Portrait of Taite

This young lady, who was 8 years old at the time of the portrait in charcoal pencil, is brilliant....to put it bluntly, and definitely cut from the same cloth as her enterprising and independent mother. Taite's curiosity and intelligence haven't gone unnoticed at school where she's very popular with fellow students and enrolled in a curriculum for gifted children. Aside from her pretty face and engaging smile, it was very important to me, to capture as much of that effervescent personality as I could. This was quite a challenge...(you have to do the bad drawings and paintings to get to the good ones).. The process took about two weeks of head scratching, hand wringing and three attempts. This is the final one.
Her funny 'Alice in Wonderland' hat actually had a bright leopard pattern on it but the shape alone was so charming that I left it this way.
I really like working with charcoal pencil...It cuts to the chase...no colors to interfere....just rich dark lines and soft tone values used to express my impressions of a subject.
There's no doubt that great things lay ahead for Taite and I'm very excited for her....You go girl!

The name hasn't been changed to protect the innocent

Cousin Harold

"Is this guy really your cousin?" I'm asked that all the time at shows and actually he's my husband's cousin. If the family ever took a vote on the Black Sheep of the family, Harold would get the nod...in a landslide.
If you didn't know him and accidentally bumped into him, you'd run...in the opposite direction... ..fast. Harold's appearance and unconventional life style were the topic of many lively family discussions. He had a pretty rough childhood and was the oldest of seven kids. Harold was always on his best behavior when he showed up in Maine for a visit and we enjoyed his wild stories..even though he cleaned them up for us.
This is pastel over watercolor on a very heavy cotton rag paper called Khadi that's handmade in India. Originally the background was blocked in with dark watercolor washes for trees and deep woods. It was too distracting so I scrubbed it out and changed it to the desolate landscape and troubling sky you see here. I wondered if the paper would hold out as I reworked the background and his eyes over and over again in pastel...it did.
This image has more red in it than the real painting...bad lighting.
As for Harold..He now sits in a Florida prison, maybe for the rest of his life. You know what they say, "The ones who are the hardest to love, are the ones who need it the most".
This painting won a Merit Award in the Pastel Painters of Maine International Show at the River Tree Center for the Arts, Kennebunk. Me., several years ago.

Portrait of Ada

Last year I participated in a Terry Ludwig Portrait Workshop sponsored by the Pastel Painters of Maine.
Our model for the workshop was a lovely older woman named Ada who had worked as a professional model when she was younger. Terry started the workshop with a talk about his working methods then gave a demo that took 45 minutes and after that we all jumped in.
The materials list for this workshop included Kitty Wallis paper which is a heavy paper covered with a fine grit surface and lots of tooth, meaning it can grab heavy layers of pastel and hold on to it. Unfortunately I couldn’t get any before the class so I brought Colourfix which is very similar but comes in different colors. I chose a warm Terra Cotta that I use mostly for my landscapes because it makes the colors vibrate and really sing. It also seems virtually indestructible and can be used for oil paintings, and all water mediums. I decided to bring some inexpensive pastel paper to try, the name of which escapes me, that had little tooth and holding power.
Ada-1 was done on the Colourfix Terra Cotta. I started by lightly sketching the arabesque, just a faint outline of her head, profile, hair and neck. After some scrutiny of Ada’s facial features and the light effects, I started blocking in large shapes such as her nose, cheek, ear and eye areas. Placement for these features is really important…just a small degree off and suddenly you have someone else staring back at you! Terry’s pastels were great for this…they’re rectangular, not round as most brands, so you can use the flat side for blocking in large areas and they won’t roll away when put down.
When the big shapes are in and properly placed the fun begins…This is where the real personality startes to emerge. Large areas are gradually broken into smaller and smaller areas using different tones, and varying strokes. The finish is in the eye and getting the placement of light reflected on the eyeball is really important. Terry’s help here was invaluable.
This version of Ada makes her look very strong and severe. I was trying too hard I think. Ada-2 was done on the cheap pastel paper, and though I didn’t enjoy working on it, the finished portrait is much more accurate in portraying Ada’s delicate features and sensitive expression. The paper’s poor surface wouldn’t allow for a heavy handed method so I had to use restraint and a lighter touch…not my usual style…I got two lessons for the price of one!