Portrait of Mike Brennan by Marcy Brennan

9" x 12" Oil on Masonite - Artist's Collection

This is my first portrait!  It is of my husband Mike.  I completed most of it in my Intuitive Oil painting class and finished it up the same day at home.  My goal was to get the features in the right place and to express the portrait by the use of color as much as form.  The challenging part was that my reference photo was on my iphone and it wasn't a head shot!  The screen kept going blank and I had to constantly turn the phone back on to see what I was painting.  Next time, I'll print the photo on paper ;-)

This was my reference photo

Portrait of Andrea by Marcy Brennan

8" x 10" oil on masonite - Artist's Collection

I have never had any desire to paint faces - until my intuitive oils class.  Our teacher went over the basic placement of the features on the face and turned us loose.  I worked most of the class on this and couldn't stop.  After I got home, I continued working for another five hours, but it's definitely my daughter Andrea! She was giving me one of those classic teenager's looks as if to say, "Mom you're such a geek always wanting to take pictures of us."  She was 16 at the time and now she's in her mid-30's, so this is a special piece for my own collection.  Of course, now I need to do one of her sister from the same trip so I have a complete set!