Step-by-Step Painting: The Fantastic Mr. Fox's Felicity Fox, Part One

Howdy, folks! My most recently finished project is a portrait of Felicity Fox, also known as Mrs. Fox from the wonderful animated film The Fantastic Mr. Fox. Felicity's character is voiced by Meryl Streep. I painted this piece as my entry in a local art show at Geeksboro Coffeehouse Cinema, which is hosting "WesFest", featuring the films of director Wes Anderson and a gallery showing of artwork inspired by those films. As a portrait artist, I figured the obvious choice was a portrait, so here is Felicity, step by step:

1. The reference:

I found this cute still of Felicity, which was different from the typical shot of her on the posters or in the doorway, fussing at the boys. Her expression is so sweet and open, and it's a great, detailed head-and-shoulders composition, perfect for a portrait!

2. The sketch: 

I wasn't interested in a slavish reproduction of the still, so I eliminated the apple juice box and the background, concentrating on the figure. I sketch directly on the canvas with a pastel. I never use charcoal or black pastel unless I am actually working in black and white, because the pigment does get picked up and mixes in with the paint a bit. To cut down on this, I smudge the sketch with a paintbrush, but I also choose a color that coordinates with and unifies the work. In this case, the obvious choice was a foxy brown. 

3. The background: 

I always start with the background, as I work in acrylic, an opaque medium. That way I just add layers, and I don't have to worry about trying to paint around things, just over them. It can create a nice dimensional effect, as well. Since this is a fantasy subject, I chose to make the background colorful and playful. I laid in a gradation of pink, light green and medium green, and then went into those colors to spatter the pink with dark rose, the light green with the same medium green, and the medium green with a darker green. A lot of spatter got on Felicity, but all can be painted over, so no worries. Please join me for Part Two (click here) to see how it all turned out! 

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The Evil Pepper

I love Pixabay, because it is a wonderful site just packed full of copyright-free images I can use (with credit, of course--the photographer deserves love!), and it is also the answer to my blogging prayers--whenever I need a topic to write about, I can just pop over to Pixabay and find a great photo or graphic image that inspires me to write. Sometimes I am moved to pen a poem or a short story based on the image; sometimes it makes me want to do a little research and write an informative article; sometimes it inspires me to share a memory or some personal feeling; and sometimes, I just talk about how cool the picture itself is.

This would be one of those times. The reason I think this picture is so great is not just because the colors are so eye-catching, the image is so crisp, and the composition is effective. What really tickles me is how spot-on the metaphor is. The razor blade is being shown slicing the pepper, but it represents the "bite" of pain that the pepper can give you, too, and the water droplets all over make the vegetable look clean and juicy, but they also remind me of the way really hot peppers make you bust out into a sweat--especially the way they are beaded on the razor blade; it's just perfect! Love this picture and just wanted to share it with you. Now did I make you hungry, or scare you? Ha ha!

Image from Pixabay pixabay.com/en/pepperoni-red-sharp-cut-knife-273982/

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Welcome to My New Blog!

I am a bit of a blogging neophyte, still, with my one other blog, What's Good in Greensboro?, only a few months old. But now that I feel I'm getting the hang of it, I wanted to branch out into another area of interest to me, which is art.

As a professional portrait artist, I produce artwork, but as an art teacher and general art admirer, I also like to talk about art and to write about it, as well. I intend for this blog to be a place in which I can share my own work, but also to talk about other artists' work and other art-related subjects. Hopefully, it will be enriching and informative, and maybe fairly entertaining, as well (I do have my moments)! I also have a Facebook page of the same name, which you can visit here, but I do plan for this blog to eventually be much more thoroughly developed. There is a very large gallery of my work on the Facebook page, though, if you would like to see it. 

The illustration above is a portrait of my friend Doris's pet great horned owl, named Owlvin (yep). Doris is a licensed wildlife rehabilitator, so don't go thinking that anybody can have a pet owl. The rendering was done in pen and ink on bristol board. Owlvin is also the mascot for my Etsy shop, All Sorts of Art. 

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