background and seasons being placed in. : )

Time to get moving onto the final painting!! woot woot! Here is the pencil stage - size 16x20. Hard to see but it is looking like what I have in my head!

Playing with some fossil images for the background. Trying to keep it simple and subtle for the real deal, and also make sure the colors are earthy. I'm liking the contrast of this whispy textured look behind the graphic tree and geckos. Starting the actual final painting today!! : )

Playing with the tree and geckos! There will be 4 final geckos, each symbolizing one of the elements (earth, fire, wind, water) in each corner (original layout). Trying to get my gecko figured out! : )

Here are a couple layout designs for the project overall. Hope you can read my scribble! Working on finalizing this and playing with fossil textures. : ) Watercolors are perfect for this!!

 

This is a warm up for the main tree image in the center of the painting. I like the shape of the tree and the seasons changing. I played with different weather in background for seasons - not sure if I will use that or not, although I like the winter snowflakes quite a bit. : ) May be too much color & stuff for the final with everything else going on. tree will definitely need more contrast as well as leaves, etc. Fun exercise and I came away with a better understanding of what my creative mind wants for this project. : )

Here is a doodle of the tree image. It's depicting the 4 seasons so I was playing with the leaves and twirly branches. : ) I have the Love Never Fails quote in the trunk, but not sure we will use that. Just love that quote!
Next step is playing with geckos and fossil textures and watercolor tree! : )
I am so excited because my new watercolor block came yesterday!!! Yay!!!

Roman's Painting

This is for a friend of mine's son. She wants to give him a gift of a painting that provides a sense of optimism and inspiration, using some of his favorite things as themes.
He loves fossils, nature, geckos and his favorite colors are green and blue.
She also wants to add an inspirational quote or two to capture hope and love of life for the future to help encourage him to see the positive side of life. : )
Here is a sketch of the initial idea. It has the a tree in the center in a circle, with the quote planning on being around the circle of the image. The tree will have all 4 seasons, showing that change is constant and after every winter there is spring, light after darkness. 4 geckos in the corners will symbolize the 4 elements, maintaining a graphic feel. The background a fossil texture.

We are still working on the quote! But here's the first phase! : )

Lucinda's Guardian Final

Here is the final version of Lucinda's Guardian! The image was made softer overall and more detail was added in the tree bark and girls. : )

I love the way the backgroung turned out and the grass colors dance through the painting! The yellow flowers and the perfect detail touches for the angel's eye and sprinkling throughout this image!

Let me know what you think!!

Thanks!

Lucinda's Guardian - continued!

Next I worked to develop the overall layout of the painting, changing it from a horizontal picture to a verical layout design with 3 key elements: the tree, the girls, and the tree's shadow. Using these elements I played with color combinations and layout, starting to develop the overall painting plan!

I started to develop the image shapes with blocks of color, using browns in the tree bark, darker greens for the background trees and shadow, and green hues with yellow speckles for the grass.

Details started to come out in the tree as I created an angel that symbolized Lucinda's guardian angel, watching over her and her cousin on this sunny day in a field of yellow flowers! The girls holding flowers and overall look started to come into play, although this image turned out more hard lined than the final painting - details of the clothing starting to be involved in the overall look. As I stated more at the shadow in the picture, a sillouette came out of it, and I thought how cool it would be if that were the shadow of the guardian angel reaching out and touching Lucinda, just upside down perspective! (Bottom of angel at tree, head at bottom of the page with arm reaching out.)

Playing with the yellow flowers in the field was fun too! : )

Lucinda's Guardian

This is a custom painting I did for a special friend, Lucinda! She gave me a little photo of her and her cousin and wanted an image done to share with her. The photo is soft and sweet with several elements to take into consideration.

I always have to do something that makes a painting mine, adds some type of symbolism for the client and hopefully connects with others! As I looked at this photograph and played with it in my creative mindspace, I was waiting for it to show me some magic! And then the image of an angel appeared in the bark of the tree, as if she were watching over these two little girls. POOF! The idea for Lucinda's Guardian was born!

Hollysimages - Art in Progress

I have been asked by a few friends to set up a blog to share progress on different artwork pieces that I am doing. So, here we go! I am currently working on a few projects, several unfinished paintings and two books! I'm not sure what I'll start with first... but i'll give this a shot and see what happens! Please let me know if I'm totally lame!