Grandparents Wedding

Well, for what it is, here it is.  The people don't look quite like they are supposed to, but I think I did a lot of things right on this .  You can tell where the suit coats come together, it isn't just one big blob of color.  You can just imaging grandpa standing there in his dress whites.  I'm glad i left some highlight in his hair.

The hair was a real problem for me.   I tried to leave a little highlight and allow you to see the hair texture.  Shading on the faces was really hard.  I knew it would be going into this, but wanted to try anyway.

Well, I'm chalking this one up to experience.  Its a piece I really wanted to do, and I still like it, but I think I fell a bit short of my expectations.  I'll have to use that as motivation to do better on my next one.

Enjoy

A hint of things to come

The purpose of this post is two fold.  First so you can see what is coming up from Dabfly Arts, and second so you can see what the process of painting looks like.


So I have this fantastic photo of my grandparents on their wedding day.  The picture was taken 70 years ago.  I projected the picture onto watercolor paper and traced out basic shapes.

From there, as you can see, its all about adding layers of paint onto the paper.  The first layer is just a basic layer, just trying to get colors all in the right vicinity.  This picture has two layers of paint on it.  You can see that I have put on some extra paint to try to begin defining shapes a bit more.

 IN this picture I have darkened things a bit more and really begun to give shape to the clothing.


















Here I gave Emma-Jean, the woman on the far right a brightly colored suit.  And Bob, the gentleman on the far left a distinctive collar.  The next step will be to finisht Bob's suit, then hair, hats and deepening the skin tones.  Oh, and shoes.  I saved Grandpa for the last because his Navy dress Whites are so white that they are only gonna get some shadowing on them.

I am really hoping this is gonna turn out well.  I think it is, but the proof will be when I start painting the faces.  Faces will make or break this painting.



Hope you have enjoyed this little sneak peek into how I paint.