Artwork In My Front Porch Windows

I live on Main Street of Small Town USA, just in case anyone was wondering how it is that so many people happen to drive by my house on a regular basis.

At different times I've hung artwork in my front porch windows, and get plenty of nice feedback about it. There are fourteen windows out there, four on each side of the front door and three each on the ends. Plenty of room for artwork!

Just recently I've hung the big drafts of the book cover paintings, to keep them unfolded and out of my way, and because I like seeing them.

A lady stopped by the shop where I was working the other day and told me that she had seen the Characters (of Mamm of Perth) in my front porch! It took me a minute to realize that she hadn't been hallucinating but was referring to the painting hanging there. Made me smile.

As this my artwork blog, perhaps it would be a good place to put the process of getting that painting done.

1.  Right off the bat I used a full sized bed sheet vertically, projected the images I wanted to use for patterns onto it, and sketched them in. I needed more horizontal space and the images weren't exactly what I wanted so I scrapped this one and started over.

2.  Here's the paper mock-up I decided on after a lot of image printing and making many and many 'paper dolls' to play with and rearrange. I also took lots of photos of the faces of my volunteer 'Character Reps'.

3.  This is the yew tree I chose after looking at photos of hundreds of them. I wanted the family to look like they were striding right out from the tree.

4.  Here and below are a trial I did. I wanted to back paint the background for the painting, and needed to know what to expect, whether the back painting would bleed through the images I blocked out on the front, or what. It looked like it might work, so I got to blocking the figures onto the front of the painting. This time I went with marking out a section four by six feet so as to have a painting that would translate well to the four by six inch size called for by the book cover design.

xxx

5.  Blocking in the figures just means painting them as silhouettes on the face of the painting so the back painting wouldn't come through and I'd have the solid color to paint on rather than having to fight with trying to paint one design over the distraction of the one already there. Above is the face of the painting; below is the reverse showing through using a backlight.

xxx

6.  Once the blocking was done I projected the image of the tree onto the face of the painting, checking to see how it might look, getting it to fit ... then I penciled it in.

7.  Above is the Yew sketched in with the figures, front view. Below is the reverse side of the painting with a backlight. I went ahead and used a marker to make the lines stronger. Paint trumps marker.

xxx

8.  Next came blocking out Ullin's form and putting a defined outline in place with paint. Below you can see the result lit from the reverse side of the painting, the side the Yew gets painted onto.

 

xxx

9.  This is the front of the painting. I added just a bit of water to the acrylics I used for the Yew, wanting to be sure it would saturate through to the front of the fabric - which it did beautifully, with the blocking holding its place nicely. Below is Ullin's face surrounded by the Yew foliage. That's a shadow on the painting; he isn't actually part grey. I added touches of foliage here and there on the front side to increase the illusion of him being in or a part of the tree.

xxx

                                                             

10.  And so the painting of the figures begins ... 

                                                    

                                                               

xxx

  

xxx

11.  Once I got a halfway decent photo of the painting I took it into one of the programs I use to fiddle with photos and gave it a solid blue background. If you've got a copy of Mamm of Perth with this solid blue background, it's one of the first ones out of the chute.

Here's the final cover. Changed the background to one of my own photos and added the Circles of Dunnottar.

Portraits From Photos

Most of the below are either rough pencil sketches or experimental ... just so you know ... only the first two shown here, and the last one, are actually anywhere near 'finished'.  

This is my mom, from a photo she gave me of when she was younger.  It's pencil on canvas with acrylic.

This is my daughter Sarah, using a photo that had her with a couple of other people.  Pencil on canvas, which turns out a lot better than other combinations I've tried ... 

This is me, from a photo I took to use as a character in a story.  Pencil on paper.

My daughter Helen, from a photo where her face was about the size of my thumbnail.  Pencil on paper.

This is from another of my mom's old photos that had only head and part of her torso - I added the rest of her and put her on a horse.  Pencil on paper.

This is Steve, my once-husband, from an old photo.  I took his shirt off, made his hair longer, changed the pants, and added the short sword.  Pencil on paper.

Here's my mom again, at least her face which is all that was in the photo - the rest is added for a character in that same story.  Pencil on paper.

Here she is again, the face from an old photo, a younger version of the story character.  Pencil on paper.

My daughter Heather, from a photo of her and other people - again, her face in the photo was about the size of my thumbnail.  Pencil on paper.  I'll take an eraser to it and lighten it up, but wanted all of this first.

My daughters Tess and Heather, from a group photo, but I added the mud and Heather's hair is not blonde.  Pencil on paper, then Prismacolor pencils.

My grand-daughter from a photo I took of her up a tree.  Pencil on paper with Prismacolor again.

Myself, again a sketch for possible use in that story.  Pencil on paper.

Ditto above.

My daughter Sarah from a blurry photo.

Sarah again.

Me again, for the story.

My mom, from a photo.  Pencil on acrylic-coated fabric.

Me again, for that same story.  It's my second try at people-drawing. Pencil on acrylic-coated fabric.

Very first experimental attempt at people-drawing, this is me again, for that story.  For this one I used a pencil sketch, pastels (face), and acrylics on acrylic-coated fabric.

Another of the very first attempts - the character refused to cooperate so his resemblance to my once-husband Steve is minimal.  Pencil on acrylic-coated fabric.

My son-in-law Casey from a photo I took some years ago.  This one is only a light pencil first sketch on acrylic-coated fabric..

My daughter Sarah again.  Pencil on acrylic-coated fabric.

Sarah once more, for use in the story.  It's the above pencil sketch finished with pastels.

I have scads of other sketches done from photos, but they're not of actual 'people' being almost entirely rendered from photos of ancient Greek/Roman statuary and put together in sketches for that story.

Having Fun With My Characters

Yup. 

I freely admit it:  I'm cracking up. 

Caileen and Aine are covered with mud (from throwing it at each other) and laughing like loons. 

Little Merri is up in a tree with her grandmother, and Danann is showing off his muscles. 

Talorc and Mamm are observing everything and getting a little worried (imagine that).

Me, I'm just along for the ride here. 

God only knows what Kalann and Sass might be up to. 

At least I can count on Alianora and Drustann  to be normal.  I hope. 

These are some of the characters who populate the imaginary setting of the book I'm supposed to be working on.

In reality, it's just a hoot for me to get to watch them and listen to them.  

Well no, it's not ALL going to be a hoot, because stuff happens - but for right now, this part is just plain all out fun.

Here are some rough (and I mean VERY ROUGH) initial sketches for some of them from the first scene.  Please don't think that I'm anywhere near done with them because I most definitely am NOT - but here are some of the seed drawings from which (hopefully) real pictures will grow into existence.  If not, well I still have that wood stove.