Tag: woman

Animals · paintings · portraits

Mini Siamese Kitty and other paintings

J R Dunster2 Comments
Mini Siamese Kitty – 2×2″ oil on primed panel

New small cat paintings

I neglected to post these paintings earlier, after I first painted them. But it’s never too late. Here they are now!

I painted “Mini Siamese Kitty” on a Trekell Mini Panel. I LOVE LOVE LOVE these panels and bought an embarrassingly large amount of them. They now reside in my substantial stash of painting panels.

They are fabulous panels because they have a subtle texture that isn’t too overpowering when you’re painting that small. I much prefer them over extra-small panels that use canvas.

To give you context to comprehend how small this painting is, behold:

Mini Siamese Kitty next to a pink packet of sweetener. Just so you understand HOW SMALL this painting is!
“Green-Eyed Kitty” 3×3″ oil on panel.

I really enjoyed painting this tabby. I used a 3×3″ mini panel from Trekell with that same sublime subtle texture. So much fun to paint on—so much fun!

“Fluffy Tabby in the Grass” 5×5″ oil on canvas panel

I enjoyed painting this tabby kitty with all the grass reflecting on his fur. The size at 5×5″ was a little small, but since oil paint is so smooth and buttery it’s amazing how much detail you can capture if the canvas texture is not too rough.

“Siamese Tabby” 6×6″ oil on canvas panel

The color cast of the reference photo was a little warmish and I battled capturing the contrast between the warm yellow-greens and the magenta-burgundy colors in the shadows. In the end, I liked the way the painting turned out. Such beautiful blue eyes on this kitty!

Inspired by telenovelas

“Ana” 6×6″ oil on canvas panel

I fussed with this portrait a bit, but…what the heck, put a fork in it, it is done!

If you’ve seen a few select shows in the USA or if you speak Spanish (or study Spanish), you might (might! the likeness isn’t perfect!) recognize this woman. She’s a Mexican telenovela actress and I love the telenovelas. Many of the small portrait studies I paint are “inspired” (meaning the likeness is purposely not 100% there) by Mexican telenovelas. I am learning Spanish and watching Spanish TV is a great learning tool. But I’d be lying if I claimed I just watched telenovelas to practice Spanish. I also just love the over-the-top drama and the gorgeous Mexican landscapes and architecture. Watching my telenovelas is a true guilty pleasure.

There is a wealth of inspiring painting material from these telenovelas (so many emotions expressed, so much drama!) and so I’ve got a queue of reference photos from telenovelas lined up, ready to be painted.

A few other examples of “telenovela inspired” paintings include Jorge, Indecision, Eavesdropping, Señorita, Intense, Sad Tears, and Mercy.

Animals · portraits

After over a year… (IMAGE DUMP!)

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The guilt over neglecting this blog has finally become too much! I’m trying to catch up with so many things in the past year. After a lengthy period of sharing caregiving duties with a sister for our mom (who had dementia) the “new normal” is requiring some adjustment. Furthermore, there were other things that have happened in the last year, things that kept me from painting (or updating this blog) as much as I’d like.

I can’t say that everything is now perfect and normal, but when is it ever? All I can say is that things are gently pushing upward. For that I am grateful.

Anyway, I have done many paintings in the last year. I’ll post many of them in future posts, but just want to share a select few here:

Backlit Tiger – 8×8″ oil on canvas panel.

I’m going through a “tiger phase.” This is just one tiger example. I’m not done yet! I’ve got many more tigers (and other big cats) to paint! If painting tigers is wrong, I don’t want to be right! Continue reading “After over a year… (IMAGE DUMP!)” →

paintings · portraits

Profile in Blue

J R Dunster2 Comments

“Profile in Blue,” 6×6″ oil on panel. Thanks to Dailiaa of dA for the photo I used as reference.

It’s been a frustrating few weeks, with not enough opportunity to paint, and a propensity for procrastination even when there was some time to paint. There’s no excuse for this! But, thankfully in the last few days, I’ve carved out more time for art.

I started this painting about a week ago, and while I initially planned for it to be finished reasonably quickly (they call it “Daily Painting” for a reason), that’s not what happened.  I fussed with this, and corrected that, and finally I have decided that enough is enough.

So, put a fork in it, it is done!  Continue reading “Profile in Blue” →

Animals · paintings · portraits

Warm & Cool, plus Close-up Cat head

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“Warm & Cool,” 14×14″ oil on cradled panel.

(This painting was a recent award-winner! I ramble more about that in a previous post. This work got 1st place in the Oil category at a local art show.)

“Close-up” (Cat Head), 4×4″ oil on panel.

A mini 4×4 inch cat head!

Okay, I’ve got a lot to cover in this post, no time to waste! Continue reading “Warm & Cool, plus Close-up Cat head” →

Animals · paintings · portraits

Cat in Silhouette & Pink Ribbon

J R Dunster1 Comment

Here are two “new” paintings that are actually old paintings that I finally decided to finish up and post online!

“Cat in Silhouette” 6×6″ oil on Gessobord. Thanks to Malleni-Stock for the stock photo used as inspiration!

I liked this very simple cat portrait—just the silhouette, with a little light touching the sides of the body, and the tip of the tail. It’s that tip of the tail that really catches my eye. I fussed with this painting off and on, and finally decided that simple was best, put a fork in it, it is done!

“Pink Ribbon” 8×8″ oil on panel.

This second painting is a portrait of fellow artist Pavina. She sometimes models for our art / drawing groups, and during some of these modeling sessions I took a series of photos of her. This little oil sketch uses one of these photos. Continue reading “Cat in Silhouette & Pink Ribbon” →

paintings · portraits

Just because I didn’t want to have NO posts in March!

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It’s pitiful that I haven’t updated this blog in all of this month. So I’m trying to slip something in, right under the wire!

I haven’t done as much as I’d like, but still, I have done some painting. I just haven’t posted it. There are some commissions in the works (will post them later) and other stuff. I had some busy-work in other areas that kept me from posting to this blog as much as I’d like. I hope to correct that now!

Here’s a Work in Progress. It’s almost done, but still needs a few tweaks and corrections. It is not done—emphasis on NOT DONE!

8×8″ oil on canvas panel. Thanks to Reine-Haru for stock photo used as reference.

The thing that fascinated me about this portrait was the wonderful play of warm and cool on this woman’s face. Continue reading “Just because I didn’t want to have NO posts in March!” →

portraits

Ray Bans

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“Ray Bans” 6×6″ oil on Gessobord. Thanks to this lenadementieva of dA for reference photo.

I’ve been nursing this painting along for a few days. I considered it an interesting color study—I thought the reference photo (used with permission, of course) had so many fascinating colors, warm and cool, and a blue or green cast to them. I am not sure that this photo of my painting adequately captures what I was aiming for, though.

What I saw in the reference photo was a lot of cool pink cast, with some greens and blues in the flesh, especially the highlights. This photo looks like it has more orange in it. I see more subtle cool pinks in the painting.

Ah well, you can’t win them all!

It’s been a long, long day so I’ll leave this post brief for now, possibly adding more later.

paintings · portraits

Ivory Skin and Black Lace

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“Ivory Skin & Black Lace” 12×12″ oil on panel. Thanks to La Esmeralda Stock on dA for the reference photo I used as inspiration!

My latest effort. This was done on the “Artist” panel by Ampersand. A good panel, classified as “budget,” but also still archival. I have a lot of these panels. It has a dovetail slot in the back, so it can be hung as-is on the wall, or slapped in a frame. I love the dovetail slot feature, which is why I’ve stockpiled a lot of these boards. They are about 3/8″ to 1/2″ thick (I think 3/8″) and the sides of the panel are painted a complementary color, so if they are hung unframed, the edges of the board look finished (somewhat reminiscent of “gallery wrap” canvases, which can also be left unframed).

I enjoyed this painting and think the model is very striking. She’s great fun to paint. So dramatic! Her skin is so pale and light, I confess I had trouble capturing that adequately with my color mixing. I think I made her a bit more “pink” than she was in the reference photo, but hopefully she’s not too ruddy or flushed. (All monitors are calibrated differently, but on my computer display, she doesn’t look too red-skinned.)