Life is a Great Big Canvas

 One of the things I enjoy painting is known as "altered art" what that means is that I find an unwanted painting at a yard sale or second hand shop, and I alter it, adding in an element of pop culture, normally. Usually I only alter part of it, and try to keep the additions looking like they are part of the original piece. Sometimes, if the painting was really amateur, I will enhance it a little, before adding another element.  For this particular piece, however, it started out as altered art and just became an original painting. I started on a thrift store painting that was never finished. It was a tree with the outline of a child peeking out from behind it. It was just barely sketched in, with a little green painted in the background.  Some pieces just tell me what they need to be, and this one rasped, "Gollum! Gollum!" So I researched, and ended up using three different reference photos of Gollum and Andy Serkis, to draw out my Smiegol. I am not the greatest lan...

 As a portrait artist, it's challenging to find a way to demonstrate to the public my ability to create an accurate likeness, using private commissions and studies, because, well, nobody knows who these people are unless they are friends or family. They may be done well, may be a perfect likeness, but if you don't know them, you are not going to know if it truly captures their essence. This is one reason why I have created celebrity portraits. The majority of people can recognize them. Even if a portrait is done poorly, you can still get a likeness; but if you are really good at what you do, people will see and appreciate that. Right now, we are looking at the end of a 15 year television series being filmed this week. I am speaking of Supernatural. If you don't know what it is, it's about two attractive brothers, Sam and Dean, who are "hunters". They track down ghosts, vampires, werewolves, demons, and other things, with the help of their angel buddy Castiel. ...