Wednesday, May 26, 2010

Holiday Photo Becomes Portrait


Sometimes inspiration is found in looking at our photos from the past. 


Norman was rummaging through some of our photos from one of the many Christmas parties we had and found this picture of Jeanne. He thought it had potential for a painting.




And here it is...




What is nice about digital portraits is that you can play around with the layout.  I suggested a tighter crop for an alternative.


You never know what might make an interesting painting. In this case the pose was an interesting one. Norm used this one to try out some new brushes he designed. He wanted a soft look. 

Please add your comments and give us feedback on which layout you like. Your comments are welcome.

Sunday, May 23, 2010

What Could be Better than Fixing a Photo?




So often we have have a really great photo of a loved one as in the case of Holly Lauch. She brought us a photo of her daughter Emily that had gotten ruined in a frame. Moisture had glued the image to the glass and the glass in the frame had broken. Holly thought all was lost. 




It was certainly a challenge. But here it is as a digital painting... warmer and more vibrant.  Plus Norm could even do more.

Holly was redecorating her bedroom where this portrait would be hung so we asked for some paint swatches. This helped Norm to add some greens in her bedroom walls to be added to the painting in the background as well as reflected color in her dress.  We could have the painting work with Holly's color scheme.




That is the nice thing about painting and illustrating on a digital screen.  It is not only Echo friendly, no oil paint or turpentine to dispose of, it is easier to color match and add color to a painting to coordinate to a particular color scheme.

Thanks for the challenge Holly! Wait for the story on her other daughter's portrait.

Thursday, May 6, 2010

Youth Remembered

Bill, a friend of Norman's, dropped by for a visit while passing through. In catching up Bill discovered Norm's portraits. We told him about our relatively new business of Your Precious Portraits and he pulled out a treasured picture of his wife Bobbie that he carried with him and asked if Norm could do a portrait.
Well here is:


It was so touching to hear him talk of his wife of many years.  His picture was one of the few he had of her when she was young.  Isn't funny that even as we age, inside we don't picture ourselves as getting older. We think of ourselves in the prime of our youth. Maybe that is our spirit. Hers is beautiful.

I can certainly see that Bill still lovers her very much.  She is a treasure.

To see the original picture check out our gallery