Calendar for 2015

I decided to try my hand at creating a 2015 calendar using my animal paintings. They can be ordered from this site: http://www.lulu.com/shop/my-calendar/calendar/product-22457703.html

I played with the backgrounds in Photoshop creating some in plaid using sections of the paintings. 

Preview of the images since I could not preview it on the website.

Volunteer Vietnam Vets

This was tougher. I have seen Dean Mitchell's wonderful painting on the internet and I can't help but compare my attempt at skin tones. Even on the internet his are so rich with wonderful darks. When working from life you see so many different colors that do not show up in the photos I use to tweak these images. 

My palette from a couple of days ago with Photoshopped color samples. It may be a little late but I need to do color charts of skin tones. Just look at the many different colors of makeup out there. I remember my first pastel class when the instructor told me to add green to the shadow. I did what he said expecting weird results only to be amazed at the ability to create depth and dimension on a face. Just look at Rose Frantzen's portraits some have green and it works perfectly. There is a limit to blues and greens, sometimes too much with the wrong combination will give someone a dirty face or worse yet a five o'clock shadow on a woman.

11" x 14" oil on panel 

Heritage Roses

Taking a break from the portrait to do a quick study. I have two portraits today and 3 to finish tweaking.

Filling in the pinks

The rough in.

6" x 8" oil on canvas

volunteer

I still have trouble with grey hair. Sometimes I will just use black and white especially when I am in a hurry. 

11" x 14" oil on panel.  

Volunteer of the year

This volunteer came in wearing a pink top and requested I change it to red. Neva also took a couple of classes with Carroll and me. I really don't know how she found the time, because if there was an event that needed volunteers she was there.

11" x 14" oil on panel

Volunteer for the new rec center

The volunteer representing the new rec center. A huge undertaking for the community. They just opened the fields this fall. Great for the youth of our community.

11" x 14" oil on panel

Volunteer

This is the wife of the volunteer from the post on October 30th. They are honored for volunteering for different organizations, although they often volunteer together. 

11" x 14" oil on panel

Volunteer

I have not had a woman pose for a while. 

11" x 14" oil on panel

Vietnam Vet Volunteer

The first of two volunteers for the veterans. 

11" x 14" oil on canvas on panel

Hospital Volunteer

Another great volunteer from the hospital. There are several different organizations involved with the local hospital. He is of Italian descent and has great blue eyes. So many great faces with such a wide combinations of facial features. Every face is so interesting. 

11" x 14" oil on panel

Fishing in a Blue Boat

We went out plein air painting at Wilson lake. Although the trees lost there color early or did not have much this year I found this blue in blue fisherman. Painting as fast as I could I managed to get him done before he moved on. Then I worked on the landscape behind him with a tip from Jessica to paint the tree holes a darker shade of blue than the more open sky above. The sun was shining at me but that is what made the great light on the fisherman.

6" x 8" oil on canvas