"Rustic Barn"

Rustic Barn, is my first painting I painted in my second year of painting. My thoughts before starting this was that I wanted to give myself a little bit of a challenge of trying to paint a more complex picture, potentially something I would want to hangup in my future home. For most of my life I have always loved the kind of rustic/country look. Then, while looking through numerous pictures, this particular old barn caught my eye. I decided oil paint would be the best medium for this painting to use due to me knowing I'd have to be able to mix different colors together for the reflective look in the pond of the barn and trees. I used a lot of different values on the whole barn especially the roof and front to the barn to give it the rustic and older look using a lot of duller reds and grays together. Before painting, I had to be sure to draw my lines on the barn straight and have it be proportional so it wasn't going to look two dimensional instead of three-dimensional. Also, for the part in my picture of the grass and fence, I had to give it more detail such as a textured look with a fan brush for the grass since it was up closer. I feel like the hardest part in my painting was the very thin lines I had to paint to create the fence or having to paint in a jaggidy way for the reflective look. One thing I would do differently in this painting was to not make the biggest tree leaning, I would make the tree thinner and up straight.

"Great-Granny"

                            
 The person in this portrait will always hold a very special place in my family's hearts. She was a beloved mother, grandmother, and also a great-grandmother. This portrait is of my great-grandmother Hasaba Spence, who I personally always called, Great-Granny. Great-Granny unfortunately passed away when I was around eight years old due to a stroke. Although I was at a young age, I will always remember how kindhearted, down to earth, and how much of a loving person she was. She was always so happy to get to see my family and I when we'd come to visit, always smiling from ear to ear while she was hugging and kissing on all of us. I personally wanted to paint this picture for my dad because Great-Granny had a big part in his life especially throughout his childhood. Throughout this painting, I used a dabbing motion all over her skin to portray the crackly, roughness of older skin along with including a lot of highlighted and shadowed areas to continue to give it that effect. The times I did not use the dabbing technique was on her shirt because I wanted to give her shirt the painter like feel of smoothness and easiness to blend the colors and not let the skin have the same texture. Also, for her hair I used whisp like strokes to try and give it the layered look with lighter colors on top of the darker values. My goal in this painting was to make her look as realistic as possible so my family could personally recognize her. For the background, I decided it would be best to use a light but textured look to give the picture unity and pull everything in around her body. One of the harder parts in this portrait was creating her glasses with very thin, almost transparent lines. If I was to do this over, I would try to give her glasses the more glossy look.

"Max"

"Max"

         Throughout my past year of painting, the majority of my work has been based around landscapes or nature related things. As I came across ideas for my next painting, I wanted to change things up a little bit and paint something that actually meant something to me, being other than scenery. The first thing that came to mind was my dog, Max. Max has been with my family and I for around six years now, always bringing joy and smiles no matter what. I figured this special picture I captured of him smiling up at me was the perfect picture to paint to demonstrate his overall personality and to always have a piece of him with me in the years to come. The majority of my technique in this painting was to paint with a fan brush in whisp like strokes to give his face a more three-dimensional/realistic look of actual fur, rather than it being completely smooth and nonrealistic. My goal was to put a lot of emphasis on Max's nose by using a variety of different values of blacks and browns together, along with highlighted areas to give it a foreshortened look. Since this was a foreshortened painting, I also had to make sure to use proper proportions on his face to make sure it was lined up and equal on both sides. Lastly, I used balance in my painting by making the background a light blurred, simple color so it wouldn't take away from the centered subject, his face.