Portrait Of A Little Boy, Part 4

Stage 4: Ears and hair. Adding light to his hair was the reward at the end of my day.

Portrait Of A Little Boy, Part 3

Stage 3: The mouth, face and neck.  

Portrait Of A Little Boy, Part 2

Stage 3: The nose and face. Even though neither the nose or face is complete, it felt good to get some colors mixed and begin figuring out how I want to apply them.

Portrait Of A Little Boy

Portrait Of  A Little Boy

Stage 1: Using a reference photo I free handed his image with a loose wash of Transparent Earth Red thinned with mineral spirits. My goal was to be as accurate as possible.

Stage 2: The Eyes. He has his back to the sun so his face is in the shade which makes his blue eyes look a bit darker.

Detail of the eyes.

Visiting Northern England: Rainy Day

Have you ever been caught off guard when you unexpectedly come across something so beautiful that you just have to stop and stare in awe? And suddenly it stirs inside of you an awareness of how special that moment is. A moment in time that you are blessed to be a part of. This driveway near Bassenthwaite Lake near Keswick in the Lake District was my pleasant surprise that day. A simple, rain soaked driveway lined with the happiest arrangement of hydrangea bushes I have ever seen.

Splendour
24 x 30", Oil on canvas
Rita Salazar Dickerson

Stage 1: Loosely painting in the shapes, freehand.

Stage 2: Under painting of the sky and trees.

Stage 3: Painting the trees, wet on wet.

Stage 4: Laying the under painting down once again for this middle portion.

Stage 5: While the under painting was still wet, I added in the greenery and fence post.

Stage 6: My favorite, the flowers! I applied these over the wet paint with a small palette knife.

Stage 7: The under painting for the driveway.

Final painting with the color study. It was fun, once again, to do a small color study first and then go from there. I will look at this painting in another week or so and make the final adjustments then.

Visiting Northern England: Portrait Of A Swan

White Swan
20 x 20", Oil on canvas
Rita Salazar Dickerson

There are so many aspects to England that pulled me in and inspired my thought process. The obvious attraction was its overall beauty and charm. Sometimes I felt like I had entered in to the pages of a children's fairy tale. All of the needed ingredients were there: stone cottages nestled in little villages where the butcher still cuts fresh local meat for you, chickens wandering in yards while picturesque sheep dot the rolling green hillsides, and then there was the wildlife. Take this swan for example. The light on her feathers and the reflection in the purple waters made painting her seem like a party.

Below you can follow the steps that I took to render this painting.  

Stage 1: Painting in the shape of the swan, freehand, with a thin wash of  Burnt Sienna.

Stage 2: Painting in the first layer (under painting) of the water.

Stage 3: With a brush and palette knife I applied paint over the wet under painting.

Stage 3: For the neck, I once again painted in the under painting with broad, flat strokes - paying attention to the colors and values.

Stage 4: Once I had the shape of the head in place, it was fun to add texture and more color with thick strokes of paint - transitioning from light to shadow.

Stage 5: I painted the body and its reflection with the same approach as I did with the neck - with a flat under painting and then lots of creamy thick paint on top.

I did a small 6 x 6" first which I always enjoy. Color studies are a nice way of figuring out the general plan in a small scale before I start squeezing out large quantities of paint onto my palette for the large one. Its like a little map that I have created for myself to follow.

Now I will let this painting rest and come back to it later with fresh eyes and make changes if I need to.

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.