Bob and Bernadette are faces we see often at the bar I work at. Not quite every week but at least once a month. They're super sweet and positive people. Bob is always smiling and in a playful mood. Bernadette has a serious face most of the time but enjoys having fun as much as her husband (they will frequently get up and dance to some of the musicians that play on the weekends, which is impressive for anyone in their golden years, but it really shows their particular joie-de-vivre).
At some point or another, the fact that I make art came up in conversation with them and they inquired about me possibly doing 2 pieces for them. They wanted a portrait of their sons dog, Dolceia, and a larger sized painting of their daughter's house.
Dog portraits are something I've done in the past and can be fun. They had a specific vision of what they wanted. Bob and Bernadette take Dolceia on walks sometimes and they go by a patch of tiger lilies, so they wanted the portrait to incorporate those flowers too. I'd never painted flowers like that before so it was all fun to do. I also usually work almost exactly from reference when I do any commission, but in this case, I got to really sort of "freehand" the flowers. I also reworked the positioning and pose of the reference photos they gave me to work with to make something that would work for their vision.
Reference photos:
Finished painting:
If I was doing it over again, i might do some things differently. Grass and plants are not in my wheelhouse, but I'm not unhappy with how it turned out.
They also wanted a painting of their daughter's house. She's very proud of it (and she should be, its nice). I had never really painted a house before, so this was new to me. Took a good deal of measuring and using a ruler which I dont usually do, but its always good to get out of your comfort zone. The references weren't anything I could use directly, but they had all the information I needed, so i had to take the approach of making it a sort of straight-on view. That wouldn't have been the most interesting view if there werent the two sweet white birch trees giving some framing and depth to the composition.
Reference pics:
Finished painting:
The two paintings are much different in size; Dolceia was 10"x14" and the house is much larger at 18"x24". I love how the birch trees came out in the house painting. Always room to improve but im happy with both pieces overall and i think Bob and Bernadette were too.
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