Miss Cynthia - Final

I finally finished my portrait of Miss Cynthia. Man, I really need to get a drawing table. I have to work on portraits during my lunch hour, so they take a really long time. The lighting at home is no good, and there's no room on my desk for portraits. Oh well, one of these days...

Miss Cynthia - WIP 1

I ran out of time at the end of the last school year and couldn't get a portrait of Miss Cynthia, my son's preschool assistant teacher, done in time. And I didn't have a reference photo I was happy with. I managed to find one and have spent a few weeks working on this so far - I hope to have it done in a week or so, and then I'll be able to give it to Miss Cynthia.


This is the first portrait I've done on Bristol Smooth paper, and so far, I really like it. I know it doesn't have much tooth, so I'm trying not to use the blending stump very much - only in the larger areas of skin to even them out.

Mrs. Lewis - Final

I feel kind of bad, because I had to rush to finish this one. I did the hair over the last couple of days and had to finish it up tonight to give to Mrs. Lewis tomorrow. Even if she likes it, I'll see the parts that could have been done better. Ah well.

Mrs. Lewis - WIP 1

Here is the last of my three sons' teachers' portraits, this time of my youngest's preschool teacher. Can I finish it by Thursday, his last day of school? Probably not, but I'll try.

Mrs. Harrison - Final

I have mixed feelings about this one. It was challenging for several reasons: the reference photo was poor, the ends of her hair aren't very well defined, her blouse has some patterns that I had a hard time with, my son's shoulder covered her right side in the photo, and I'm kind of rushed for time. I had hoped to do two more teachers' portraits by the end of the school year, but that's in only three weeks. I'll be lucky if I can do Grant's preschool teacher in that time, not to mention the assistant teacher. I'll do what I can, as long as I don't sacrifice quality.

Mrs. Harrison - WIP 1

I'm not sure I like where this one is going. I think I'm fussing with it too much. Part of the problem is I have a low quality reference photo to work with. In any case, I think I'm done with Mrs. Harrison's face. I'll start on her hair next.

Mrs. Gleaves - WIP 3

This is almost done. I think I need to do some fine tuning to add some definition to her cheekbones, and Mary suggested I tone down the dimple under her mouth.

Mrs. Gleaves - WIP 2

More work on Mrs. Gleaves' hair. Man, am I out of practice...

Mrs. Gleaves - WIP 1

Wow, it's been a long time since I actually sat down to draw something other than the things I do for my sons. After having taken my first drawing class, you'd think I'd be doing more of this!

Here's the first of a set that I'm working on - one for each of my sons' teachers. I decided to start with Aidan's teacher, Mrs. Gleaves, only because hers is the best photo to work with. I'm pretty much done with her face, and I'll be starting her hair next. I wasn't very happy with this to begin with, but it's growing on me. Once I added her eyelashes, it seemed to start actually looking like her. Anyway, I plan on finishing these before the end of the school year, so I can give them to my sons' teachers to thank them for all their hard work. Wish me luck.