First color oil painting

I've always had an eye for color. A friend of mine describes my drawings as electric, so after many black and white oil paintings I decided to take the plunge and do a color painting. I like it a lot.

Late rambles

So I'm in the middle of painting a portrait of my daughter when she was 11 months old. I think it is going pretty good. I realized the other day that I only have about three weeks until the pre-judging for the Hyde Park Art show. I am a little nervous. I've only been doing oil paintings for a few months and I have no idea if people will like them or not. I listed three prints on Etsy and no bites so far. One thing I do know is that painting is what I am supposed to be doing. It just fits. Portraits especially. I have a knack for catching a likeness. I'm loving the black and white, but I think I'm going to give color a try this week. Color my way. We'll see how it goes.

Last Saturday I met up with a photographer friend of mine and we shot pictures of my paintings for prints. We also shot a male model for new subject matter for my paintings. Out of the pictures we got there are several that I think would convert to cool paintings.
I submitted and received several test prints from a printing company this week. The test shots were good, but they also allowed me to see what I needed to do to get really nice prints. I have five on order and they should get here tomorrow. I can't wait to see them! If they look good I'm going to list them on Etsy.
I sent in my application for the Hyde Park art show today. Prejudging is in April and we find out the results the second week of May.
I'm dying to start on a small portrait of Karina. It has been sketched out and waiting for oils all week, but I've been too busy to work on it. Maybe tonight...........
I found a neat new website called artbreak.com. It is basically artists displaying their work for feedback and for sale. There is a lot of talent on that site. I put a few things up and feedback has been good.

Number Nine

This is my newest painting. I finished it last night. It's a bit different than the others, but I really like how it turned out. The paint is still a bit shiny from being wet.

Spring is almost here!

I was walking out to the car a couple of days ago and spotted the little yellow crocus that lives next to the house had bloomed. That is always the first sign that spring is close. Then I started checking out my roses and all of the large roses have sprouts all over the stems. My miniature roses have lots of new sprouts peeking out of the ground. Thank goodness!! This feels like the longest coldest winter EVER. It is supposed to be 70 degrees tomorrow! Sure it is going to get back down into the 40's in a week or two, but at least warmth is on the horizon.

Prints soon

I'm excited! The next step in this whole painting process is coming up in the next couple of weeks. I talked to a photographer friend of mine and he is going to photograph my paintings so I can start offering prints. I also need good photos to apply to shows with.
He also spoke to a male friend of his who is willing to pose for some photos so I can finally do some paintings of a man. Gotta mix it up a bit.
I can't wait to see what kind of response I get to my paintings when I'm ready to start selling them. Everyone I know loves them, but they are all bias. They could really think they suck and just tell me they like them because it makes me happy. If I don't sell any paintings I guess I've got presents for friends and family for this coming Christmas!!