Happy New Year’s Eve! 2016 has almost drawn to a close.
I have been busy with a variety of art projects since I last posted in July. House portraits, jewelry and journals!
As the beginning of the school year approached, things became busy, but once the kids were in school it allowed me the chance to complete a house portrait that I had been working on for some time.
I absolutely love the character of this house and it was great fun to draw. It did have some challenges, though! The overall size of the finished portrait was approx. 8 x 10 inches. A typical size, but for the details on this home, there was not much room for error! One slightly crooked line and the brick work or roof shingles would look off-kilter. There was also a good bit of foliage and a section of fencing that added to the complexity. More than once, I referred to my favorite house portrait book for tips on the roof shingles and brickwork, Helen Haberstroh’s “Painting Portraits of Homes in Pen, Ink & Watercolor.”
After puzzling out the patterns and completing the line work, I had one last layer of detail to add – color! This is the first house portrait that I have done in color. I absolutely love how it turned out. I used my trusty Faber-Castell Polychromos pencils. These are oil-based and not prone to the wax bloom that you get with wax-based pencils. They also lay color very smoothly onto the hot-press watercolor paper that I used.
Waiting in the wings after the color house portrait was one more house portrait commission. This one was for a repeat client whose family member had recently acquired a vacation condo. After discussing options with my client and viewing photos of the home, we agreed that both the front and back of the home should be featured in the finished portrait.
I suggested a side-by-side layout with a single mat cut into two windows. The home itself was fairly straightforward. There were some really nice details, including the porch railings and the dark trim. I like how the dual-view came together for this one.
With both portraits completed, I settled in to mid-autumn with an eye towards the upcoming holidays. I had toyed with the idea of doing a holiday market and thought I might skip it this year. Then I saw that one of the most popular local markets, Kerrytown KindleFest, was still taking applicants, so I decided to apply.
Happily, I was accepted and began thinking of how I wanted to fill out my offerings. I had a nice selection of pendants, necklaces and cards, so I focused on creating some new mini-journals, a simpler bookmark design, and a revised wrap bracelet style.
I managed to pull together a good selection and set up a festive table for the market. It was a cold night, but very crowded event! I was pleased to do a good evening’s business and surprised at the popularity of the mini-journals. I really enjoy making those and plan to expand my offerings in the new year (hint, hint – stay tuned for a future post on this!)
It has been a productive and varied year of creativity here at CCreech Studio. I have some studio workspace updates in the works as well as more to tell you about my drawing efforts, but will save those for separate posts.
How did your creative efforts fair this year? I would love to hear about them!
