Here's a commission just finished for a dear friend of her grand-son. I initially began in acrylics but decided to go with prismatic colored pencils. I wanted to use the chair in the reference photo to frame the face and form and used cool colors to draw attention to the face and hair which I wanted to keep warm and delicate.
Great fun !

"Thinking" 9" X 12" graphite
Continuing to work on capturing expression with eyes. Here's a  study from a reference photo. It is incredibly difficult to pull an expression from a photograph. It is difficult enough with a live model. It's just difficult to get a model in the right lighting to pose for the time it takes me to capture the expression until I get more practice.  I'm working on speed at this point so I can work from natural light when I'm out and about.

I've been working on capturing personality with my portraits. Here is a graphite study I call "Donna". I want to practice with several small sketches in graphite before returning
to the pastels.Now that the weather is getting nice in WV I hope to venture outside more and work on this with some life studies in oil.That's the plan if I can manage the time.

"Aggie" 11" X 14" Pastels
I completed this in January after the passing of my
dear Aunt. I'm still trying become accustom to pastel
pencils. I was intrigued by her smile in a picture of her
prior to her getting married. Such a beautiful smile that

I'm afraid I couldn't capture but could only approximate.

"Loyal Friend" 11" X 14" oil

This was done for our dear cousin, Mary Katherine who wanted it as a gift for her son who graduated from East Carolina Univerity. It helped enormously to have little Capone with me as I painted. I was able to work from life as well as a series of photographs I took of different poses. I began a 14 x 26 and after roughing it in decided to start over using both a different pose and blend of colors. The smaller format worked much better. I enjoyed having Capone wandering around my studio looking up at me from time to time with those worried eyes as if to say "I hope you're getting it right." Capone returned home to North Carolina just about the time it was finished. I sat it down on the steps that Capone and I traversed many mornings and evenings with Capone during his visit. I still miss the little fella.

"Nap Time" Oils

"Nap Time"

I've been working with oil on masonite with some good results. Here I sought to emphasize the warmth of the little girl with the puppy by using the surrounding blue swirls.

Still life after Przewodek

Here's a quick value study I did of a still life painting by artist, Camille Przewodek. I'm learning the Cape Cod School of Art approach to light and color and Camille is one of Henry Henshe's students there. There are many others as well who I look too for guidance such as Lois Griffiel and Susan Sarback. My next step is block studies and I hope the weather turns around soon so that I can venture outdoors.