"Gwyneth's Portrait"
 

Face detail
 

Face detail:

Background detail
 

I kept the background on this spontaneous and free. Gwyneth is a musician and poet. She spends a lot of time outdoors and appreciates the atmospheric, woodsy and isolated environment where she lives.

Karen,

Stunning, beautiful, captivating and beautifully executed. I just keep staring at it! This is an award winner. The atmosphere, the composition, and the lighting - WOW.

I think I'm in love..... with the painting, not the girl, although she is beautiful too. I would be grateful if you could send me a high-quality JPEG of this painting as I would like to keep it in my archives for future reference.

Dear Karin,

What a WOW painting! It is lovely and soft, and compelling. Brava!

Karin,
It's a poetic and dreamlike painting and beautifully painted.

This has an old world charm. Wonderful.

Poetic atmosphere and musical color!
"Please read me"!

Karin,

This is so thoughtfully composed and so beautifully painted. Although the subject is clearly modern and the landscape is traditional English, she is completely integrated into the setting. It is also a great example of a portrait that looks and feels like a painting, not in the least like a photograph. The details are beautiful, and a treat to look at. Thanks for posting!

Karin, I love the feel of this. Beautiful!

Lovely painting....

That's lovely.

You are using optical blue, right?

G2
http://www.abcgallery.com/G/gainsbor...borough36.html
http://www.artrenewal.org/asp/databa...ge.asp?id=2101

I am not sure what the term "Optical Blue" means exactly, but I use an "earth palette." When I stick to this palette, a mixture of ivory black and white looks very blue. Sometimes it is so electric looking I have to tone it down.

If you're interested, I have a lot of technical info for other artists on my website in the following section:
http://www.karinwells.com/technical2.htm

I have also made a lot of posts explaining my methods at various places here on this Forum.

As I painted this portrait of Gwyneth, I documented each stage and my goal is to eventually produce an eBook/DVD that explains how, step-by-step, the methods/technique I use to paint a portrait. Right now, I tend to shortcut the methods of the Old Masters but get the same results. I'd like to share this info.

Thanks for the link. Interesting stuff.

A lovely painting Karin, congratulations!

Karin,
I love this one, such a beautiful athmosphere!

Karin--

This is beautiful work!

So beautiful, Karin.

Put me on your order list!

I'm looking forward to seeing you at the PSA conference.

Gosh, thanks for all your kind words and I hope to see you all at the PSOA Conference in Philadelphia this year!

Michelle, maybe I'll post that "how-to book" on my blog instead of all the fuss of making a DVD and selling it.

I already make a decent living as a painter but I really enjoy teaching too. I will need to look into the process of uploading so much material and am wondering if that is the best format.

Any suggestions on how to make this material available to all via the 'net?

I'd like to give it away to anybody who wants to read about or learn these methods. It's gonna be a lot of work.

Karin,

Ask Heidi Maiers' advice - she put together an awesome e-book - look in the member list to reach her

Thanks Chris - her book looks very interesting. Although I have never sculpted, I just ordered a copy.

Karin,

I love how you have positioned her on the canvas. What a beautiful painting of a beautiful young woman!