Painting of a Little Girl: Julia and Julia

How fun it would be to visit a butterfly pavilion and discover that there is a butterfly there with your same name. And so my portrait title comes from the two lovely Julia's in this painting.

Julia and Julia
12 x 9", Oil on canvas
Rita Salazar Dickerson (c) 2014

Stage 1: The drawing. With a mixture of ultramarine blue and transparent earth red thinned with mineral spirits, I used a number 2 filbert brush to draw Julia and the butterfly freehand.

Stage 2: Julia's face. Painting alla prima(Italian, meaning at first attempt), I completed the face and hair while adding some color to the background so that I could create soft edges and compare color. I did block in her face with a thin layer of paint before I came back in with a thicker second layer. (Sorry, I forgot to photograph the first layer.)

Stage 3: Painting the dress, arm and hands. When painting wet paint-on-wet paint, I look forward to seeing how the top layer of paint will work into the blocked in color of the first layer.

Stage 4: Painting the second layer of the dress, arm and hands. I mixed a pale pink to give the  impression of the white design on her dress fabric.  I like what the fabric pattern does to the painting -- adding interest, detail and color.

Stage 5: Completing the painting. This unique background created an interesting challenge for me: to give enough information to help tell the story of this butterfly, Julia, and its surroundings with Julia the little girl -- but not make it too cluttered with unnecessary detail. Because I have a tendency to paint every last leaf in a painting like this, I combat this issue of mine with a palette knife. After I applied the paint with the palette knife I then came back in with a soft brush to create the illusion of plants intermingling with the butterfly and red flowers.

Portrait of a Little Girl:"Mariposa" Completed

I enjoy creating paintings for different reasons. To tell a story and entertain is always my first goal. This composition, with subject matter so unique in comparison to my traditional portraits, was a wandering of sorts off the beaten path.

Mariposa
9 x 12", Oil on canvas
Rita Salazar Dickerson (c)2014

Stage 3: Painting the hand and arm. 

Stage 4: Painting the  hair, blue t-shirt and background... Working on all three during the same painting session made painting their soft edges much easier.

Stage 5: Completing the painting...the butterfly and foreground. I painted the textured foreground first, saving the butterfly as my reward for getting everything else done. I was excited about this beautiful butterfly (mariposa) from the very beginning. It added contrast, pretty lines and design. And now, with this painting completed, I will let it rest before I make any adjustments. Its always good to let a piece of work sit for a while if you can. I will see it with fresh eyes in a week or so.

Portrait Of A Little Girl: Mariposa

In a quiet moment I see large blue eyes intently studying a butterfly. My granddaughter, Sofia, is at rest and watchful. Lost in a period of time, captured by wonder and design. For me is was delightful. Soothing. Inspiring. A painting waiting to happen.

Stage 1: The composition. Drawing freehand with a paint brush I try to portray this image with as much accuracy as possible. Working from a photograph means I have to adjust the proportions that the lens over compensates for. The hand had to be drawn much smaller. It was fortunate that I was able to have Sofia pose for me so that I could sketch her from life and make accurate changes.

Stage 2: Painting the face. Working wet paint onto wet paint my goal was to work efficiently, making every stroke count. Already though, I see changes I want to make. 

I think I'll work on her hair next and then her arm and hand.

Little Girl Portrait: Adele Maria

When I was a little girl, I drew people. As I grew older, in elementary school and then later in junior high and  high school, all I ever wanted to do was draw or paint people. Even though I have since expanded my subject matter, when I have the opportunity to draw or paint a person or group of people, I feel like I have gone back to my first passion. Portraiture.

Adele Maria
20x16, Oil on canvas
Rita Salazar Dickerson (c)2014

Stage 1: The composition. Drawing a subject free hand, with paint, is a good exercise for the eyes. The more one does it, the more confident and accurate one gets. I lightly painted in the lines of Adele for this painting using my usual thin wash of burnt umber and mineral spirits. Making adjustments and erasing unwanted lines is easy with a clean cotton cloth. 

Stage 2: Blocking in the colors of the face. With a #8, filbert brush, I began placing all the major color shapes on her face. At this point I did  not worry about blending yet.

Stage 3: Completing the face. Once I have all the main colors down, I blend and add more color as needed. At this point, I also painted in the front part of her hair so that working with the edges where the hair meets her face would be easier.

Stage 4: Completing her hair and headband.

Stage 5: Painting the background. With this very simple composition I thought it would be fun to add a little interest to the background by using large, dramatic strokes of thick paint.

Stage 6: Blocking in the coat. When blocking in the shape of this coat, I focused on the lights and darks.

Stage 7: Completing the painting. Painting this coat was fun and challenging. While using ample paint, I tried to communicate its thick, soft texture while keeping it simple at the same time. There was a lot of reflected color in this white coat: yellow, blue, purple, pink, green and gray along with various shades of white.

Portrait Of A Little Girl: Adele

Adele was a delight to paint. She was born in the winter and so I thought it would be fun to place her in a winter setting. We took her outside and captured the afternoon light which was gentle on this January day. There was contrast everywhere with this little subject: Adele's smooth, dark hair next to her white, furry coat...her large dark eyes against her light, peach colored skin.

Adele
16 x 20", Oil on canvas
Rita Salazar Dickerson (c) 2014

Stage 1: Sketching in the composition freehand with a thin wash of paint. In a portrait, my greatest challenge every time is to capture the subject's likeness at this stage instead of later when I'm painting. It's all about problem solving. Though it's hard for me to do, I try to force myself to slow down, take my time and draw my lines as accurately as possible. It's also a great exercise in training my eyes to draw what I see instead of what I think I see.

 Stage 2: Blocking in the shapes with a thin underpainting. Similar to what I would do if I were painting from life instead of a photograph, I brush in a thin layer of paint across her features to get a feel for her likeness. I study everything and make adjustments if neccessary. And then, while this thin layer of underpainting is still wet, I mix my paints and begin blocking in her eyes. From her eyes I apply the skin color. 

Stage 3: Painting her face.

Stage 4: Painting her hair and blocking in her headband.

Stage 5: Completing the headband and applying the underpainting of her hands. I liked her headband; it added to the composition but at the same time I didn't want it so detailed that it took the attention away from her eyes.

Stage 6: Completing her hands. I really enjoyed including her hands in the composition, they were so cute and chubby. Plus, they encourage the viewer's eyes to move around the painting, from one hand to the other and then back to her face. I also liked that her uplifted hands were individually framed in white by the coat's sleeves. I painted this small portion of coat sleeves next to her hands while the paint was still wet so that I could soften the edges of both her hands and the sleeves and not have to struggle with dry edges later.

Stage 7: Painting her coat. I blocked in the major shapes and values. It was great dressing Adele in this white coat. The contrast of color as well as texture between the coat and her hair was just what I was looking for.

Stage 8: Completing the painting. The challenge I found with this coat was to paint just enough information (brush strokes and color) to make it look like the faux fur that it was without it looking too busy or detailed. 
Every composition presents its own challenges and in this painting I decided to keep the background simple so that it doesn't take the viewer's attention away from Adele.

Portrait Of A Little Girl: "Clio" Stage 5

Clio

16 x 20", oil on canvas

Rita Salazar Dickerson 2013

Stage 5: The arms, hands, background...completing the painting. I began this stage by painting in Clio's arms and hands and did not get very far before I realized I had to paint in the background (as well as the white plastic covers of the chains on her swing)so that I could have a better idea of colors and values. The green background started out very light green; the minute I finished it I realized it had to go darker and warmer. There are more colors in the background than it looks like at first glance. Yellows, pinks, blues along with the various shades of green...at times I wondered if I would ever be happy with it. After the background it was time to revisit each section of the painting. Painting wet on wet, the edges of her hair had to be reworked into the background as well as the edges of her skin and dress. Small but important adjustments were made throughout the painting. Now, its time to let it rest and hopefully see it with fresh eyes in a week or two.

This painting reminds me of one of my favorite children's poems, The Swing, by Robert Louis Stevenson. Do you know it?

Portrait Of A Little Girl: "Clio" Stage 4

I like traditions. A tradition I started with my art, is to paint a portrait of each grandchild when she (or he) turns two. It is my gift and hopefully it will be something for them to enjoy, even at the age of two.

It's fun when I have the opportunity to add something within the subject matter of the painting that holds significance or special meaning for the child. In this case it is the dress. This hand crocheted dress was created by Clio's great grandmother, Donna Dickerson. Donna is an artist with her crocheting needles.

Portrait Of A Little Girl: "Clio" Stage 3

Stage 3: Painting the ears and hair. Since I still had enough paint for her skin color on my palette, I did not have to be concerned about matching the ears to her face. (I keep my glass palette in the freezer in between sessions which keeps the paint  from drying out.) For the background I mixed a light, creamy green which I will possibly change as the painting continues. Looking at this on the computer screen I already see things that need to be adjusted. Its always so hard to stop.

Portrait Of A Little Girl: Clio, Stage 2

I had a full day yesterday. I wondered how I was going to fit painting into my schedule. I promised myself two hours at the easel. At last, when evening came, I began with a prelude of cleaning my palette and mixing new colors. After scraping and cleaning the glass surface I then brought out my paints. My goal was to paint Clio's eyes. Surely that would satisfy me. Well, it didn't. Before I knew it the adrenaline started flowing and two hours drifted into five. It was sublime.

Stage 2: Painting Clio's face. For her dark complexion I mixed Transparent Earth Red with Alizarin Crimson and then lightened it with Titanium White. I also mixed in Cadmium Red Medium to give her pink cheeks. The light blue reflected color is Cobalt Blue and Titanium White. 

Portrait Of A Little Girl: "Clio", Stage 1

 Stage 1: Drawing in the figure with paint. The most important thing at this stage is having a great reference photo to work with. I photographed little Miss Clio in her back yard on her swing and was happy about the color, lighting and composition. Sometimes I get so excited to paint that I rush through this stage, anxious to move on and add color. This time I intentionally relaxed and enjoyed the process of mixing a thin wash of Transparent Earth Red and mineral spirits and then loosely drawing in her image (using a soft cloth to rub out the lines that I didn't want). It was fun and for some reason I was reminded of the countless hours I spent drawing people freehand as a high school student - one of my favorite pastimes.

Portrait Of A Little Girl: Valley Gardens, Harrogate

Garden  Pose
18 x 24", Oil on canvas

Rita Salazar Dickerson

Session 7: Completing the portrait. Painting in the rest of the background as well as the foreground was a good opportunity to work with my palette knives as well as my favorite putty knife. After that was done I spent the last day touching up places here and there that needed work. Now it is time to let it rest and move on. I look forward to adding this to my "Visiting England" series. After painting so many landscapes and sheep it was refreshing to get back to a portrait.

Portrait Of A Little Girl: Valley Gardens, Harrogate

Session 6: Painting the dress, socks and shoes. There were several reasons why I was inspired to create this painting, one of them being this full length dress. The layers of color and detail were not only challenging but fun. In a  way it was kind of like frosting a cake. After doing a thin undercoat, I went back in to the fresh paint with two and sometimes three sizes of palette knives, applying and spreading the thick paint in festive colors. The flowers were especially enjoyable!

Portrait Of A Little Girl: Valley Gardens, Harrogate

Session 5: Painting the background. After brushing in the shapes and dark values of the background I went back in with a palette knife and added thicker paint. There is still more to do but at this point I am going to move on to her dress and let it rest for a while. Even as I write this and look at the photo I see things I want to fix and change. I think I will soften some of the edges on the leaves and simplify the branches a bit more.

Portrait Of A Little Girl: In Valley Gardens, Harrogate

Stage 4: Painting the arms and hands. Since I did not do a small color study first, I am curious to see how her skins tones will look once I paint in the background. In session 5, I will concentrate on her hair and headband.

Little Girl Portrait II: Gracie And The Balloon

Gracie
oil on canvas, 11x14
1st Session

One of the nicest compliments I can receive from a client is when they ask for a second portrait of the same subject. I really enjoyed painting Grace the first time and now, I have the pleasure of capturing her on canvas again. This second piece will be a smaller size, 11x14, and is from the same set of reference photos I took for her fist portrait. Now that I have the rough sketch taken care of I am excited to begin. Besides the balloon, there are some other fun surprises that I get to add to this composition.
This will be a Christmas gift and so I had better get busy!

Portrait Of A Little Girl: Elena Running/ The Completed Portrait

Elena Running
oil on canvas, 16x20
8th Session

As I have mentioned in earlier posts, one of my favorite elements in a commissioned painting is adding personal information that has significance to the subject or subjects that I am focusing on. In this case, the English garden in the background marks a time in Elena's life where she has had the opportunity to spend part of her life there. The roses also hold special meaning because of her middle name, Rose.  Art that tells a story; this is so much fun!

Portrait Of A Little Girl: Elena Running/ The Background

Elena Running
oil on canvas, 16x20
7th Session

The background in a painting can play an important part in the completion of a portrait by setting the mood and  complimenting the main character. One of the opportunities I like to take advantage of when possible, is to make the background a meaningful part of the visual story. The public garden in which Elena is running through marks a significant time in her life. 

Portrait Of A LIttle Girl: Elena Running 6th Session

Elena Running
oil on canvas, 16x20
6th session

Portrait Of A Little Girl: Elena Running/ 5th Session

Elena Running
oil on canvas, 16x20
5th Session

Portrait Of A Little Girl: Elena Running/ 4th Session

Elena Running
oil on canvas, 16x20
4th Session

I must admit that I was very excited to paint in Elena's striped headband with the pink satin roses. I love details and color!

My next challenge, her arms and hands.