Cappuccino Please

I have done this lady before, but placed her on the beach, this time she is in the environment she was in originally, a cafe near

by.

I am not totally happy with this one though, however am too tired of it to struggle anymore, onto the next I say!

Joy and Frivolity

I love this poster of Henri de Toulouse Lautrec entitled 'Riene de Joie' so I decided to put it in my painting as the main interest and movement (I think the title means Queen of Joy or similar) ? Could anyone enlighten me?

My actual figure is of a woman in Chicago in Millennium Park. She was watching her kids play in the water.

I loved the reflections of the leaning figure and her stance, and the Lautrec poster just seemed to fit this compostion.

I hope you like this one..

Flower Power

Felt like a day at the beach t0oday, the colors are a lot richer than this shows, (?) not sure why that's happened in my photograph, will perhaps try again in the near future.

These ladies are on a beach called Chinamen's Beach in Sydney, Australia.

Although I was quite a distance away from them so taking this photo for details was hard, even with my great camera and the help of Photoshop. So a lot of the accessories are made up, towels, chair etc.

Eye of the Beholder

This one is hot off the presses. I just finished it.

The man was in Seattle, on a recent trip there. Although he was outside a cafe at the time of this shot, I wanted something bright and BOLD in the background of this picture, and as I love graffiti, just not on my house ..please... the idea came to me for this backdrop.

I had a photo of this 'eye' poster on a wall in Australia, and decided to use it, with my own (not so professional) lettering over the top of it.
These graffiti artists are very talented, just wish they could direct their talents to a more receptive audience.

I used the brick overlay to knock all the background back, and although it is very much a feature, I hope you can decipher the figure in the foreground.

Red, White and Blue

I just finished this one today. The women were all outside the Bob Bullock Museum a few weeks back, and I made a composite of them, all from different photos.

Challenging, but fun to do.

Novel Readers

I had this photo of an artist pal of mine while she was sketching on a painting trip to Ajijic in Mexico, and decided to place her (instead) in a museum with Van Gogh's 'Novel Reader' in the background.

My sketch of this figure was a lot more like my friend, but somehow I lost her likeness in the transition, oh well.
It is what it is.

Hippies

What can I say, it's such a perfect title for the two women in this one. LOL.

I posed for this myself, and got my husband to take the picture.

I decided before I drew this what the title would be, and just had to place a Botero woman in the background, then the title suited the image to a 'T'.

Goddess and the Gods

I needed to address the lefthand background, and decided at the last minute to place another statue in there.
The floor was now addressed also, and the refections. As you will notice all those original strong colors in the floor are now subdues and more natural.

Ladies in Red

Some of you might just recognize the derriere of the figure in front, yep, it's yours truly.
I needed this certain pose, so my husband took a shot of me, and voila, there I am.
It was difficult to do all the figures in shades of red,and still show up against the backdrop.. I tend to make the red dirty sometimes while trying to get changes in tonal values for creases in clothing etc. However this is a start, and for the most part I am happy with it's drama. It could easilly have been called 'Drama Queens' also or 'Generation Gap'.. Tee hee.
This is a pastel on Velour Paper.

Line Up

This is another pastel on Velour Paper, it is not quite tweaked yet, still a few details to fine tune, but just had to put it on my blog to prove I have been working all this time. LOL.
The kids were all lined up at the Bob Bullock Museum here in Austin, and I snapped this photo.

This was a real challenge to draw the figures, but that's what art's all about huh, a challenge?

MUTUAL ADMIRATION

This is another in this series, this time it's all about the hats. I saw this guy in Alaska, in a museum, he was looking at a map on the wall, but I made him looking at art.
As you can tell, I love backviews. This pastel is also on the fabulous velour paper, each one I do seems to get a little easier for me, however I still struggle with the amounts of lights and darks I can raise on this surface, it's a little laborious.
I am also using fixative at times, which immediately gets the colors more intense for me, and unlike the other papers I have used, the pastel maintains this 'glow' after fixing, and does not flatten the colors . NICE..