Work in progress – Page 4 – Katie Jeanne Wood

WIP & going off topic about the weather

WIP shot of an oil pastel portrait by Katie Jeanne Wood oil pastel portrait painting

Quick blog today to share these pics of a WIP oil pastel portrait. I was using an 11×14 inch canvas board for this one, so it’s quite large.

This is what most of my paintings look like before I blend all the colors together with a tortillon. I put down the darker colors where I think the shadows should be. I wasn’t using a reference photo for this painting, so I was just guessing, and making it up as I went along.

WIP shot of an oil pastel portrait by Katie Jeanne Wood

I worked on this one about a month ago. I can’t remember if I took more WIP shots of it or not. I’ll have to look to see when I get a second.

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Off topic
Weather

Storm chasers, Reed Timmer and Brandon Copic were both here in the area Friday, and things got a bit dicey for about 6 hours. Luckily, we didn’t get the derecho or tornadoes they thought we would.

It’s a little unnerving to watch these guys drive through the outskirts of your city, and neighboring towns, while they’re livestreaming on YT, I must say. I had no idea anything was going on until I saw Reed go live, and then I was like..oooh, he’s HERE???

Btw, Reed was able to capture a beautiful shelf cloud at around the 2 hour mark in the video. Also, the beginning of the video is haunting, but quite beautiful.

My husband stopped to shoot a supercell (both photos above) on his way to work. Supercells are rotating clouds that can produce a great amount of wind, hail, rain, and tornadoes.

I thought I’d post this from the NWS, in case you get bad weather in your area. Tornadoes seem to be popping up everywhere these days. It’s good to know the difference between a watch and warning.

If tornado sirens are going off, there is a tornado in the area atm or could be soon, so shelter in place quickly – NOT under a bridge, flyover, or overpass.

Reed is now in the White Mountains of NH (where I grew up) with pretty scary drone footage of what’s going on there.

Please stay safe out there.

Oil pastel portrait drawing in progress

Oil pastel portrait painting on toned drawing paper
Work in progress

I hope you have a lovely creative weekend.

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If you haven’t checked out my eBay store or Etsy in a while, I’ve been adding new artwork there every day.

As always, if you want to say hello or have any questions you can write me here. I love getting email, and hearing from you.

Other places to find me online.

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Work in progress shots using Conte Crayons

Katie Jeanne Wood - Masquerade mask Conte crayon portrait drawing

These are work in progress shots I took while I was drawing the second masquerade mask portrait. Since the Conte crayons smudged a bit into the background, I decided to leave it alone, and paint over the smudges later with acrylic paint.

Katie Jeanne Wood - Masquerade mask Conte crayon portrait drawing

I was drawing at night, as I usually do, after I get my office work done for the day. Looking at these photos, I can see why I thought the portraits were coming along fine.

Katie Jeanne Wood - Masquerade mask Conte crayon portrait drawing

It wasn’t until I had all 10 of them finished, and photographed that I was able to see them better. In the light of my lamp, they looked okay. If I had known what the outcome was going to be, I would have stopped at the first one. I’ll explain more on Friday, and show you the final results. Stay tuned.

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Redheaded woman oil pastel portrait drawing wip

Katie Jeanne Wood
9×6 Oil Pastel Portrait Drawing

It’s been raining here for 3 days now.. mostly a cold, endless pouring rain. We’re finally going to see the sun later this afternoon, and I can’t wait! I bet it’s going to look as bright as this woman’s hair..

Katie Jeanne Wood
9×6 Oil Pastel Portrait Drawing
May 2022
No 6
WIP

May you have a bright sunny day, but don’t forget your umbrella, just in case. ☔︎ ☂ I’ve got to catch up on other work, so I’ll see you next week. If you like this blog post, please share it using the buttons below.

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My affordably priced artwork can be found here on my site, and in my eBay store. I’m accepting orders for custom paintings, and drawings. Plus, lots of new items are available in my Etsy shop, and more are being added daily – coffee mugs, postcards, notebooks, iPhone cases, tote bags, throw pillows and blankets.

Although I mostly hang out here on my own website, there are other places to find me online.

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Figuring out what size paper works best for oil pastels

Since I started to draw portraits with oil pastels, I’ve been playing around with different sizes of watercolor paper to use. I’m kinda surprised to find out I prefer larger sizes, such as 9×12 inches now. That probably still seems small to some artists, but I have pretty much stuck to miniature or small 6×6 or 5×7 paintings for a while now. I enjoy working small for a few different reasons.

9×12 Oil Pastel Portrait
Close up shot
May 2022

I had a stack of 9×12 watercolor paper sitting in my studio, and figured since I was trying something new, I might as well try a different size, also. At first, I was intimidated by the larger size, but I quickly found out that it’s actually easier to draw with oil pastels on larger paper.

When I’m painting, I can change the size of the brush I use, but I can’t change the size of the oil pastels. I mean, yeah, I can break them in half or if I press hard enough they break on their own..that’s about it.

I’m finding it difficult to get the pastels into smaller spaces..drawing eyes is particularly difficult on smaller paper. Luckily, I have some small tortillons to help blend the pastels into those little nooks and crannies. I’m still trying to figure it all out, and see what works best for me.

9×12 Oil Pastel Portrait on watercolor paper
WIP
May 2022
No 09
This one has changed a lot since I took this photo.
Can’t want to show you more.

I hope you have a peaceful creative Wednesday. If you like this blog post, please share it using the buttons below.

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Lots of new items are available in my Etsy shop, and more are being added daily – coffee mugs, postcards, notebooks, iPhone cases, tote bags, throw pillows and blankets.

Although I mostly hang out here on my own website, there are other places to find me online.

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Oil portrait painting – creating more depth with layers

This portrait painting is a work in progress. I’m working on building up thin layers of oil paint by glazing. It’s a slow process, but if you look closely, you can see the progression, especially around her eyes.

I haven’t titled it yet, and I’m not sure if she’s meditation or sleeping. I think I’m going to go with meditating because she looks more peaceful than if she was sleeping, yeah? Idk? I’m still trying to figure it out as I go along. More photos as soon as I have more.

If you like this blog post, please use the share buttons below, and let all your social media friends know. Thanks!

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Lots of new items are available in my Etsy shop, and more are being added daily – coffee mugs, postcards, notebooks, iPhone cases, tote bags, throw pillows and blankets.

Although I mostly hang out here on my own website, there are other places to find me online.

Subscribe to Blog via Email

Revising – In the Silence After Dinner portrait painting

Over the years, I have painted this portrait three times. The first one had a green background, and it sold within ten minutes of me listing it. I love when that happens.

I found this one in my storage the other day, and it had a gray background. It was kinda blah, so I decided to revise it.

The green background from the first painting is still fresh in my mind, even though I painted it back in 2013ish. So the gray had to go. I blocked it out with a mixture of gesso and white paint.

Next, she needed a complete face lift..new eyes, nose, and lips.

Yowzers! The only green I had mixed up in my paint pots was this, which is more of a yellow fluorescent than green. I’m still not sure if this is going to end up being the background color or not, but given that it might, I also added some of it to her cheeks to balance it out.

Revising – In the Silence After Dinner portrait painting
Work in progress

This is where I’m going to leave off for today because I don’t have any more photographs to show you. I revised this portrait a couple weeks ago, so I think she’s finished now.

I’ve been letting it sit for a while to be sure I like it before taking more photos of it. I hate going to all the work of photographing & listing something, and then decide I want to change it again. Ugh. I think I’m going to keep the very bold, colorful look, but I keep wavering. I’m going to wait at least another week before I go to the trouble of photographing it..just in case I change my mind about the colors.

Can’t get motivated

Dried paint that I pried off my jar of mauve paint
It looks like a little crown.

Experimenting:
abstract painting
using dried clumps of acrylic paint
on canvas

Weirdly, I liked everything about this one, except the pink paint. Now that I’m looking at the photos, the pink is starting to grow on me. It’s still a work in progress.

Boy Wearing Crown drawing in red ink

Red roses palette knife #shorts
Available here
Small to large prints are available here

I posted on my Youtube channel for the first time in 3 years. Can’t believe so much time has passed since I’ve made a video. I just recently started making these little video clips for my Etsy listings, so I figured I might as well post them on YT, my new IG, and here on my blog, also.

Need to get back to painting my oil portrait series, but I can’t get motivated to do so. It’s on my to-do list and is something I want to focus for 2022. However, I know from experience that making myself create something that I’m not into or feeling atm is usually not a good way to spend my time. So for now I’m gonna stick with something I do want to paint, and that’s abstracts. Why force it?

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Watching: Finished season 3 of Succession, and now I want to watch it again. I do this every time I finish a season because I’m absolutely sure I missed something the first time around. They laid the complicated, encrypted business speak on even thicker this time around. I have no idea how the actors remember their lines. I got a bit lost, and feel I need to rewatch it or find some episode recaps to read online to get up to speed. What an amazing show, tho. The writing is absolutely fantastic – fast paced, and creative. LOVE!!

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