Painted portrait

Cherished
Acrylic paint on canvas
30x40"

This painting is done in Acrylic paint and is almost 3 feet wide by 4 feet tall. The heads are about 1-1/2 to 2 times life size.
This painting is based on a photo that I've had for a while. I knew I wanted to turn it into a painting but it wasn't until I saw some portraits that an artist did after manipulating the photo in Photoshop that I thought I may have found how I wanted to paint that photo. Once I tried this manipulation technique on the photo, I knew that this was the technique that the photo was waiting for!

I'm very happy with the way this painting turned out. It pretty much came out the way I envisioned it could. And John likes it too.

This portrait was recently accepted into a juried art show, and it was the first thing you saw when walking in.




To see more of my paintings, visit http://artblog.oilpastelstudio.com/

Showcase Ball -September 2008

John & I have been working on an Argentine Tango routine. Very sultry and sexy. Here we performed the routine in public for the first time at the Chicago Showcase Ball.

This was a faux competition to get us comfortable with the idea of a competition format. There were judges who gave out critques instead of rankings. The judge who watched this solo dance routine said that we were ready to move onto the next level. Judges who watched us during group "heats" said that we were fun to watch. The judges also liked seeing John's dance face!

I wanted a dance gown but even used and unadorned they are expensive. So I dusted off my sewing machine and designing skills (the 2 years of fashion design before becoming an engineer still comes in handy).

And I made a teal sequin dance dress with beaded fringe at the hem and beaded lace applique in the front. Since time to make the dress was short, I used an idea I saw in a competition photo online, a slip-on sheer skirt that turned the short Latin-style dress into a long Smooth-style dress. The Foxtrot I danced with Charles (an instructor from the Schaumburg Arthur Murray) was at the beginning of the day. Then the slip-on skirt slipped off and I had the short dress for the rest of the day.

One lesson learned: Do not put beaded fringe where it will be under you when sitting in a hard chair all day...

And here we are with our dance instructor Julia (from the Schaumburg Arthur Murray) at the end of the day dressed for the formal dinner.

Here is a video of the routine.