This next Christmas gift reveal was so hard to keep under wraps as I worked on it. I love sharing sneak peeks of what I’m working on, and I know a lot of my followers on Facebook enjoy them as well. This piece I couldn’t share much of anything, just a tree and my signature basically. When this gift was for one of my biggest followers and supporters, anything more than that would have given the whole piece away!
Without further ado, I give you….
Title: Little Country Church
Medium: Graphite on paper
Size: 10 x 12
Time to complete: About 12 hours, but spanned over a few weeks
Purpose: Commissioned by a regular customer for his wife as her Christmas gift.
Thought process: I knew this piece was going to be challenging. This church means so much to so many people, and I wanted to make sure it was done right. John and Gretta just moved away, and this church was very important to them.
Getting the reference picture just right was a challenge. John initially mentioned the morning sun rays coming up over and on the church, but when I took morning pictures, it just wasn’t right at all. There was too much dark shadows that overshadowed the church.
I ended up going with an early afternoon light, which made the church just glow. It was perfect!
After doing some cropping of my photo for a better composition, I got to work, and it was pretty straightforward from there.
Favorite part: That it looks like the church! Getting a building’s proportions just right are tricky, but I think this one turned out okay.
Also hearing that Gretta loved it made my day!
Least favorite part: The trees were so hard to do. Some had most of the leaves off of them, some were about half leaves, half branches. Finding the balance between leaves and branches that didn’t look like scribbles was hard, and I’m not sure I got it right.
Problems with the piece: Getting the proportions of the building right and the trees looking tree-like was challenging. Also getting the contrast between the white of the church and other highlights and the shadows was tricky.
Also, mailing the piece to Texas was hard. I wanted to keep it! But you all know I tend to have that problem with all of my pieces…
Product availability: Available as prints in my Etsy store! Will be available as note cards soon.
Two more Christmas commissions left to be revealed! Up next week is a portrait, so stay tuned 🙂
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