Prince of Peace

Prince of Peace

6" x 9" watercolor

NFS

 'And she brought forth her firstborn son, and wrapped him in swaddling clothes, and laid him in a manger; because there was no room for them in the inn.'

Luke 1:7

Here's part two of my Believe monthly painting challenge with Carrie.

 I believe in Christ. I do. 

This was an emotional painting for me, and I felt more compelled to paint this piece than I think I ever have with any other painting before.

And so, my wonderful bloggy family, I wish you the merriest Christmas ever, I hope you all have a very, very happy one. And if you don't celebrate Christmas, well, then I wish you a very happy rest of the week. :) 

O holy night,

the stars are brightly shining

It is the night

of the dear Savior's birth

Long lay the world in sin and error pining,

till he appear'd and the soul felt His worth

A thrill of hope,

the weary world rejoices,

for yonder breaks,

a new and glorious morn

Fall on your knees,

oh hear the angel voices

Chains shall He break,

for the slave is our brother.

And in His name all oppression shall cease.

Sweet hymns of joy,

in grateful chorus raise we.

Let all within us praise His holy name.

Christ is the Lord, let ever, ever praise Thee

Noël

Oh night divine.

Merry Christmas everyone. :)

And here's Carrie's painting, which I totally love. I want those cookies!!

The Night Before Christmas by Carrie Waller

9.75" x 9.75" watercolor

Without Guile, Daily Paintworks Challenge

'Without Guile'

watercolor 5" x 7"

I talked a little about this before in my post Sunshine, so I won't elaborate too much (or try not to anyway, I'm rather long winded have you noticed? ;)

Last week the challenge for the Daily Paintworks was The Color of Music. I'd been thinking for a while about one of my favorite songs by the Black Keys, 'Everlasting Light', and how it reminded me of my third son. This song could apply to all of my children really, but I associate this song with my youngest.

After he was born I fell into a deep depression. Which seemed so unfair since my heart was full of love for this baby, and all I could think of was that every little thing about him, his soft downy hair, his snuffling sounds against my cheek, his sweet smell that I still can't define filled me with nothing but joy. But still, there was this incredible sadness that I felt weighing me down.

It was the thought of his smiling face waiting for me that got me out of bed every morning. So I let household chores go and sat and rocked him and felt him heal my heart. He's my everlasting light.

Let me be your everlasting light

Sun when there is none

I'm a Shepard for you

And I'll guide you through

I'll hold and never scold

In me you can confide

When no one's by your side

Loneliness is over

Dark days are through

They're through

A train going away from pain

Love is the coal

That makes this train roll

Let me be your everlasting light

by the Black Keys

"Perplexed" A Step By Step Watercolor Portrait

'Perplexed' 10" x 10"

watercolor by Crystal Cook

Sometimes I just get an itch to paint a simple portrait. I am endlessly fascinated with expression, especially the eyes. I took this photo on a cloudy day, when me and my three boys were at the park a few years ago.  While the two oldest boys ran around the playground, my youngest and I sat under a pavillion where that soft, diffused light bounced off the cement on the ground and back onto his face. 

He was about six months old, and by this point was pretty used to me taking pictures of him a million times a day. But still, he gave me this confused sort of look. Like, why in the world are we sitting in this pavillion taking yet more pictures when we could be out sliding and swinging? Hmmmm?

Suzanne Berry asked me what moves me to paint a specific subject and I guess it's almost always those two things: lighting and expression. Lighting is something I absolutely will not compromise, it has to be inspiring to me or else I will hate the painting process and then the painting will be. . . eh, *shrug*, so-so. Which is really not what I'm going for. ;)

Suzanne also asked me what my feelings are prior to the first instant I put brush to paper. I would say, excited. Because that's when I still have a perfect image in my head of what I want this painting to be, I'm still having all those giddy feelings that prompted me to start the painting in the first place. I can't wait to get started and put all those images, thoughts, and feelings into this piece.

Step One: This is the most important step. I start out by painting the lightest values in the darkest areas. In other words, I start by painting the shadows that give the face shape and contour, but I use a very light value to do it. Here I've used burnt sienna because it has a long range of values that's easy to adjust to just about any skin tone. This is where I flesh out my line drawing and start to develop a likeness.

I go over the burnt sienna with a neutral grey color that I mix out of either burnt sienna, cobalt blue, and permanent red, or brown madder, raw sienna, and french ultramarine. So basically all I'm using to make this grey are three primary colors in varying strengths and intensities. I want this to be a neutral grey, neither warm nor cool, so that later, near the end, I can push the shadows one way or the other.

Then I block in the basic shapes of the lips, eyes, and hair, paying attention to color temperature shifts.

The two main things I'm thinking about right now are: color temperature and facial structure shapes. If I get those two things right then I've already got a head start on the two most difficult aspects of painting a portrait (at least for me).

Step Two: Once I have step one done I tend to relax and play a little bit more. This is probably my favorite part, strengthening the color and picking out areas that I want to exagerate, like the blue on the sides of his nose and between his eyes. Every color that I lay down now will show through in the end (at least to some degree) so this process is a little bit like chess, thinking ahead to my next move and how that will affect the next move and on, and on to the end.

The colors I've used for the skin tones are permanent rose, raw sienna, rose madder, pthalo red, and cobalt blue.

I like to get the eyes finished right away so that I know I've got them right. It motivates me to finish it and to pay attention so I don't mess it up!

Step Three: This is pretty much the same as step two, just taken even further. I'm darkening the values and refining the shapes. I'm being extra careful to just get in and get out when I lay my brush down. So far this has been painted wet on dry paper, softening the edges with clear water just slightly after I lay the color down.

Step Four: The finish! This part takes the most time because there are all those little things that need finishing. And because I set the painting up and step back and look at it about a hundred times to see what else it needs.

I finished the hair with some lifting (I use a stiff oil painting brush that I've cut the ends off of so that it's kind of a little stub) and then some pastel for a few highlights. The colors in the hair are brown madder, burnt sienna, cobalt blue, raw sienna, and sepia.

Something that I'm thinking is important lately is to paint quickly, confidently, and then to not go back in and fuss around. Ok, ok this is something that I've always thought is important, but working with acrylics has helped me understand this even better, and has given me the practice I need to really be able to do it.

So, while there are some things I would have liked to have turned out better I restrained myself from going back in and touching it up because I knew it would lose that sparkle and freshness and I knew that I wouldn't make it any better, possibly worse.

And I like it like this anyway. That's my baby, looking perplexed at something his strange mother is doing. :) I hope you guys aren't getting tired of seeing his portrait, because I'm not going to be stopping anytime soon.

That's my portrait painting process in a nutshell. Hope you liked it. :) 

Huzzah!! 

Sparkle, a new portrait of my baby

Sparkle

7" x 9" watercolor portrait by Crystal Cook

Well, it's good to be back to my 'routine' watercolors. I love experimenting and trying new things, but close-up portraits are kind of like my artistic comfort food. They make me happy. They make me  feel at home.

This is yet another portrait of my youngest son when he was about six months old. That seemed to be the golden age where I could take a bazillion photos of him and he would always give me this soulful, melt-my-heart look.

Which means that I'll most likely never run out of subject matter for baby paintings.

I've also been thinking more about edges in my paintings and looking for ways to incorporate more lost, found and soft edges. I like the idea of having the eyes in the most focus and then the rest of the portrait painted a little more expressively.

This is of course more influence from dear Mr. Harley Brown. I feel like I've just went to the best workshop in the world since I started reading that book.

Have a great day everyone!

Merry Christmas

'Prince of Peace I, Joseph's embrace'

10 x 14 watercolor

Merry Christmas and Happy Holidays to all of you!

I've wanted to paint the baby Jesus for a long time, but have felt so intimidated and lacking in my skills to actually attempt it until now. And still, I think it's been a very humbling experience to try and paint my Savior.

But this is my attempt and for my first try I think it captured the feeling I was going for pretty well.

I've often wondered about Joseph, Mary's husband, and his relationship with baby Jesus. What did he feel when he first saw Him or held Him? What was it like to raise Him, knowing what His future held?

Watching my own husband raise our children has been an incredible experience. To see his tenderness and love for them, his complete and total devotion and concern for them. To see his joy in their success and his sorrow in their pain. It's drawn us closer and has increased my love for him in a way that nothing else could. It's helped me appreciate the role of a father in the life of their child.

I think that Joseph had that same experience with the Christ child. But on an even grander scale. For he knew the great price that little baby would one day choose to pay. For us.

I've tried to capture here a little bit of that tenderness and love that Joseph surely felt for Him. And there's Mary's hand reaching to touch her baby, always there, always loving Him. I've titled this 'Prince of Peace-I' because it's the first in a series I want to do of my Savior, from his birth and throughout his mortal life.

I wish all of you the best now and always, whether or not you celebrate Christmas. Thank you so much for being my friends and for always encouraging me. :):):)

"The Christmas season is wonderful in many ways. It is a season of charitable acts of kindness and brotherly love. It is a season of being more reflective about our own lives and about the many blessings that are ours. It is a season of forgiving and being forgiven. It is a season to enjoy the music and lights, parties and presents. But the glitter of the season should never dim our sight and prevent us from truly seeing the Prince of Peace in His majesty." Deiter F. Uchtdorf

Brand New

"Brand New"

10 x 14 watercolor

"Making the decision to have a child is momentous. It is to decide forever to have your heart go walking around outside your body."  -  Elizabeth Stone

      I have decided that I really like this painting. It's one of my favorites. Mostly because when I look at it I can remember so clearly what it felt like to hold my brand new baby, how he smelled like everything sweet and hopeful, how he gripped my finger with such force that I was sure he'd never let go.

      But what I remember most is how it felt like he had filled a hole in my heart that I'd never even known was there.

First Touch

"First Touch"

5 x 7 watercolor

     Another one of my newborn paintings. This is of my son's hand cradled in mine in his first week of life. I never get tired of looking at babies hands, they are so tiny and beautiful.

      I rarely paint this small, but decided to give it a try.

     My style of painting doesn't really lend itself well to 'fast' work. I work in layers and each layer needs to dry before I can add the next glaze of color, so painting small doesn't really speed things up for me all that much :) I hoped it would, but alas it does not.

     Ah well, who needs fast right? ;)

   Until tomorrow friends!