Every Easter Sunday we go to my Mom and Dad's house and have a big egg hunt with me and my sister and our families. It is so much fun, my favorite part of the new year, and it never really feels like spring until we get to do that. 

My mom has lilac bushes surrounding her yard that are blooming, and there's always tulips, daffodils, and hyacinths in every color imaginable all over. The cherry tree is full of fluffy white blossoms and there's always the sound of laughter and shrieking as the kids chase after butterflies, or the kids get chased by my husband. :) It sounds idyllic I know, but well, it kind of is. Just a perfect family day. My favorite kind of day. 

I started this painting last spring, but somehow lost interest in it after a while. Then the other day when I was looking for painting boards I found it again and decided to finish it. I had a lot of fun with that background and didn't want to cover it up too much (which I sometimes do then regret it later) so I just suggested the fence and grass here and there.

Lately I am fascinated with the back view of a person. I like the mystery and the unknown of what they're doing and thinking. And I am in love with back lighting. My favorite kind of lighting I think. 

I wanted there to be that unknown quality with this painting, so I made the forest background more suggested than detailed (also because I don't like painting detailed backgrounds :). There was a point when I was working on this painting where I felt like I was never, ever, ever going to be finished painting that dress. It took many, many layers.

So even though midway through I felt like pulling my hair out, in the end once it was done I felt more like doing this:

Because it turned out exactly like I pictured it in my head.  Which pretty much never happens. So I'd call that a success right? ;)

Until tomorrow friends! Huzzah!!

Reference photo by Jessica of Faestock on DeviantART, thank you! 

This is a beautiful little girl that lives in my neighborhood. Last fall I started asking some fellow moms I knew to see if there were any willing models nearby. And I had a pretty big response which made me SO happy! Then the holidays came and well, I am just now getting around to working on the photos I took of this darling little girl.

When I ask someone to model for me I give them the option of either me paying them for their time, or giving them a sketch. Her mother chose the sketch. I want my models to know how much I appreciate their time, so I always try to compensate them in some way.

Except for my children and my nieces and nephew who are exempt from this rule. They work for free, and occasionally cupcakes! :)))) Mwa ha ha!!!

With this sketch I wanted the emphasis to clearly be on her eyes, so that's where I kept my darkest values and the most detail too. I am really happy with how it turned out. But let's face it, having such a beautiful model makes my job pretty easy right? Happy weekend everyone!

So. I felt like it was about time I did a bigger painting. There is just nothing like big splashy watercolor backgrounds. So much fun. The background and her hair are finished, just the rest of her figure needs work. When I started this painting I masked off the entire figure (after I had painted her hair) with a combination of frisket film (for the majority of her figure) and masking fluid to seal the edges. It looked like this: 

It ended up working really well. There's just that one spot on her arm that leaked, but that's a dark area anyway so it won't matter. Which is a good thing because I used a ton of pthalo blue in the background, which if you're an artist you know NEVER COMES OUT OF ANYTHING. I've ruined quite a few shirts by splashing pthalo around indiscriminately. 

I had originally planned to pour the background on this painting. But after giving that a try on another painting that I did for a fundraiser with my son's class, I decided not to. I really don't care for pouring. I think it gives the most beautiful and luminous results, but I don't have the patience for it. Maybe one day I'll give it a try again. 

Speaking of my son's class fundraiser I just remembered I never showed you guys the finished painting! Here it is, they did a really great job I think. :) 

The finished painting! I had three of the girls write the quote with a wax resist crayon and then each kid got to pour several cups of paint onto the painting. There were about 65-70 kids and each one of them got a chance to build up this painting. It was really cool. The stars are colored pencil drawn on once the painting dried. But the letters are entirely wax resist. It worked out pretty awesome I think. Considering all the paint that got poured onto it.

Until tomorrow friends! 

Listening to: The Dead Weather

Reading: old art magazines

Watching: my crazy dog hiding in the curtains

Snacking on: Cadbury mini eggs

She is such a good hider. :)

I hope you'll excuse this post that is all about the feelings of my heart right now. 

 

Lately I have been overwhelmed with melancholy when I think of all my kids growing up. I know I shouldn't. That's my job as a parent right? To prepare them to leave home and live happy, successful lives as good men. Of course I love them no matter what stage of life they are in. But there's something so very precious about these early years when our bond is so strong and we are each others whole world. 

All I can do is love the moment, the season, that we're in and try to remember every single detail. And not mourn it's passing when little hands grow big. :)