The Creation of the Kids

May 14, 2015

I have never before accepted painting requests with portraits. I only have done one other portrait painting during my college years and it took a whole semester! Because of this, I thought that a portrait painting would be impossible because of the amount of hours involved to complete faces, not to mention they are the most difficult subject matter to paint. My wise husband reminded me that I've had many years of experience since that semester, and encouraged me to take the challenge. This picture in particular was just so incredibly sweet that I couldn't pass it up, and even the client was encouraging me to complete it because he trusted in my previous work. The painting took about 10 hours to complete-a huge difference from a whole semester!

This was the first try on the beautiful faces. I was so nervous to start this painting, but also very excited to see what the final result would look like. I decided I would plow right through and paint all four faces first, because I knew if I could complete those successfully, the rest of the painting would probably go smooth. (Also notice my awesome painting smock that I made in elementary school :) )

The faces are done!! A HUGE sigh of relief once they were done.The photo that I was given had an Instagram filter on it, but I thought the yellow tint made the painting look warm, inviting, and nostalgic. As layers of color are added to the cheeks and foreheads, the kid's faces slowly form. I always painted in the eyes last, and it was amazing how much character the face took on once the eyes were set!

Next task up was to paint in their clothes. Lots of large, over-sized sweatshirts which made for a ton of wrinkles and crevices, which I enjoyed putting in place. My husband was especially critical about the sports logo and made sure I got it right on the sweatshirt :)

Finally the clothes were all in and all that was left was the background! I got into a little trouble here-I assumed all along that the background would be the easiest part of this particular photo, but to my surprise, it was the most difficult! The kids are standing in water, with wooden planks resting in the water behind them. The original picture was cut out between each wood board, and then when it was Instagrammed it was laid on a yellowy surface which showed through the cut out sections. Firstly, it was hard to transition from seeing the kids with a pure white background to making sure they still stood out with a very dark background. Secondly, I redid the wood boards and light stripes in the background about three times before I was satisfied. It was a frustrating process because I loved how the faces turned out so much, I wanted to the rest of the painting to be at the same caliber. The ultimate goal was to paint the background well enough for the viewer to not even notice it.

To complete the painting, I waited for the oils to dry, then made a yellow glaze. This glaze was made up of a few oil paint colors mixed with linseed oil, and was then painted over the entire canvas. This glaze helped to tie all parts of the painting together and give a hue to the faces that made them a couple shades warmer as well as cohesive.

Overall, this painting was a JOY to complete. It was challenging, the kids faces were ADORABLE, and I learned a lot about brushes and techniques in the process. I have a renewed confidence in my portrait painting skills, and am now accepting orders with faces :) This painting was hard to send away, but I am excited for these kid's precious Mom who got to be surprised on Mother's day with this sweet, sweet gift.

The "Two" Rings to Rule Them All...

April 08, 2015

Journey of the "Rings" painting...

These photos are a peek into the process of how custom photo-to-paintings are created.

This painting was almost all pinks and reds, with just a few peaches and greens. The canvas is 16 x 20 inches, with a 1 1/2 inch wide wrapped width. I started from top to bottom on this painting, and left out the rings for last.

The background flowers are just starting to form, while the central lily is getting dark colors added to it's shadows so it looks closest to the viewer, or foreground.

Because of there were only a few "main" colors involved with this painting (red, pink, white, brown), I was able to mix the colors right on the canvas to find the right shades. This made the process super fun for me as the painter, whereas other paintings often need to mix 20-30 distinct colors on a separate palette which takes much more time and frustration.

The entire painting is just about complete! The flowers are done, the rings are next and the green spindles coming out of the central lily are last (because they were my favorite). At this point I'm pretty worried about how the rings are going to turn out. In your brain, you know that rings are silver, but to a painter, you must look at the rings as different shades of colors, and trust that the colors you see will form rings when you are done.

Look closely! There is not a spec of grey/silver in those rings! They are formed from shapes and colors that may seem unusual to put in rings: purple, green, white, blue...They all come together to create shiny silver rings! This was one of the hardest paintings that I've had to put my training to the test of painting what I actually see (shapes and colors) instead of what I think I see (silver rings).

The final painting is complete! Because it was done in oil, the paint doesn't dry for almost a week. After that it was ready to ship out as a wedding anniversary gift!

Computers and Canvases

February 12, 2015

Welcome to Kindenshop! The adventure continues on this journey of creating art and sharing it with all of you. My incredible husband made this website for me (check him out too! isaacv.net), which is just another step in exhibiting artwork that I am excited about. This isn't an easy journey for me-I am one who would rather paint in my cozy little room and quietly fill my own walls with art. Over the years, I have received encouragement from family and friends to share my work and use the skills that I am learning to bring joy to other people by making art for them. This picture is just a tiny peek into the Vazquez home, and how we love to create together.

Over the past year I have been mainly specializing in custom orders that people have sent in, so the purpose of this site is to show a gallery of previous work to spark your interest and ideas of what kind of projects you would like done for you own home! Please don't hesitate to message me with questions, comments, ideas or thoughts. I would love to hear from you! Thank you for taking time to visit my shop!