House Portrait Progress - Holiday Open House at Art on Main

I hope everyone had a nice Thanksgiving holiday with family and friends.  I was pretty good and didn't over stuff myself with too much turkey this year.  But, the holiday season is in full swing so there are plenty of opportunities ahead!

I've been diligently working on a house portrait commission.  My progress has been slower than I'd like but at this point it is in pretty good shape.  I thought I'd share my progress and will post a copy of the final painting when I finish it.  Hopefully, it will be well received.

For those who live in the Westford, MA area, Art on Main is hosting their annual holiday open house on Thursday, Dec. 5 from 5 - 8 p.m.  This year, Sweetpeas Bakery is graciously providing sweets for our reception.  Stop by and say hello!

Ok, on to the house portrait:

I started by dividing my canvas into sections using a red colored pencil.  Using a blue colored pencil, I worked, section by section to transfer the image from my reference photo on to the canvas.  The house has a lot of architectural details so this process took a long time as I wanted to get the angles, proportions, window placement, etc. very accurate from the start.




I usually coat my canvas with a solid colored background as I don't like to paint on a white surface.  In this case, I decided to use a variety of colors for the base.  I didn't want a solid wash of color to hide my initial drawing as it took way too much time and work!



I decided to work on the house first.  I focused on the front entrance as this was one of the more complicated sections with an overhang, pillars and steps.


Once the house was moving along, I wanted to start work on the landscape.  I started by filling in the water to the right of the house and then worked on the front lawn.



At this point, I've got oil paint on most of the canvas.  The landscaping and background trees still need some work.  I also have additional details to fill in on the house primarily on the right side as well as all the windows.  The front lawn color will also change a bit as well as the addition of leaves that will be scattered around.  So, there is still a fair amount of work to go so I'll keep chipping away.