Since I committed to doing a post a day for ART EVERY DAY MONTH, I am posting this, although much of today was doing research and sketches for a map I am working on and there is nothing sexy about a page full of lists. I won’t bore you with that. Plus, you’ll see the results soon enough. I did learn some exciting things about my subject, though.

Although I did do my morning routine and those sketches, I decided not to post those.

Instead, I am posting the color sketches of “Madison,” who owns my friend JoEllen.

For Madison’s portrait, I did several different sketches, which is why I make sure I do a pencil sketch first (like the one you saw of Rebel yesterday) and then make photocopies on cardstock so I can do these color sketches like you see here. The larger sketch was a Tombow marker warmup for me to play with the shapes and colors and get a feel for what paint I might want to use and getting to “know” Madison. I wasn’t quite going for accuracy, I was testing color relationships, carving shadows and just having fun. You can see where I put color swatches on the side. Then I did the small color sketches. One is ink and watercolor and the other is acrylic. The final that you saw the other day was a blend of mediums. You can see how each medium feels different. There is a lot of work that goes into doing a portrait like this. I might try a whimsical Madison sometime in the near future.

Thanks to JoEllen and Madison for the lovely portrait opportunity,