Thursday, March 18, 2010

"Our Precious Juel" process

Here's the process I went through to complete my latest project titled, "Our Precious Juel." This project was commissioned by a wonderful lady who wanted a special and unique portrait of her daughter who passed away in 2008. I went to work right away on some sketches for the layout because I wanted the entire piece, including the frame, to have an other than traditional shape. So here's what I came up with:



Because of the circumstances I needed to work from some challenging photos--so I felt it necessary to do quite a few studies including this sketch...


I also did some oil sketches to figure out the colors and values of the face in the main panel...


I then completed a half-size oil study of the complete piece...


I put together a jig for the panels to get the proper spacing between the panels and then drew in the top and bottom arches.


after that I started work on the final piece...


the linen panels I'm using are from New Traditions in Ogden, UT...


and roughly six months later....the final piece. 40" x 37".

The frame makes the entire piece, Rett Ashby built this frame and he did an amazing job! It becomes part of the artwork...



8 comments:

katealyson said...

Case, it just turned out so amazing. And it looks spectacular in the frame! Absolutely gorgeous. You truly amaze me with each piece!

Casey Childs said...

Thanks! And as you most likely noticed--I decided to do something different with the text. :)

katealyson said...

That's funny that you say that...I was thinking, hmmmm that looks different to me, but maybe I'm remembering wrong! haha! But I totally love it! I think it really matches the feel of the painting.

Christina said...

I really like how it turned out Casey. The gold leaf is really interesting. I like how you are using it in the painting of Owen too. I could see many possibilities with pursuing that...

Great job! What did your buyer have to say about it?

Jason Waskey said...

Casey--

Terrific piece.

Every step along the way is its own little jewel. Really well done.

Casey Childs said...

Tina, the buyer absolutely loves it! She couldn't be more thrilled. And, yes, it's now opened me up to a whole new world of gold leaf! " :)

Jason, thanks so much! This project took me so long that it's now good to sit back and enjoy it.

shane said...

good jobbers. frame style ties in well.

clippingimages said...

very nice and bold colors