper portrait. I am often busy with other creative activities during the late spring, summer, and early fall, so I do most of my pastel work in the cold weather.

The subject I chose to work on after two-year-old Cooper was the Baldwinsville Judge, the Honorable Elijah Huling. Judge Huling has hired me to photograph his staff and his swearing in ceremony so I had a lot of good model photographs to choose from. Sometime last year my husband suggested that maybe if I were to do portraits of locally well-known individuals I might be able to become better known as an artist. Things are going pretty well in the photography arena as the Town of Van Buren just purchased several pictures for their town website. That means I still have the village covered, with five websites (Village of Baldwinsville, B’ville Chamber, Town of Lysander, PAC 98 Cable TV, and now Van Buren) using my photographs on their homepages. But I really want to do more painting and it would be nice if I could earn decent money doing it.

Working on the Judge’s portrait was a very interesting change from the toddler. It brought a few challenges, one being that His Honor is now shaving his hair off and my model photograph showed him with a lot more hair. Fortunately, he attends services at the church where I am the organist/pianist so I get to see him often. Here is the finished portrait. I’d like to remind you that this is NOT actually, the finished portrait, but a photograph of it. There are differences when reproduced this way. The original is always a little softer and smoother – less contrast-y. Maybe the photographs have a narrower range of contrast…whatever. I am never as happy with the reproductions as I am with the originals.

Coming this year on September 15th & 16th, 2012. 9-5

Wemple & Edicks is an old fashioned ice cream parlor owned by my husband’s cousins, Bob & Laura Channell and this year’s event will be the ??th annual. There usually are about forty booths with steady traffic. I have a little difficulty fitting into the crafts fair category  because my handmade gifts all feature my photographs and I ask myself if maybe I should be in art shows instead. Be that as it may, I find my things are always welcomed with smiles as people recognize their hometown sites on coffee mugs, clocks, paperweights, etc… More than once I heard someone browsing say, “what I like about these things is, they’re local”. Where I referred to the glacial pothole in Canajoharie as just that – a glacial pothole – everyone else stopped and exclaimed, “the boiling pot!”. I guess I’ll just have to re-label a few things.

The Milescapes Booth
Anyhow, for a small venue, I have done very well. Even more importantly, were the many contacts I made. Re-stocking the business cards kept me busy and gave me a good feeling inside. Hopefully, I’ll hear from all those folks in the future.

Cooper turned two early this year. He comes to church every Sunday with his Auntie Linda and they sit down front in a pew right next to the piano. He always comes over to say good morning to me and hi-fives me at the sign of peace. When I was thinking of working on another child’s portrait, Coop seemed the obvious choice. I love these Pan Pastels

My friend, Sharon, in pastel

And here is the photograph I used as a model:

Model Photograph of Sharon

Plumley Engineering

As soon as we returned from celebrating Christmas in Massachusetts I got back to working on portraits of people. 

We had a wonderful visit with family while we were home and I got some good photographs of our granddaughter, Emily. I chose one of her to use as a model for my first portrait of 2012. Seems like she always has a big red apple in her hand so I was hoping to do one of those. I was timid about using the new Pan Pastels so I went with white paper and didn’t try to do anything challenging to improve the flush lighting caused by my camera’s flash. Here is Emily, our Big Apple Girl:

Emily, our Big Apple Girl

Actually, I was quite pleased with Emily’s portrait, mostly because it actually looks like her.

I had promised my neighbor, Dom, that I would do a picture of him last fall and just never go to it. I had him come and sit for some photographs and put him near a window so I would have good light that I wouldn’t have to create from my imagination. It was difficult to choose which picture to use because Dom has a really great face. Here is the photograph I chose:

Dominick DiCaprio, model photograph for portrait

I was still being careful, using white paper and trying very hard to just draw what I was seeing. Here is the finished portrait:

Dominick, in Pastel

When I had finished with Dominick I was happy enough with him, but felt that the overall portrait was wimpy and that the colors needed to be stronger. For instance, with both Emily and Dom, I had trouble recognizing them from more than a few feet away. I decided to use a darker colored paper so the colors would “pop”. Here is the finished Avery portrait. I am still a long way from where I would like to be. Avery looks okay but is overworked and I am again unhappy with the skin tones. Fortunately for me, the groundhog saw his shadow and there will six more weeks of winter for me to keep practicing my portraits. I’m also hoping to purchase a DVD set by an artist who does children’s portraits in pastel.

Avery, in Pastel

Jen & Jess, best friends

While working on this picture I learned something new. I discovered just how much pastel you can really lift off with a kneadable eraser. I began with Jen and felt that she had come out pretty well and was getting up my courage to begin the horse. As is my way, I began with his eye. Then, as is sometimes my way (too late),  I got out some books and looked more closely at horses’ eyes. This time there was no fixing it. What I had to do was start over. It takes patience (and a lot of kneading) but after repeatedly pressing clean parts of the eraser onto the pastel and lifting I was able to get most of the original color off. I am so glad I took the time to do it because Jen says that now his eye is just right.  She  also told me that I’d “captured his expression”! It’s a good thing I wasn’t aware that horses had expressions or I would have been worrying about that, too.

Oh, no. People don’t have fur on their faces! – and I’m used to doing pet portraits . However, I am just not happy with my shading in graphite. I’m going back to trying people in pastel. My friend Lizzie was kind enough to sit for some photographs I could use as models.

My friend Lizzie

I realize my skin tones need work but I really do think this looks like Lizzie. The photograph I used as a model is below.

Lizzie's photograph

Last year I bought a set of Sennelier pastels (very soft) for portraits so I should have all the colors I need. I guess I just have to keep practicing.

In all honesty, I should post my first attempt… Here is a picture I did of my granddaughter, Emily. The photograph I used apprears below the pastel.

Emily's photograph. Isn't she a cutie??

Pictures of everyone who attended! click on the “more” tag:

PJ Scott, District Governor

Sean Becker, our President

Lizzie!!