Johnny's Dog Abby

Do any of you use the services of Schwan's Frozen Food?  Well, we do.  It's a company that comes to your house with a truck full of frozen food and they sell you meats, sides, desserts, etc. right on the spot.  The food tastes good and is very convenient, but is a little expensive because of the service.  We use it for those times we are in a pinch and don't know what to make for dinner.  What winds up happening is that you get to know your Schwan's guy pretty well, since they visit your house every two weeks.  You start to know them and they you.  Our most recent Schwan's guy is John and he loves golden retrievers.  We have a golden retreiver named Buddy and John loves Buddy.  He brings Buddy treats every time he comes to the door.  Recently John let us know that his golden retriever died and he was very sad.  I felt really bad for him.  Then, a few weeks later, he let us know that he and his wife got a new golden retriever puppy!  He has been so happy to have this puppy that he showed me a bunch of pictures of her that he had on his Iphone.   Now every time he shows up, I start the conversation with an inquirey into how Abby is doing and he proceeds to show me new pictures her.  One picture was particularly cute so I asked him to forward it to me.  I decided to paint it for him in oil paints on cardboard in a penture en l'essence style.  I can't wait to give it to him.  I think he comes again this week on Wednesday!  I have the picture right at the front door so it will be the first thing he sees when he walks up!  Here is John's dog Abby....

Final Painting

I know, two posts in one day!  WOW!  Actually, I am just behind on my blog.  I finished my class at the Academy for the summer on August 8th, but then we went on vacation on August 10th and when we came back I went back to work teaching at my college, so now it's already September and I haven't posted my final painting.....

This final painting is of my children, but this time I have all three of them in the composition.  It's a scene that I took myself at our annual Watermelon Picnic.  On the first day of summer vacation every year, we take pack a watermelon, and some other snacks in a basket and head down to Hunter's creek.  We hike the creek till we find a nice sunny spot and then we slice up the watermelon and have a picnic.  We have been doing it for about 4 years now and the kids really look forward to it every year.  They love walking in their shoes in the creek and eating the watermelon.

You can see from the original photo and value sketch how the figures were arrange on the day I took the photo.  I decided to move them closer together and facing inwards towards the center of the creek.  I  added the watermelon and picnic basket, which were not in the frame, to tell the story a little better, and I changed the clothing on Hunter in the foreground to help him stand out from the dark forest background.  I am pleased with how it turned out seeing as this was the first time I successfully rearranged my own photo to make a more engaging composition.

Hudson Kicking the Can Reworked

As promised, here is the reworked version of my painting of Hudson.  The changes aren't really dramatic but overall the small changes I made make the whole painting feel more unified and lively to me.  My grade on the project didn't change at all, but I'm happier with it, so I guess that is all that really matters:)