The magic of portraits!

There's just one day to go to enter my contest for a FREE OIL PORTRAIT! Late tomorrow (or perhaps when I get up on Wednesday) I'll draw a name from the pot of people who've signed the guest book at www.RealPaintedPortraits.com . If you're looking at the webpage and getting a mixed-up image (I think only folks connecting via cell are getting this, and it may only be one kind of cell), go to the bottom of the page and you'll see a yellow button. Or you can go elsewhere on the art section of my site. Every page should have a button for the guest book.

If that doesn't work, hit the "contact me" button and leave your name, email, and mailing address, and I'll add you.

I do portraits from photos. I've done them from life, but they require the subject to sit for long, boring periods. All in all, I think photography works just fine for all involved.

With this blog I wanted to show the possibilities of what I can do with portraits. At the top of the blog you'll see a portrait I painted quite some time ago. Back in 1984, as a matter of fact. I didn't have the portrait with me to do the color corrections on the old photograph I took of the painting, but imagine it with decent colors.

The family was Native American and sat down for me to take a range of photos of them while they were dressed in native costume, or as native as they wanted to go. They chose the poses they liked the best, combining different facial expressions from different shots. Then they furnished me with a picture of a woodland they wanted around them, as well as drawings of traditional tipis that they requested be included.

Put them all together and voila!



Here's another way to change a photo to a painting. Who can get two animals to pose nicely at the same time? The odds are astronomical that you'll wind up with a good shot of both. When I took several pictures of my cats, Bran-Bran and Obiwan, they cooperated more than they normally did, which means: not much. Bran was looking down while Obi looked thoughtful, and then Obi looked down while Bran regarded things to his right.

So I chose two photos, a good one of each, and combined them. I moved Bran in closer to Obi to make for an appealing composition. The background was also changed so the cats would be the stars of the painting (and so you wouldn't see the mess of the bedroom!). Then, because I knew I was going to paint my bedroom something in the goldish family this fall, I changed the color of the bedding as well as the background so it will coordinate well.

So that's my point: I can combine things from different pictures, change colors, add all kinds of things, and make a gorgeous portrait for you that will look great in your home, and generations will be able to admire.

Do enter the contest! If you've missed the deadline, drop by my site, look over examples of what I've done and am doing, and check out the kind of investment you'll make for this artwork.