Erin Farnsworth Studio

One side several layers in, one side only about one layer. Guess which is which? 😅

Sometimes I have to figure out how to paint something I've never done before... like a granite wall!

This painting is currently in the Church History Museum of the Church of Jesus Christ of Latter-Day Saints in Salt Lake City, Utah. Follow along with me as I show you step by step how it came together!

As soon as the drawing was transferred, I painted a gray color base, and then used a combination of natural sponges and finally fine splattering with a toothbrush (some things you learn in grade school stick with you!) to create the different light and dark splotches that granite has.

Bonus photo: the very first layer of the skin on the face and neck!

Sometimes I have to figure out how to paint something I've never done before... like a granite wall!

This painting is currently at a year-long show in the Church History Museum of the Church of Jesus Christ of Latter-Day Saints in Salt Lake City, Utah.
Follow along with me as I show you step by step how it came together!

As soon as the drawing was transferred, I painted a gray color base, and then used a combination of natural sponges and finally fine splattering with a toothbrush (some things you learn in grade school stick with you!) to create the different light and dark splotches that granite has.

Bonus photo: the very first layer of the skin on the face and neck!

Today I'm starting posts on a painting that is currently in a year-long show in Salt Lake City (I'll explain more about that in later).
First up, masking off the figure so I could get in the background! I pretty much always paint the background of a painting first and paint the figure on top of it. I usually just freehand the edges, but I didn't want to risk extra paint inside the figure area. It worked so well, I think I'll be doing it in the future!

Finished painting!
"Portrait of a Frustrated Mother at 41 (Ode to Courbet)"
Bonus image of Gustave Courbet's painting "The Desperate Man," that was an influence for this self-portrait.
This painting, like much of my work, has some parts that I have a hard time looking at, simply because I don't feel like I did a great job with them. Also like other pieces, there are parts I'm really happy with. 🤷‍♀️
Oh well, time to paint a new self portrait! My only stipulation is that it's different from the first two. I'm thinking light background and very casual feeling...What do you think?
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Fingernails painted! It's the little things... 😅

Swipe to see this self portrait's inspiration...
The second image is a painting by Gustave Courbet (famous French painter) from 1844-45. It's a pretty genius paining, IMO. His self portrait has so much strong emotion in it--and it feels SO relatable.
Anyway, current progress.
Have a fantastic day!

How is your day going? I'd like to hear about it. 🌷
Lips are in, face is pretty much done.
Still a bit scary, but moving along!

Swipe to see what a difference highlights make to eyes!
Why? Well, highlights help tell our brains all kinds of info about an object we're viewing--size, shape, and even what the surface texture is like. In the case with eyes, putting highlights in the right places make them look wet and 'alive.'
Interesting, right?!

With the eyes and nose in, we're looking a lot less terrifying (see yesterday's post) and a lot more frustrated, don't you think?
Current progress on my most recent self-portrait, "Portrait of a Frustrated Mother at 41 (Ode to Courbet)."

I call this post, "The Progression of Terror." 😅
Sure, the emotion I was going for in this painting is "frustration," but at this stage it looked pretty dang terrifying.
My cousin Carson () mentioned that it reminded her of medusa. I can't deny there's some resemblance here. 😳😂

Do you think the background should go in first, last, or somewhere in the middle?

I was always taught to try to bring up the painting together, so you can see the relationships among all the different parts (colors, composition, values). I still think this is good advice--but I also like to get most of the background in before I start a figure--it helps me to think of the background as behind. Also, it's usually not my favorite part of working on a painting, so it helps to get a lot of it out of the way when I'm fresh and excited about the new project.
Here, I started with the blue because I wanted it to show though the darks in the background later.

My son with his painting, "Andrew at 15" (though he's almost 17 now!).
I always like taking a photo with my model and the finished painting, if I can. When I have my kids do this, though, it usually results in laughter, embarrassment, and a difficulty to hold it together (see second photo). 😂

More work on the face! One side is about two layers in and one side just has the first layer. Guess which is which! 😆
Oh, and the hair has been roughed in with thinned-down paint to give me a good start when I go back to it later.

First layer of the hand, building colors and values (lights and darks).
The middle pictures are lighter than they should be--turned out my lens was dirty. 🙄

Painting on a tight deadline can be tricky! This painting had to be done from start to finish in three weeks--which for me is really tight! It meant a bunch of 10 hour painting days, and (as seen here), setting up a heater to get the background dry enough to work on the figure. Oil paint doesn't really "dry" like water based paint--rather, the oil in the paint develops a flexible film as it cures. Increased air flow and warmth can speed the process up a little, so when I'm in a tight spot, I occasionally employ my trusty portable heater! 😄

Who doesn't love a little before-and-after?

I just love painting eyes. It's probably my absolute favorite part of painting a portrait. Here I've put together a little before and after of working on the eyes.
No eyelashes yet, that comes later. 😉

Finished painting! This little piece was made for an exhibition of small watercolor paintings, and couldn't be bigger than about 5x7in. You can see how I cropped it with the masking tape lines before framing, just to make sure I was happy how the painting would look once trimmed to 5x7 inches. As with all my work, there are things I'm pleased with and others that I'm, well, not. 🤷‍♂
Oh well! Time to move on! Tomorrow I'll start showing images/vids from a portrait painting I did soon after finishing this one.

How often would you like to see artwork progress from each artist you follow? Once a day? Once a week? How much is too much or too little?
Needing to get back to showing progress on the work I've done over the last few months, here is the drawing for a small watercolor painting I did for a local show at the beginning of this year. It's called "Late Afternoon."
Pencil on Arches Cold Pressed 140lb watercolor paper, finished size 5x7in.