Comparison Piece Part B, or "Alyse"

I realize now that I took the picture at a wonky angle... gross.  So this is the second comparison piece, that actually got started first.  Originally when I started her she was much bigger (because I like to fill up the majority of the canvas with the figure BUUUT this time I decided to try things a little differently).  She has gone through many, many changes and this is how she ended up.  OK, so there were some scratches, but I have fixed them. Right now the corrected areas stand out, but that may just be the sun reflecting on them.

  I absolutely LOVE Rembrandt, and he inspired me to play around with a large variety of facial expressions in my pieces. 

 

 I am very proud of the reflection and the handle on the drawer, however.  Later I will upload some smaller pieces I think you might recognize.

Comparison Piece Part A or "The Only Thing I Will Never Give Up"

This is a horrible photo of my painting, but it is the only full sized shot that I took of it.  Pictured are Larry and his dog Abdiel.

This is a self portrait that I hid in the painting.  I wanted to thank Larry for being so helpful so I was going to send him a poster-sized copy of it.  This little self portrait is like a second signature, especially since I place the signature in the yellow window...

Things that I can tell you about now: Abdiel was painted from a photograph, I wanted the homeless man to have a companion.  The alleyway is the same alley that is behind my shop.  I had no idea how colorful it actually was until I took a photograph of it.  There was no way I was about to actually paint the picture there, especially with that dumpster back there. Icky!
I had a lot of fun doing this one, it actually came second between the two, but I think it's my favorite.

Portraits from my house

Here is my dog, Brian.  He is really uncomfortable with getting his portrait drawn.  He ran away into his Daddy's room on three different occasions during this drawing session. You can really tell how unhappy he is by his expression.

Here is boyfriend on the left and there I am on the right.  He wasn't very pleased that I included the blemish on his lower cheek.  To date, I think these are the most accurate representations of ourselves by my hand. I'm quite pleased.

Mrs. Isabella Brandt Rubens

Good ol' Pete Rubens is one of my favorite artists so I decided to do a study on the sketch of his wife.  You can definitely see my own style coming through.

You can see the original sketch here.

First Attempt at Multiple Mirrors

There are still some things that I could improve on buuuut for a first attempt I think it went pretty well.

Self Portrait with Glasses

This is exactly what the title says it is.  And yes, I did draw forks on the page before it.  As you can see, I'm not posting anything in order. 

Detail Study from "Noli Me Tangere"

Like with Maleki's artist study, I decided to take a break and do a quick sketch from the "Noli Me Tangere" that resides at Mizzou.  I had to do my art history paper over this painting and decided to paint an artist study of it on my own.  It is still hanging on my wall only half way finished (if I'm lucky it's AT LEAST half way done).
For those of you unfamiliar with this, this figure is of the Magdalene.  This "Noli Me Tangere" is done in the style of Sir Peter Paul Rubens, but after much sleuthing, I have come up with the idea that Jacob Jordaens is behind this particular piece, although it is currently attributed to "The Circle of Rubens" instead. 
Eventually I will go back to my painting and finish it.  It would be so lovely to have a Rubens style painting hanging in my house :).

Artist Study from Iman Maleki

I began a detail study from Iman Maleki's "Portrait of a Girl" in December 2009.  Midway through I decided to break and do a quick sketch.  I think it turned out well and I liked my use of the hatch marks.