New Portraits Completed

July has been a very productive month, probably the most productive of the year when it comes to portrait work. Three miniature portraits were completed in the first half of July.

The first two portraits are a pair of ACEO (art trading card) portraits in colored pencil. The subject of these two portraits is a Quarter horse named Gunner. This project began with a single portrait, but Gunner's owner sent so many wonderful reference photographs that two drawings resulted.

Those two drawings resulted in two portraits, which I completed as a pair. Each area was worked simultaneously: Both backgrounds, both underpaintngs, both horses.

Of course, even working both portraits at once, one took the lead and was completed first. The second took a little bit more tweaking to bring to a finish. It was an interesting and fun project.

The third portrait is also a miniature, but is a little bit larger and was completed in oils.

Rujan was a Thoroughbred stallion living in Texas. He lived into his third decade. He made such an impact on his owner that she purchased this posthumous portrait over a decade later.

"Rujan" is a 6 inch by 4 inch oil portrait on canvas panel.

All three of these portraits were created using an adaptation of Johannes Vermeer's technique. With this technique, a full value underpainting is created in a single color, at most two colors. For colored pencil work, the underpainting is completed in Light Umber and Dark Umber. Oil paintings feature an underpainting of violet or brown, depending on the overall color scheme of the final painting. "Rujan" features an underpainting of Dioxazine Purple to complement his chestnut coloring.

This technique provides for a high degree of detail and glowing colors.