fine art and private & home school K-12th grades Christian art curriculum
supporting the grammar, dialectic, and rhetoric stages of Classical education

Life Painting and Drawing Gallery

ORIGINAL ARTWORKS by Diane Shields Spears
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"Metamorphosis #2"
oil on canvas
image size: 32"x40"
unframed
price: $645.00
"Raspberry Z"
acrylic on canvas
image size: 24"x18"
manufactured frame
not for sale
"Z in Sunlight"
acrylic on canvas
image size: 24"x18"
manufactured frame
SOLD
A one color (indigo blue) oil sketch (underpainting)
A bristle brush was used to apply the paint and to also lift paint from the canvas to allow the white of the canvas to produce value and modeling.
The image was taken from an old Polaroid snapshot of my brother, Tom, during his college years. All the background in the photo was elimated.

To purchase artwork,
see information and
instructions on the
Art Galleries Introduction page.
Very thin cadmium yellow light was applied to the background, parts of Tom's face, and to the parts of the dark cat fur, which produced green automatically. Then very thin alizarin crimson was layered over the blue in the background, and over the yellow and blue in the face and hands producing a rosy/peachy flesh color.
Thicker paint was applied to all areas, beginning with the face and hands, then to the background. The clothing was not painted as heavily. No areas of the canvas were left unpainted, even the white areas.
The fur patterns on the cat were given more detail, the face and hair were adjusted to look more like him, and the background was made lighter in some areas with vigorous brushstrokes to add "energy".

"Tom and Capt'n Kitty"
oil on canvas
canvas size: 40"x30"
not for sale
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