To all of you who follow this site to learn portrait painting, I try to post a hint or two when I face a certain problem myself.  I am doing a double portrait of my two youngest daughters. I have always loved the image but the photo is too blurry to print and hang it.  Recently I saw something similar at a museum in Ohio and I decided that this pose is much more interesting.  If I could just get the likenesses right it could be a beautiful painting. Here is the problem I have had.  In the image, my daughter’s face is so blurry I cannot see her features well.  I gathered all the photos I could find from those years and studied them carefully.  I made the sketches and was satisfied.  Actually, I thought they were pretty good for putting photos together.  After I got the sketch transferred and the grisaille finished I began to think something was wrong.  When a likeness is really good but you know something isn’t right, it can be very difficult to figure what the problem is.  Finally, it hit me.  It was as plain as the nose on her face, literally! I had gotten the bottom of her nose too close to her top lip.  That made her nose too long and her smile didn’t work either.  All these problems in spite of the fact that the characteristics were drawn correctly as far as likeness but just not proportional.  Later, I will post a photo.  Right now, I should go make supper.  Diana

I have been working on a project for many months, actually at least a year and a half. It all began when I gave some lessons to a friend so he could paint his grandchildren. He was so impressed that he offered his skills as a videographer to do a how to video as a thank you for my teaching time. Sometimes projects have a way of going south and that is literally what happened.  Right in the middle of our efforts, my friend found it necessary to take a job opportunity far south of here.  We have been struggling long distance to complete this ever since. I didn’t say too much about it before this because every time we think we are about to wrap it up, something blows our timing out of the water.  Again, literally.  The hurricane of this summer, I can’t think of which name, there were so many, came along and blew my friends to Chicago and then Colorado! Delay, delay, but it was all good, since we had no deadlines. I do have a lot of friends waiting for this, though, and I am happy we are getting close.  Do not expect perfection.  As I tell you in the intro, we have been working under extreme conditions and time constraints and besides, I am not too good in front of a camera. Now I have the privilege of announcing to you the soon to be available video.  If you are interested in learning my method and watching me demonstrate, I hope you will consider a pay pal purchase.  My friend is getting that set up for us since we never had a pay pal account previously.  I hope all this is ready in a few weeks.  I am making my all out effort.  I am trying to keep the cost minimal.  We will see how it goes.  I will post here as soon as it is available.  THANKS FOR YOUR INTEREST, DIANA

I decided I should take the time now to upload a couple more images of work in progress.  If I leave it go till later It will be a while for you to wait and you should see these in between stages.  Sometimes I get so carried away with the work, I forget to let you in on what is happening.  By the way, I must spend some time this month finishing up the video!!!

Thirty five years ago our family hosted an AFS student from Venezuela. From the minute we read her profile we knew she was joined to our family in a way none of us could explain. We just knew she was part of us.  It became our tradition to take Typical American Family photos and we are happy we have these.  Nelly is in the middle second row from top and her daughter, Andrea is bottom left.  I am sure you can see and feel the joy we are experiencing. This photo will remind us of this wonderful visit until the next time we get together.  Hallelu Yah.

Here is an image of my recent painting that is a little better photo.  It is difficult to get a good photo of this one because the image is very dark and the camera wants to capture the detail of the canvas which detracts from the painting image.  So, this isn’t bad.  I am working on so many other works and I hope to make a lot of progress this winter and spring.  I will try to make time to blog about it all as I proceed.  My daughter wants me to update my website and I hope to do this but it all takes time away from my painting.  I also promised a lot of friends that I would do a class.  I think I will have a busy time besides all the doctor’s visits I have to try to keep my health on track.  So, for now, I will finish this message.  I hope all of you artists and friends are having a good winter.  I wish you well in all you are doing.  Many hugs, Diana