These images were taken as reference photos for a commissioned portrait painting, which was to be gift for their Mom. Initially we weren’t sure if we were going to go with a single painting of both girls, or one painting of each girl, so we took a variety of high and low key shots. You can see the final painting, and read about how it was created here.

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About six months ago, I was approached by one of my former patrons to paint a portrait of his two daughters. This was to be a gift for his wife at the end of the year. Since this took upwards of 150 hours to complete, I thought I would talk about the process involved.

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This painting was requested via Craigslist. Apparently I beat out many other artists. The painting is a wedding anniversary gift for the patron’s wife. This is a nostalgia piece, capturing the church in which they were married.

After doing some reference photography, I suggested we set the clocks on the steeple to the time at which they were married. This was a well received idea. Just one more way to personalize a painting.

I opted to do this on a heavy canvas with a deep texture to the weave. I am sort of kicking myself for not doing this larger, as at 11″ x 14″ this was really pushing the limit of what sort of detail I could resolve. Some of these shapes are very tiny, and had to be painted and repainted. The hardest part was the texture, it just ate up the paint, which lends itself towards nice scumbling, but for fine architectural details, not so great. Either way, it took some time to get to the point of coverage, where the entire surface was covered, and I could begin to work into the paint. Ultimately the painting took 3 sessions, about 3-4 hours each session.

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There was a painting event this weekend. It seems I won an award.

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My friend and author Ben Soto asked me again to come up with an illustration for the cover of his book Distinction of Realms. Below you can see the steps that led to developing this image.

This was to be distributed as an Ebook, so the artwork only required the front cover and tittle. He sent me a synopsis and some character descriptions and I set out to find a concept that would represent the story.

As difficult and time consuming as it is, I love doing this type of work. Very grateful for the opportunity.

Update:

Hey, if you are seeing this, you are on my old blog. Be sure to check out my new website with my updated Illustration/Design Portfolio here.

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Alla Prima II: Everything I Know About Painting – and More (Expanded Edition)
by Richard Schmid

I cannot begin to describe how important this book is, nor how valuable the material offered has been to my career as an artist, and my development as a painter. This is quite simple the most important book I have read as an Artist, and I cannot strongly enough recommend this book.

Richard Schmid Paints Landscapes: Creative Techniques in Oil

This was the first book by Richard Schmid that I was able to find, and although the black and white photographs were highly disappointing, many of the images in this book are in “The Landscapes” below. Much of the information included in this book is also included in “Alla Prima” however this is still a great resource for landscape painters.

Richard Schmid Paints the Figure: Advanced Techniques in Oil

I found this book in the public library. In addition to general painting advice, there is a good amount of information in this book about dealing with the figure and portraiture.

Richard Schmid: The Landscapes

While not an instructional, any landscape painter would do well to look through this book. Gloriously illustrated, this documents the long career of a master artist, who shares tidbits of information about each painting and some of his painting methods.

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