The Wood Children

[Janel Maples]

Michelle,

Once again I find myself wanting to go to my studio because of you.

Janel Maples

[Michele Rushworth]

Ah, that's the best compliment of all!

[Kevin Noonan]

Michele

I think your attitude is spot on, I just wish I could give up my day job and eat, sleep and work at it day in day out too.

If I had to choose between the two I would say the little girl and her puppy is my favourite. The hard work pays off when it is masterfully done. Case in point .

Kev.

[Terri Ficenec]

Michele - These are inspiring!

I especially like how you handled the crew cut on the boy and the settings on both of them really add character to the subjects. (All of your paintings seem to have settings like this.)

Beautiful.

[Carl Toboika]

Michele I am super impressed, I love them!

I'm curious, did you do them with form painting, a combination of form and other style, or no form painting at all?

I have been using the fan brush the same way recently, as I like the way it softens and kills bristle glare.

[Michele Rushworth]

Most of the skin areas were done with form painting (Tony Ryder's method, for those who are not familiar with the term). I was well along with these paintings before his class but I redid much of the skin areas afterwards. The places I think you can really see the effect of form painting is in the girl's face and hand.

[Jeff Fuchs]

Michele, you're too hard on yourself. These don't look like wood childern at all. They look very natural (groan, I couldn't resist that).

I like the way you moved the background to the feminine side for the girl, and masculine for the boy, without getting carried away. Subtle, but effective.

I'm going out to buy some paint!