Paintings of a Friend

A friend of mine married this weekend and as a gift I painted some pictures for her. I wasn't too sure how I felt about them but they did turn out OK. And she liked them too! That's quite a compliment since she's an accomplished artist herself. (Another friend made this beautiful, scrumptious cake. Art comes in all forms, I think.)














There were some challenges in making these pictures. When I went to take a photo of her (she didn't know why of course) I had forgotten my camera so I used my phone. I had only tiny pictures to look at, I may have been able to move them to my computer but I didn't have time to mess with it.














I tried to start on Monday and the wedding was on Saturday. I was not able to work on the paintings all of Tuesday, Wednesday, Thursday or half of Friday because of forgotten errands, pop-ins, a school function, a Drs appointment and more pop-ins. That turned my 5 1/2 days to work into 2, minus all the school and kids and nursing and nagging-that gave me about 3 hours to draw and paint 3 pictures and create a keepable wedding card to boot. (which I forgot to photograph)










My friend is quite a ham, so in all the pictures I had of her she was making faces. That's OK, it fits her perfectly.

I only have minimal, inexpensive equipment, which I am determined to make work for me. I believe great art can be made with modest tools, its not the fancy materials that makes it art.












This is the first time I've watercolored/painted skin. I have colored people with chalk and pencil but usually when I paint its nature not people. The paintings turned out pretty good despite my inexperience.















I've never really considered myself good at sketching, especially people, but I was happy to find that my pictures do basically look like my friend.

















I tried something different with the color this time as I only have an eight pack of watercolors. I was wanting to find just the right mix of colors for my friends rich skin tone so I took my chalks and used them with the watercolors. I tried wetting the brush and touching the chalk but in most cases it was way too light. I also have a blender pen to give the chalk a watercolor look but I didn't want to pen such a large surface. So instead I used a file to grate the chalk, even combining the colors of chalk and the watercolor paint to get the right shade.











I used watercolor brushes(cheap) for some application but I also used a wetted Qtip dipped in the wet color. I really liked how the Qtip gave some of the softest lines. (I didn't think to use it until half way through the second picture) And I was able to blend the colors so much easier than with a brush.







I seem to do most of my best work as gifts for other people. Maybe art as a token of love is the best art a person can make. That's why it's important to only make what you love yourself.

Meliss