This is Loni, a new friend I met through my Facebook page.
One of the challenges of working on a picture of someone who is beautiful is that you stop looking at your reference and just paint a beautiful face. This portrait had some tricky bits to pay attention to, like the highlights on her cowboy hat, the shadows under her chin and the shape of her mouth and nose. It was a really nice picture to begin with, so I tried to make it something more than just a reproduction.
I think the texture that I put on the board helped. I like working on board that has an obvious brush stroke in it. Today I mixed a batch of acrylic ground, which gave me more tooth to play with than the usual clear gesso would.
Thank you, Loni, for sending me your beautiful face to paint!
Loni, No. 18, 30 Friends in 30 Days, 9×6″ pastel on illustration board by Marie Marfia
Loni, No. 18, detail, 30 Friends in 30 Days, 9×6″ pastel on illustration board by Marie Marfia
Loni, No. 18, detail, 30 Friends in 30 Days, 9×6″ pastel on illustration board by Marie Marfia
Loni, No. 18, detail, 30 Friends in 30 Days, 9×6″ pastel on illustration board by Marie Marfia
Here are the progress pics:
Charcoal with grid.
Color block in.
Rubbed in color.
Local color.
Final tweaks.
This is my 30 Friends in 30 Days series. Each day I take a friend’s selfie and make a pastel painting from it. Then I post it to ebay at auction for 7 days. Follow my progress as I learn to paint pastel portraits with a little help from my friends.
I’m counting this as two portraits because it has two people in it.
This is my sister, Mary, and her partner in crime, Jonathan. They’re wearing fur-lined flap hats. Hunter-orange, fur-lined flap hats.
I worked hard on this portrait to get the likenesses right, but also to convey the love behind the fur-lined hats, their play-along, get-along attitude, and their generosity in taking silly photos to send to me for this project.
One of the things that is happening as I go along is that my attitude towards these little paintings is changing a little bit more every day. I’m beginning to enjoy them more, have more confidence. The strokes I’m making are more assured. The faces are less stiff when I have finished. Practice is magical and frustrating and necessary and I’m glad I decided to do this project.
I’m toying with the idea of continuing on with it after the first 30 are done. Not sure how that will work, since I am also committed to more skeleton art in January. Plus, Steve and I are trying to get our house ready to put on the market soon. I’ll keep you posted.
Mary and Jonathan, No. 16-17, 30 Friends in 30 Days, 9×12″ pastel on paper by Marie Marfia
Mary and Jonathan, No. 16-17, detail, 30 Friends in 30 Days, 9×12″ pastel on paper by Marie Marfia
Mary and Jonathan, No. 16-17, detail, 30 Friends in 30 Days, 9×12″ pastel on paper by Marie Marfia
Mary and Jonathan, No. 16-17, detail, 30 Friends in 30 Days, 9×12″ pastel on paper by Marie Marfia
Mary and Jonathan, No. 16-17, detail, 30 Friends in 30 Days, 9×12″ pastel on paper by Marie Marfia
Mary and Jonathan, No. 16-17, detail, 30 Friends in 30 Days, 9×12″ pastel on paper by Marie Marfia
Mary and Jonathan, No. 16-17, detail, 30 Friends in 30 Days, 9×12″ pastel on paper by Marie Marfia
Mary and Jonathan, No. 16-17, detail, 30 Friends in 30 Days, 9×12″ pastel on paper by Marie Marfia
Here are the work in progress pics:
Charcoal sketch on a grid.
Posterized colors.
Adding local colors.
Working on her neck
Working on Mary’s face.
Working on Jonathan’s face.
Moved Mary’s hat behind Jonathan’s.
This is my 30 Friends in 30 Days series. Each day I take a friend’s selfie and make a pastel painting from it. Then I post it to ebay at auction for 7 days. Follow my progress as I learn to paint pastel portraits with a little help from my friends.
Liz is a long time friend that I’ve known since when I started homeschooling Sam and Nick. She is a minister and a dog trainer and story teller and all around creative spirit. She paints small animal meditations every day and posts them on her blog, as well as a hundred other things. This painting of her and her poodle, Tomi, was one of several that she sent for this project, but I liked this one best because each of their faces was half in and half out of the picture plane, making one whole portrait between the two of them.
Liz and Tomi, No. 15, 30 Friends in 30 Days, 9×6″ pastel on illustration board by Marie Marfia
Liz and Tomi, No. 15, detail, 30 Friends in 30 Days, 9×6″ pastel on illustration board by Marie Marfia
Liz and Tomi, No. 15, detail, 30 Friends in 30 Days, 9×6″ pastel on illustration board by Marie Marfia
Liz and Tomi, No. 15, detail, 30 Friends in 30 Days, 9×6″ pastel on illustration board by Marie Marfia
Here are the work in progress pics:
Charcoal sketch on a grid.
Posterized color block in.
Rubbed in color.
Beginning local color.
Here I knocked back Liz’s face with blue to neutralize it a bit.
More detail.
Final tweaks.
This is my 30 Friends in 30 Days series. Each day I take a friend’s selfie and make a pastel painting from it. Then I post it to ebay at auction for 7 days. Follow my progress as I learn to paint pastel portraits with a little help from my friends.
Evelyn is the daughter of a daughter of an old friend of mine, since passed away. I thought I recognized Sue’s nose.
I had a difficult time with this portrait, not least because it’s of a baby. Babies, despite being very soft, are very hard to do. I got about 3/4 of the way through it the first time around, then brushed it out. Did it again. Brushed it out. Did it again. Brushed it out and then decided to try again in the morning. Next day, I tried again and then decided to throw the whole thing away and begin from scratch. It worked much better after that.
Sometimes, you can’t fix what’s wrong. Sometimes there’s more going on than you realize. Sometimes you need to start from the get-go to get anywhere.
Thank you, Danielle, for sending me your beautiful daughter’s face to paint!
Evelyn, No. 14, 30 Friends in 30 Days, 9×6″ pastel on illustration board by Marie Marfia
Evelyn, No. 14, detail, 30 Friends in 30 Days, 9×6″ pastel on illustration board by Marie Marfia
Evelyn, No. 14, detail, 30 Friends in 30 Days, 9×6″ pastel on illustration board by Marie Marfia
Evelyn, No. 14, detail, 30 Friends in 30 Days, 9×6″ pastel on illustration board by Marie Marfia
Here are the two sets of progress pics:
Charcoal on grid, check.
Warm color block in, check.
Rubbed in with pipe insulation, check.
Posterized colors, check. And that’s when things fell apart.
If at first you don’t succeed, try, try again.
Skipped the warm color block in and went straight to posterized color.
Final tweaks.
This is my 30 Friends in 30 Days series. Each day I take a friend’s selfie and make a pastel painting from it. Then I post it to ebay at auction for 7 days. Follow my progress as I learn to paint pastel portraits with a little help from my friends.
Sorianna is an artist that I met through a local group called Local Artists Coming Together here in Jacksonville.
Since I don’t know Sorianna as well as I’d like, I sent her some questions about her art and here’s what she replied:
How did you get started as an artist? I got started in art when I was a child I an aptitude for it and my parents encouraged my passions. One day I was painting and next inventing some new thing, I have been drawn to creatvity and the process of making art.
What’s your favorite part of your process? My favorite part of any piece I work on be it jewelry or painting, is getting lost in the process when the music is just lost and you fall into your work. Where it no longer feels like work and is pure creation, losing time and putting your heart into your work.
Where do you get your ideas? I get my ideas from all sorts of places, Music, day dreaming. I grew up in a house of wonder and magic, where I was read stories about mermaids, and dashing knights. Fantasy and Fairy tales, The call of the ocean and song of the forest. these are places I go when I am looking for inspiration.
Where can someone buy your work? You can contact me through my Facebook Page or email for information about direct sales and custom work.
I loved working on her bright red hair and dark eyes. Thank you, Sorianna, for sending me your beautiful face to paint!
Here are the progress pics:
This is my 30 Friends in 30 Days series. Each day I take a friend’s selfie and make a pastel painting from it. Then I post it to ebay at auction for 7 days. Follow my progress as I learn to paint pastel portraits with a little help from my friends.
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This is Alice. She’s amazing and that’s all you need to know about her.
Well, okay. She’s a nature nut, a biker chick, a chef extraordinaire, married to Lenny, who sent in her picture, and mother of two brilliant boys. She was my best friend in college and beyond and then she and Lenny moved away, we each got busy in our alternate universes, and kind of lost track of each other. I hope that once Steve and I move back to Michigan, we’ll be able to re-connect with our old friends again.
I loved the red shirt Alice is wearing in this painting and I used that color as reflected light on almost every part of her face. I loved that she was standing in front of trees because I know that forests are some of her favorite places to be. Thank you, Alice (and Lenny) for sending me your beautiful face to paint!
Alice, Number 12, 30 Friends in 30 Days, 9×6″ pastel on illustration board by Marie Marfia
Alice, Number 12, detail, 30 Friends in 30 Days, 9×6″ pastel on illustration board by Marie Marfia
Alice, Number 12, detail, 30 Friends in 30 Days, 9×6″ pastel on illustration board by Marie Marfia
Alice, Number 12, detail, 30 Friends in 30 Days, 9×6″ pastel on illustration board by Marie Marfia
Here are the progress pics:
Charcoal sketch on a grid.
Warm color block in.
Rub in the color with pipe insulation
Posterized colors.
Local colors.
Final tweaks.
This is my 30 Friends in 30 Days series. Each day I take a friend’s selfie and make a pastel painting from it. Then I post it to ebay at auction for 7 days. Follow my progress as I learn to paint pastel portraits with a little help from my friends.
I’ve known Mary since before we left Ludington, MI to come to Jacksonville, Fl. I remember the first time she came to our house. She sat at the dining room table. She was researching a book she wanted to write about wild mushrooms in Michigan and Steve was helping her. Nick, my youngest, came into the dining room to see who was there. He might have been four years old. I told Mary, “He’s not a big talker,” whereupon she turned to him and asked him a question, I couldn’t even tell you what it was, and it was like the floodgates opened. Whole paragraphs came out of his mouth. It turned out that he had a lot to say, if only someone had expressed an interest in hearing him say it!
Mary is an author, painter and good friend. A couple years ago, she rescued her dog, Gracie, writing a book about her experience. Now they’re inseparable, traveling every winter from Michigan to Florida in an old camper van.
Mary taught me about writing and painting and marketing myself to the world, for which I am forever grateful. Thank you, Mary, for sending me this beautiful selfie of you and your dog to paint!
Mary and Gracie, No. 11, 30 Friends in 30 Days, 9×6″ pastel on mat board by Marie Marfia
Here are the progress pics:
This is my 30 Friends in 30 Days series. Each day I take a friend’s selfie and make a pastel painting from it. Then I post it to ebay at auction for 7 days. Follow my progress as I learn to paint pastel portraits with a little help from my friends.
Scott is a friend of my husband’s, actually, but since Steve isn’t on facebook, I get all the status updates that Scott posts and pass them along. It’s not in the marriage vows, but I don’t mind.
I’ve always wanted to draw Scott’s face, almost since I first met him. He’s got wonderfully strong features, just fascinating to me, really. This painting did not go well at first and I ended up brushing it out and starting over again. It’s still not perfect, but if there’s one thing I’ve learned about doing a series, you have to be able to let a piece go and move on. As it is, I’m pleased the way it resolved in the end and that’s the main thing.
Scott, No. 10, 30 Friends in 30 Days, 9×6″ pastel on mat board by Marie Marfia
(I’m behind in my daily posts. Forgive me, I’ll try to catch up as I go along. I will get to them all so please be patient.)
Here are the progress pics.
This is my 30 Friends in 30 Days series. Each day I take a friend’s selfie and make a pastel painting from it. Then I post it to ebay at auction for 7 days. Follow my progress as I learn to paint pastel portraits with a little help from my friends.
This is Dorothy’s youngest daughter, Danielle. Danielle also used to babysit my kids. They loved her because she played games with them. Between Rachel, who cleaned, and Dani, who entertained, we had a hard time deciding who to call when Steve and I wanted a night out, but it was a nice problem to have.
Danielle, No. 9, 30 Friends in 30 Days, 9×6″ pastel on mat board by Marie Marfia
This is my 30 Friends in 30 Days series. Each day I take a friend’s selfie and make a pastel painting from it. Then I post it to ebay at auction for 7 days. Follow my progress as I learn to paint pastel portraits with a little help from my friends.
Rachel is the eldest daughter of Dorothy (are you seeing a pattern here? Me, neither) and she used to babysit my kids after they were out of daycare but before I trusted them not to set the house on fire if left alone.
I loved having Rachel watch the kids because she always cleaned my house, too, bless her. Now, Rachel has her own baby to look after. It’s weird and cool at the same time to think about how much time has passed since those days.
In this picture, Rachel is dressed as Rosie the Riveter for Halloween. I think she’s passed on a love of dressing up to her own daughter.
Rachel, No. 8, 30 Friends in 30 Days, 9×6″ pastel on mat board by Marie Marfia
I like the bright colors in this painting and the big grin on Rachel’s face. This was so much fun to paint! Thank you, Dorothy, for sending it.
Here are the progress pics:
This is my 30 Friends in 30 Days series. Each day I take a friend’s selfie and make a pastel painting from it. Then I post it to ebay at auction for 7 days. Follow my progress as I learn to paint pastel portraits with a little help from my friends.