Hali's wedding gown

Watercolor and ink on paper, 5x7"

pen and ink house drawing

Another fun commission for the holidays. I was asked to commemorate a house in sepia ink. The finished piece is about 18x24". I photographed it before it was framed - it looks much fancier now.

I haven't done a pen and ink piece on this scale for a long time - I forgot just how much I like doing it. Love the obsessive quality of the ink and the sense of danger. Someone asked me what do I do if I make a mistake on something like that - well, since it is ink, I would have to start all over! 

All those wedding dresses (white dress drawn on white paper) gave me a good perspective on how to handle all the the white brick - too much detail and it doesn't look white anymore, too little and it just doesn't register. I end up basically drawing the shadows. It is more important how the different areas (light and dark) relate to each other to register the contrasts and scale.

This is a beautiful house in real life, I am happy with how it turned out on paper too. 

(And oh, those shingles!)

(I fuzzed out the homeowners' names and address along the bottom sidewalk - that's not a real smudge.)

wedding dress painting - vintage suit

I was commissioned to do this piece before the holidays and I absolutely love it. I do a lot of wedding dresses and baptismal gowns, this is one of the more interesting outfits I've done in a while. It was worn by the grandmother of the recipient. Couple of thoughts:

• I am in love with the cut of this suit. The jacket is like a perfect S-curve. 
• From a painting perspective, it was fun to do something with more ink and paint to it - I usually do a white dress on white paper. You don't exactly get to throw down the color for that, so even though this was in greys and blacks, it was fun.
• I like how the silver ink pops.
• Hats!

One of my new years goals is to document my work better. Probably the last 10 pieces I have done have gone undocumented - I get so excited to deliver the finished piece that I just skip it. And then of course regret it later.