Figure Study with Broken Dishes, Everything Right is Wrong Again.

Because we listen to a lot of They Might Be Giants at our house, especially when I'm working, this figure study bears the title of a song from The Pink Album that refers to dishes getting broken. It started when my boys were climbing in and out of a cupboard directly behind me while I was working, and I just knew they were going to break everything. I eventually wrangled them and made them each pose for a figure study. My youngest son had the best pose this time, but I promised to do another figure study with the older one.

Kiddos

Pretty happy with the kiddos, so next time I'll move on to their keeper.

Kiddos

More progress on kiddos. I was lucky to find tubes of violet and pink stowed away in the back of the paint drawer. It's almost impossible to mix a good purple, and I hardly ever use purple. I was surprised I had it.

Kiddos

Finishing up the first couple of kiddos and bringing them into better focus.

Happy Kiddos

I have another commission today for some happy kiddos. Here you can see how I sketch out the picture onto the canvas, and lay in some paint to begin.
I am a painter with over twenty years of experience.
If you want a portrait my rates are as follows:
For a straightforward portrait-
9" x 12".....$100.00
11" x 14"....$200.00
16" x 20"....$300.00
18" x 24"....$400.00
22" x 28"....$500.00
24" x 36"....$600.00
If you want fantasy elements and embellishments, add $50.00 to the base prices above.
Contact me about commissions at julie_schuler@comcast.net

Best Dressed Girls

This painting is done-ish. I'm going to pick up the shrubbery and grass a little bit to the left of the girl in red. And I'll give the whole thing a once over to see if anything else can be improved, but I'm pretty happy with it. I love the bright red next to the bright blue. They are like happy birds!

Best Dressed Girls

More progress on Best Dressed Girls. I wonder what happened to those hats?

Best Dressed Girls

A work of Best Dressed Girls in progress. The bright blue and bright red in this painting make me so happy!
I have been working on paintings on paper, and find that they are just as nice as paintings on canvas, and often easier to frame. I am going to work up a price list and offer portraits on paper along with the traditional portraits on canvas. I hope that this will encourage more people to come forward with their great vintage photos and let me see them! I would come straight to your houses and rifle under your beds and through your closets if I could, but I can't. I must coax you to let me see them!

Best Dressed Girls

More progress on Best Dressed Girls. I've grown very keen on a certain era of vintage photo. Many people prefer the Victorian vintage photo with somber people in fancy clothes, but I'm enamored of the 1940s through 1970s snapshots. I like to see groups of people, relaxed, happy. I've found that since these photos aren't in as high demand, I can pick them up at bargain prices. I bought a few already and I'm looking forward to making paintings from them.

Portrait of Tina

I was really really happy with the way this little painting turned out. I think the contrast between the lights and darks are perfect. I think the loose brushwork of the grassy areas and the hints of dark tree branches are a good complement to the tighter brushwork in the portrait. You can get a better look at it here at My Good Babushka.

Portrait of Tina

I have a little black and white vintage photo circa 1965 of a baby in a dress standing at the side of a house. I'm going to colorize and stylize it a little bit and see what happens.

Raggedy Ann and Andy

There is a lot to contrast when you compare today's painting to yesterday's painting. This one is looser and brighter. It has a shimmery effect in some places, but overall, I don't like it. Maybe because it's too symmetrical. If something is so symmetrical that it lacks dynamism and tension, then you paint it all in uniformly bright colors, you pass up the only way to make contrast and interest. I think maybe this symmetrical composition would have been better with more shadow and a definite light source. Live and learn. They can't all be blue ribbon winners, people.

Girls on a Pony

A picture of my sisters on a carousel prop horse, posing for photos about a decade before my picture on a similar carousel horse. As Seen Here. This brushwork is a little tighter and the colors are more subdued, but I really consider this one a very successful little piece. See the finished piece here.

Dancers

Here is a little painting, acrylic on paper 5" x 7" of two girls dancing. I am the girl on the right, and this was my sixth birthday. The photograph was very dark, but I reinvented the the colors to keep the scene sort of light and airy. I let a lot of brush strokes be, and rubbed through in some areas to let a pinky-beige background show through. I like the loose brushwork that grows more tightly knit together around the focal points of the two faces. It's something that I'm still experimenting with and working on.