To get you caught up....

Merry Christmas, and Happy New Year! To bring you up to speed, below are several Christmas commissions. I'll walk you through them.

A friend commissioned this as a gift for his wife- it is a tree that is very special to her family. 16x20 acrylic on stretched canvas.  First the photographs: 

The painting in progress:

 and completed: 

Closer view:

The next painting was a commission from a friend for a family member. I loved the photograph with the trees in the background. This is 11x14 acrylic on stretched canvas.

Next: a friend commissioned a painting of their dog as a gift for her husband. 11x14 acrylic on stretched canvas.  I painted the whole canvas gray/blue, then transferred my drawing to the canvas with tracing paper which helped so much! Sometimes I erase so many times and redraw that by the time I get  around to painting, there is so much smudge and so many lines I forget what is what!

Background in:

Beginning the darkest parts of the coat:

Finishing up the head:

Finished:

Closer view:

This was commissioned by a friend getting married as a wedding gift for her husband in November: 11x14 acrylic on stretched canvas. I love dogs on the beach! First the photo:

Then the painting:

Next is a pair of paintings commissioned by my aunt as a gift for my uncle- love them! One is of second battalion, one is of the chapel. Both are 11x14 acrylic on stretched canvas (the most popular size right now).
I began by painting the background blue before I did the drawings.

I ended up making the blue a little more gray, I guess after I took the photo. I painted these side-by-side, working on them simultaneously, so that the colors would be the same. Unlike oils, acrylics dry in minutes, so I didn't want to remix colors- I want them to read as a pair. The underlying blue is left in spots shining through, which not only unifies the composition of the individual pictures, but ties them together.

Finished pair:

Closer views of each painting:

This next painting was commissioned by a friend as a gift for her boyfriend- of a cabin that is particularly special to his family! Also 11x14 acrylic on stretched canvas, I began with a red base before the drawing:

I got pretty nervous about the red, thought I might have to go back and redo it because it was too bold, but then I fell in love with it as i started layering the colors on top of it! I chose red because I wanted it to feel very warm and inviting!

Sorry this one rotated itself in uploading!

And here is is finished:

Closer view:

A few paintings I was working on at once in the corner of the studio:

This is a 36x48 acrylic on stretched canvas painting, a Christmas gift for my maternal grandparents for their place at the beach! This is the photo I worked from:

This is actually more coral/less red. Nana has pillows this color in her living room, where I knew the painting would hang. I did the drawing on top of the wash. THIS was a stretch, because the photograph is predominantly cool colors. I really wasn't sure it would work.

Background water wash:

blocking in the heron:

Some feather detail:

Adding marsh and mud:

working some corals into the heron:

Finishing the head and working some coral into the background:

A zoomed-in view:

Special thanks to my Dad for holding the painting so I could photograph it outside:

A 36x36 acrylic on stretched canvas painting- more blue herons. These were a Christmas gift for my parents! I didn't document the early progress, but it was very similar to the one above. This is where it was before the finishing touches:

And finished:

Closer view of the herons:

The full painting finished:

Next is a 36x48 acrylic on stretched canvas- a Christmas gift for my paternal grandparents. I began with a brown wash, no drawing.

Blocking in the composition and the shape of the marsh by painting in the sky and most of the water.

the pluff mud:

the base layer of marsh grass:

lightening up and adding some trees in the distance:

darkening the water in the foreground:

I thought I took a better final picture of this last one- next time I go to Dillon I will, and will post!

Thanks for hanging in there with the really long post! I have 2 commissions to get going on in 2013, but hoping at some point to get caught up with them and maybe develop a body of work that isn't 100% commission driven. THAT'S my new years resolution! Thanks for reading!