For this week's practice portrait I chose a picture of Fergie, a singer I am not really familiar with, from the cover of the TV Week supplement. This isn't great, but I do think it was a good learning experience. I did the skin tones in mainly raw umber mixed with white. I had a little problem with unevenness with the skin. I want to do a portrait with more hair showing one of these days. So much to work on!

I started this painting last December when I was feeling Christmassy. I just finished it yesterday. It's an 8 x 10 in acrylic.

I'm pretty happy with it. I thought maybe I could figure out how to turn it into a Christmas card. Now if I could just think of some words for it that are profound and also rhyme. I'm no good at that.

This also happens to be my first time scanning something.

It's funny how things are showing up in the computer image that I really didn't notice when looking at the actual picture. Along the left side of the manger (our left, the baby's right) there seems to be some sort of radioactive glow. Maybe I'll fix it. On the other hand, maybe not. Maybe it's just part of the aura. I'll have to think about it some more.

This is a sketch of a palm branch (from a potted palm in my living room) I did February 7, 2008. I did it with colored Sharpies. Then I got the idea in my head that it would look pretty to write the Spanish word for palm by it. I don't do calligraphy, so I copied a font I found somewhere on the Internet. I was going for a casual, handwritten script. I was actually hoping to find an example of the kind of script used by artists to write the names of French cafes in paintings! I couldn't find what I was looking for, so settled for this. I'm not completely sure I like it.

This is my latest practice portrait, a picture of First Lady Laura Bush copied from the cover of USA Weekend. I just finished this 2/2/08. I used a projector since I can't draw. Truthfully, If I continue painting it's going to come to that a lot of the time. I could try learning to draw, too, I suppose.

This is far from perfect, but I'm pretty pleased with it. I used mostly raw sienna and white for the skin tones, with a little red mixed in for some places, also I think, a little blue. The nose came out far better than I thought it would. I also like the right cheek (Laura's right, our left), the lips, and I think the eyes weren't too bad, either. The eyebrows are a little weak.

I'm tempted to go back and re-define the individual teeth a little more, but something tells me nothing good would come of it.

This is a 6 x 8 in acrylic. Since I don't actually have a need for a portrait of the First Lady, it will eventually get painted over. I think I'll keep it around for awhile, though.

Here's a picture of the projector I used to help me draw the face.

This is a "practice portrait," I think only my second one. The background looks a little messy because I was experimenting with adding color to gesso while painting over the previous picture. I didn't bother to fix it since I'm planning to paint over this picture, too. I'm posting it so I can look back on it and learn from it. It's a picture I got from a magazine ad, although to be honest, it doesn't really look like the person.

I'm planning to paint portraits of my children someday, starting with my daughter. When she saw this, I think it scared her a little bit.

The skin tones didn't really quite come out like I wanted. I think I used mainly burnt sienna mixed with white. Even though I wasn't planning to outline, I think it was greatly improved with the black outlining I did with a Sharpie.

This is an 8 x 10 in acrylic.

These are two 6 x 8's I did in acrylic, one of coffee and one of a glass of ice tea. I'm pretty satisfied with them. I was going for a sort of graphic artsy look. I intend to do a third painting of a glass of wine, thus completing my series which could be entitled "Critically Important Beverages" or something like that.

This is a little painting I did in June of 2007. It is 4 x 6 inches. Let's just say it's a path going uphill. I originally intended for it to be a river, believe it or not, so I obviously had some problem with perspective, but I do like the blend of color on the path. I also like the sky. It's painted with acrylics.