Silhouette, Takes 2 & 3

After making a silhouette of my favorite nephew for Charlotte, my other sister, Esther, wanted one as well - and so did I.  I set to work last weekend completing them.  It takes a long time to finish each one, so I put my newest mix from Krit on the iPad and downloaded season two of Downton Abbey.   Then the painting commenced...

clean and organized

messy and chaotic

Painting wasn't the only thing I did this weekend, which is part of the reason it took me so long to finish.  But mainly, it just takes a long time - a very long time.  My back was very glad when it was all over and so was my brain.  This pattern is not the easiest thing to follow, but I think I made it through without any mistakes.

The lamp you see on the table was an essential part of this process.  It's a Creative HD lamp from Ottlite.  The box tells me that it's "High Definition Natural Lighting" and I completely agree.  It is wonderful.  I worked on this painting late into the night Friday.  Whenever I would sit up to stretch, I was always surprised to see that it was dark out.  The lighting was so natural that I thought the sun was still shining.  I'm not even exaggerating a little bit - I kept losing track of time!  Thank you Mom for this awesome gift!  It will get a lot of use.

I am very picky when it comes to color selection and I am never happy with the options at AC Moore.  The sample size at Lowes is nice and relatively cheap ($3 each) and the best part is that it allows me to pick my own colors.  I have a lot of paint leftover, but I only buy colors I truly like so they will be used again.  Here are the colors I chose (all my colors are from Olympic):

Orange - Frosty Melon, A23b
Gray - Gray Beard, D31a
Blue - Aqua Chiffon, A58a
Purple - Blackberry Jam, B41b

This one is for Esther.  Her favorite color is orange, so it plays a big part in the design.  I used it in two different sections, with one shade of orange being lighter than the other (I just mixed in some white).  I don't have my Silhouette machine in my apartment at the moment, so I'll add Cam's silhouette later (that will make it a little less dizzying).

This one is for me.  I didn't want a lot of contrast in mine, so I kept the colors lighter and pretty similar.  I can't wait to get Cam's silhouette in there.  I'm glad they are done; I was getting sick of staring at diamonds and painting straight lines (it's harder than it looks).