Live Family Sketching

This week I had a fun evening of live fashion sketching!  I went to a local house and joined a family in a birthday party get together.  I have never done live fashion sketching for a family like this before and it was a really fun experience!  At the end of the 4 hours I felt like I was part of the crew, they were so inviting and so fun!  They came over to me and posed for me as I needed them.  I even used a photo to add a family member into the painting who wasn't able to attend the party.

That night I painted 18 people total from the family!  This is a great way to capture a group of people in a loose and fun way instead of the typical photograph.  Doing quick sketches really pushes me out of my comfort zone and forces me to try and capture the essence of the person instead of every detail. 

If you are interested in having this done at your next party or event, please email me at taratories@gmail.com to start the conversation!

All framed up outside of the room I painted! 

"The Polar Plunge"

I have always loved polar bears.  I could watch them swim in the water all day!  I decided that this would be the perfect animal to paint next!  First, I sketched out my composition. I wanted the polar bear to be as close to life size as possible.  During my research, I found that polar bears are about 4 feet standing on all four legs.  I was able to make him close to life size being around 3 feet tall.  He felt HUGE when I drew him up on the canvas and I loved the grand presence of him.  For some reason, I always want everything I paint to be as life size as possible, whether it be people, etc. and, in this case, animals.  It is so much easier to capture all of the detail in my subjects when they are larger, and then I almost feel like they are in the room with me and a part of my space.  

I began my mixed media painting with my first layer of colored pencils which is a great way to map out all the lights, darks, and variations of color before I lay down the paint.  My mixed media technique is unique in that I layer pencils, then paint, then pencils, etc. onto my canvas.  It really creates a beautiful depth and atmosphere to my paintings that I wouldn't be able to achieve in the same way with using paint or pencils alone.  Drawing has always been my first love and years ago I found this mixed media technique that has suited me perfectly. It was magic the first time I ever tried it and I have been obsessed ever since!

I was a little nervous about painting a white animal because sometimes it can be tricking creating the variations of tones in white, but it really helped starting off with a tan base so that it wasn't so intimidating and helped create immediate contrast between the white I was laying down on my canvas.  One of my favorite things about doing art is studying a subject through painting it.  I never would have realized that there were so many different colors in a polar bear's fur, or that lines form where clumps of hair separate (i.e. hand and head).

The next animal was a bearded seal.  I had no idea there was such a thing as a bearded seal until I started to research animals to paint.  But once I found this kind of seal I was set on painting him!  I love all the long whiskers they have and they were just so cute! He is missing half of his face here but this is the work in process...

I developed the seal more and submerged him in some painted water...

I wanted this painting to have a nautical feel to it so blue and white stripes seemed like the perfect pattern to incorporate.  It took me some time to figure out the best place to incorporate the stripes. In my sketchbook I made a few pages of thumbnail sketches playing around with placement and colors etc. until I arrived at this... 

Florals and stripes are a classic pairing and the flowers were a great way to add some color into this painting since my animals were very neutral.  I used the flowers as a repeating pattern in the background and used my paint without much water to create a soft texture to the flowers.  This is a dry brush technique that I don't think I have used on my canvas paintings before and I really like the way it turned out.  It gave the flowers a kind of velvety look.  Painting the fur has been a wonderful way to show me that I can create a variety of textures with my medium and makes me want to explore other textures.

The final step was to paint a blue background around the flowers and really help make the bear pop.  It sure did!  After I laid on the blue, the white of the polar bear was a striking contrast and I couldn't be happier with the result.  I added a gold edging to the circle and gold dots for some embellishments in the background which is the cherry on the top for me!

The finished painting is 30X36 inches and is available for purchase.  Email me at taratories@gmail.com for any inquiries at all about this painting. It will be on display locally to the Akron area next month. More details to come on that so stay tuned!  If you don't want to miss a beat, send me your email so that I can get you on my email list. I don't usually send more than one email a month but it is a great way to stay in the loop about local shows, art sales, etc.

Shining out of the darkness

Recently, I had someone reach out to me about doing a commissioned painting that she would give to her older sister for her birthday.  She shared some photos with me from her childhood and she wanted to capture this moment in time from when they were children. She had fond memories of her older sister draping both of them in fabrics to play "dress up."  This photo was the only remnant that she had from that memory.  She also gave me some clearer photos to work from to capture their likeness so I combined the photos to make the finished product.

In the radial design around the older sister I used her name, "Charlotte" to form the design.  I have done this before with my art students but have never done it in my own work before.  Her name is flipped and mirrored in every other section.  Look directly under the peacock, start at the gold "C" and read the name all the way to across to the purple "E."  It was fun to make the name into a hidden element in the painting and it was really fun to watch my client and her sister try to find it!

"Shining Out of the Darkness", 20X20

When I drew out the design, the tails of the "E" letters linked up together to form a star! I couldn't believe it!  I used the negative space around the letters to paint the gold to reveal the star.  I love that it was around Charlotte's face since she was supposed to be the star of this painting!  Capturing the light on these sisters was really fun and I am inspired to paint some more portraits with unique lighting. To accentuate the sun's light, I used shaded letters on their dresses, heads, and bodies.  If you have a memory that you would like to capture in a unique painting designed custom for you, email me at taratories@gmail.com and we can start the conversation...  

Fashion Illustration: A Relic Revisited

Recently I had a friend suggest the idea of fashion illustration to me.  When I was a little girl I used to copy pictures of fashion models out of magazines and make my own books out of them.  I kept a lot of my old art work from when I was young and I found this little book of my fashion drawings which makes me laugh so hard!  I don't know what is funnier, the weird title I gave my book, the 80's clothing the women are wearing, or the quirky face (top left)!  I literally hadn't thought about the idea of fashion illustration since I was probably 10 years old until now!  The thought of combining two of my loves, fashion and drawing, got me excited.  

I quickly set out to try my hand at it as an adult and bought some fresh new art supplies to really get me jazzed up.  I just LOVE brand new art supplies, there is nothing better!!  I thought a lot about how I wanted my illustrations to look before I started.  Then I looked for an inspirational photo to work from and found a beautiful Marchesa gown that I wanted to draw.  I loved all that was going on in the dress and the styling of the model.

I first did a pencil drawing of the model, scanned it, and then I printed it out several times and experimented with how I was going to do the background before I committed to anything on my good paper.  Unlike working digitally on photoshop, if you mess up, you might just ruin your entire piece so its always a good idea to do some trial runs first.  

This is where I landed.  Since her dress was so detailed with so much going on in it, I went with a more simple background.  I can't escape gold these days (or birds, for that matter), and I also find the circular shape surrounding a subject so comforting so these things were once again incorporated in the background. I used guache, acrylic, and pen and ink to complete the design and frame her face. 

I had SO much fun doing this illustration and I will continue to explore fashion illustration and see where it takes me.  I think its good to sometimes revisit an old idea in a new decade, you may find that you've dug up an old treasure thats been buried with years and time, but once its dusted off, it feels new and wonderful!!

More Than Meets the Eye

Recently I did an art lesson with my art class based on the book, "Over and Under the Snow" by Kate Messner, illustrated by Christopher Silas Neal.  The book takes readers on a trip through the woods in winter discovering the secret world of animals living under the snow.  

I decided that collage would be a good medium of choice for this project.  They were allowed to use a mix of construction papers and pieces from magazines.  I instructed them to start from the top and work their way down, that way they could overlap their pieces without covering anything important.  The goal was to have 3 layers including the background (sky), middle ground (landscape), and underground! I love the affect of the different white pieces from magazines that were used to create the snow.  There is so much more shading and texture that comes from using magazine pieces compared to just using white paper.  

I taught them how to draw a variety of animals that they could draw and put into their scenes.  I showed them step by step how to draw an owl, squirrel, bear, mouse, and a fox.  I love the variety of scenes that they came up with!  As I thought about these underground winter habitats, I thought about how sometimes we are fooled by other surfaces we encounter.  Just like these animals that are hidden from the naked eye, in the same way we are fooled by what we see on the surface of people in the world around us.  Sometimes it takes getting to know people on a deeper level to find out what is really going on inside.  I am guilty of making judgements of people based on my first impressions, but I want to work hard to always give people a chance to show who they really are.

I also have a friend a fellow artist here in Akron named Deborah Shapiro http://deborahshapiroart.com/ who creates works of art from torn pages of magazines.  I shared this video of hers to my students to give them some inspiration for their collages...