House Portrait

I have to confess that work on the book has been my "art" priority for the past several months.  It's almost finished though -- just a few pages to finalize and we'll be on to the next stage.

I did recently take a little break from the book to work on a portrait...

The request came from Margaret.  This is a little convoluted, but here's the story...Margaret's husband Bob had contacted me in the fall of 2008 and asked me to paint a traditional watercolor memorial portrait of their beloved dog Shammy, for his wife for Christmas.  Bob provided me with photos of Shammy and we spent the next several weeks emailing photos, drawings, drafts, and progress paintings back and forth.  In the end, Bob had the portrait framed and presented it to his wife for Christmas. 

Margaret contacted me after Christmas and shared the following:

Dear Deborah I just wanted to tell you how much I loved the beautiful painting you painted of my Shammy. You captured his essence, and I feel closer to him each time I look at it. Thank you for all the hard work you put into the painting - I absolutely love it, and it means the world to me! When I received it from Bob, there were many, many tears, but they were good tears. Thanks again, Margaret

Well, fast forward a year and I received an email from Margaret, inquiring about a house portrait --  A surprise painting, to give to a friend who had shared her home when Margaret and Bob were in the process of relocating.  Well, Margaret provided me with several photos and a sketch of what she had in mind for the portrait.  This portrait had a time constraint, so instead of a traditional watercolor painting, Margaret opted for a digital portrait, so we could speed up the process and not have to wait for paint to dry between layers, and didn't require flattening at the end -- which requires an additional 2-3 days for drying.  Anyway, the emails flew between Margaret and I, and photos, drawings, drafts and proofs were exchanged for the next several days.  This is probably the fastest portrait I have ever completed, but we got it conceptualized, painted and framed in the matter of a week!

It was very fun working with Margaret -- she knew what she wanted and once again I was happy to be a part of such a special gift. ~Deborah