M family 15 portraits

Since August I have been working on portraits for the "M" family. It has become a tradition for them to order Christmas portraits from me every year, and I am honored that they keep coming back! Sometimes I have just one portrait per kid, once I did two; this time I had three portraits per kid, for a total of 15 drawings. I suppose I could have done a repeat of the same picture three times, but that would have been drudgery. Besides, now it will be harder for the family to decide which portrait goes to which recipient. Haha.
In order for me to finish these on time, I had to stick to a schedule of so many drawings per month. This meant I had to get started even when there might not be good photos available for me to work with yet.
With this family, I get to pick the photos I want from the pictures they've posted on Facebook. This is nice because I get to choose, but also annoying when the pictures aren't high quality. When one kid might not have any good pictures up yet, I try to wait on drawing that child in hopes that a better picture will show up in time for me to draw it.
This has been an interesting study in what a difference the photo makes when you get a portrait done (for any of you who might want such a thing in the future.) Sometimes one I thought looked good will pale in comparison to a later portrait from a better photo.
So, is the picture low quality and pixelated? I might not be able to see the details very good. Even the angle might change what they look like: is the camera too close and distorting the shape of their face? All things to consider when choosing a photo.
So I've organized these with the three pictures of each kid together, with my least favorite of the three first, and my favorite last in each group.

A.
I like all three of these, but I find it interesting that they all look like a completely different girl! Also, she looks a lot like River. Each photo was under completely different lighting, and I had to zoom in to varying degrees. At first, the middle portrait was my favorite, and I still really love it. The photo was crisp and up close, the lighting was pretty good, and the expression was cute.
 But when I drew the third one, I was absolutely in love with it. I predict the family will like the second one best because it's so fun, but I can't stop obsessing over the third. The photo was dark and I wasn't too happy about it, but it turned out so awesome. I love how her face blends into the shadows on the edge, I love the colors,the direction of the light, and the softness of it. Of course, I tend to prefer more serious or subtle expressions to big smiles, so there's that too. It's my favorite out of all 15 drawings for sure. The photo here doesn't do it justice.

B
This is "A"s brother. They all turned out well, and again the angles make him look very different in each one. The light was kind of orange in the first photo, but I like the way it translated to the drawing, and his funny expression. I like the second one because I think it looks most like him, from the photos I've seen.  I waited till the very end of November to do his last portrait,because I couldn't find a good photo anywhere. When I blew this one up it was very pixelated, so there are no hard lines in the drawing, but it just gives it a pastel-like texture, and I kind of like it. The expression is great too!

 
 

C
Out of all the kids, I feel like this girls portraits were somehow the least successful. The first one I though was okay when I drew it, but the more I look at it, the less I like it. She kind of has a fake smile, and there is something weird about her nose. The eyes are odd too. The second one is the one I drew first. It's shadowy, which is okay (I mean, look at the first baby's picture that I like) but it was hard to see the details in her mouth and I'm not sure it looks like her enough. In retrospect, a different background color might have been better too.
The third one is by far the best. I think it looks like her, but a bit older somehow. I like the colors a lot. I just finished this one in November.

 

UPDATE:
So I decided to make a fourth picture of this girl. This put me a week over my self-imposed deadline, but I really wanted to do it. I used this one to replace the portrait with the yellow shirt, but for a while I was debating on replacing the second one instead, because it's not my favorite. I hope they like this one! The photo had crazy colored hair, so I made up the hair colors, based on the light.  The background is the same color some of her hair was dyed in the photo.




D
So on the first picture, the lighting was dark, and she was far away so the resolution was bad too. I thought I could make it look better as I drew it, but I wasn't very successful. She looks okay, and is posing cute, but I wish her hair was down or something. I used it because it was a first day of school picture.
 At first, the second portrait was my favorite of her. The photo was outside, it was close up so had good resolution, and you could even see freckles on her face, which I didn't even know she had! But then I finished the last one, and I love it even more. The photo was good enough that I could zoom in closer, she's wearing cute clothes, and she has a cute smile. I'm sure the family will love that one best. In the photo, she actually had some face paint on, so I had to omit that in the drawing.This photo doesn't do justice to the colors in her face, like her pink cheeks!






 


E

Everytime I draw this family, they don't have many pictures to choose from for this guy. I guess he's really active and it's hard to get him to hold still. Fortunately, I got several this time.
The first was a very shadowy, pixelated picture, but it still worked out well. I like his smile and the colors in that one.
This second one is great; it was in the daylight, he's smiling, and it was close-up. I drew it first. The third picture is my favorite. I like the angle of the photo, his serious expression, and the colors that were there! I think the family will like the happier ones better, but I like this one second out of all the portraits I drew this time.

 

Are there any that stood out to you?

In the Alley

When we went to the alley in Rapid City to take Elora's pictures last month, it looked a little different. As expected, much of the artwork had changed, as it always does. There was a big mural about the Dakota Access Pipeline thing going on in North Dakota:

There were some other big colorful things, but nothing too exciting:

But the biggest change was a little sad. All over the place were big square signs painted on the walls, saying that there was no artwork allowed without a permit. Several buildings which had previously been colorful were now covered with a monotone coat of paint, and a sign that said, "Not part of the art alley". Of course the building owners are entitled to having the back end of their buildings clean, but it really changed the feel of the place, and it was disheartening

So while we were there, Joseph took a few pictures with his phone, while I was taking my pictures of Elora.

 Some of his photos were of me, taking photos! I think they're kind of fun to look at because it puts the portraits in context.

It was a fun day.

The Amateur guide to taking family photos

 (Spoiler: the few good pictures are at the end)

Do you want to know how to take your own family pictures, even when you're not a professional trained, photographer? How about when you're not even a "mommy photographer" with a fancy camera pretending to be a professional photographer? Well, I am perfectly qualified to tell you, because I am neither of those things! yay!

1.First, scour pinterest photos for all the best family group poses, preferably for the current season. Then carefully plan how to pose your own family on the special day. Forget about how you actually have to be in the picture too and how things never go as planned. Check.

(not my picture, obviously)

2. Go scout out good locations for your pictures. I went and looked around this grove of trees with Elora and River a few weeks beforehand to plan where we could stand and what time the light would be right. I also watched the place so we could go out when the leaves were the most colorful- they weren't at that colorful point yet when the girls were there. (Spoiler: the pictures of the girls in this spot turned out infinitely better than the family pics here.)

3.Plan out your outfits. All of the best family pictures on Pinterest look good partially because they all have matching outfits. I don't care if we look dressed up, but matching colors are good.  Too bad we don't all have leather boots with fringe or fur, like all the other peoples' photos. Except this one.

(not my picture again)

 We went with a blue/brown/ white theme this year, which I thought would look nice with colorful leaves... also they matched a really cool shirt Elora had. I wore some skinny pants that I rarely wear in real life, so at least one person in the photo could have fancy boots with their clothes. Yeah, they were hidden in most of the pictures.

4. Go out later than planned, so the light won't be bright enough. Make sure the baby didn't get a nap so she's especially uncooperative. Confuse everyone about where you're going to take the first pictures, so they're wandering around wasting more time. Check.

 5. Make sure you look at everyone's face before you snap the picture. Are they smiling nicely? Not picking their nose? Are everyone's eyes open? Is the baby happy and looking at the camera? Are you standing up straight, and at the correct angle so you look more fit? Oh wait. You're in the picture so you can't really tell. Oh well. Check. (I didn't fix the color on these ones).

Jonah and Josh. They look real nice.

smile, River!

River. And Jonah. And Eli. Lovely.

6.Find an unexpectedly nice spot, then wait in annoyance when one kid has disappeared into the trees and you all have to wait for him to come back before its seriously too dark.

So anyway.  All the pictures we took IN the grove of trees turned out pretty bad. The leaves reflecting on the skin in the dim light (or something) made everyone look weird and orange, and it was really hard to fix afterwards; in some photos the color still looks way off. The sunset was beautiful though! Too bad River was ornery, so all my plans of how to arrange people went out the door, as we were just hurrying to take pictures whenever River would sit still. Sigh. Here are those pictures in the grove:

The color is sooo off here.

This one is okay, just a little pixelated up close. Don't like the seating either.

 

Same, except River's making a silly face. And weird color.

Love the light behind us, just what I pictured.  Too bad River's hiding! Such a missed shot.

Same picture, just cropped horizontal. Oh Jonah.

7.  Actually get  one good picture in the location of choice, after all the props and the kids are gone. Love the sunset here. Ugh.





8. Amidst many fails, get maybe three or four usable pictures. (The pictures in the field were taken before the grove of trees).

This one I liked the idea, but it wasn't executed well. River looks cute, but I wanted to be by Joseph instead of keeping River in the photo!

Love this one! Except the angle makes Josh and Jonah look strangely small, while Elora and Jonah are huge. haha. The leaves are very nice.

Another good one! Good job guys!

 

Same picture, except River's face is different. Click to see larger.

9. Find much better spots to take a group picture, after some of the group has gone and everyone is tired of taking pictures. Take a picture anyway to remind yourself that at least you saw that good spot.

 

 

The End.

Elora's colorful 11 pictures

 I just KNOW you've been waiting for Elora's birthday pictures. Since apparently that's what this blog is all about: birthday pictures. We went to the art ally in Rapid City,  where we took Josh's pictures last year because those turned out so fun...and Elora has had the "fall trees" theme going on in her pictures for the last few years in a row.

The graffiti in the alley change all the time (and is rarely profane in nature), and even though there weren't as many murals as we've seen in the past (I'll talk about that another time) there were still lots of great places for pictures!

Elora loves red, so we planned on her wearing this outfit: the guitar shirt works great with the graffiti, the plaid shirt is always a good way to look cool (according to her mom at least, who may be stuck in the early 90's) and I made the patches on Elora's pants a few weeks ago when they were starting to wear out. I kinda wish they were mine, actually.

A.  I love these two, which show the whole alley. I love Elora's stance, her face, etc. I only wish it showed more cool artwork, instead of a corridor of garbage cans. Oh well, I guess that's what you find in alleys, right?



We were lucky to find several spots that had perfect colors to go with Elora's outfit. This is one of the first spots. There were tons of places with this red line going through the middle of the wall; I imagine the same person did all of them, and it worked perfectly for all of our pictures.

B. In this group, I like the layout of the top right one and the bottom right one best.
























C. This spot was perfect. I wish I'd taken some nicer, more creative photos here, because the colors and abstract wall were great. Note the red line again. It was Elora's idea to stand up on top of the wall. I also like the ones with the ground showing because there are a few fall leaves scattered about. I think the top left is maybe the best. (We took some serious pictures, just like with Joshua.)

D.  This was a fun spot, it's just a few feet over from the location of the photos in "C". I didn't even notice that Elora had a question mark right above her head, and I'm not sure if I like it or not. Oh well, she looks cute in them anyway!

 

We found a lot of staircases to sit on. This first one is one of my favorite places in the alley, but the staircase is blocked off by a little fence thing. So we took pictures on top of it! I love that there is a tree in the alley, so you can tell it's fall. Elora likes the top left one that shows the tree more, and I like the top right one because of the interesting angle. The bottom right is at a different spot.

E.

 

F. Another staircase. I like all of these. The top right is the best close up, but I also like the angle of the top left.

G. The top two spots here were cute, but I'm not sure the colors look good with Elora's clothes. The bottom spot was great, but I think she could have maybe posed different, like maybe standing behind the railing? Oh well.  Red line here again...

H. Another good sitting spot. I like the artwork here, but Elora thought it was a little weird. I like these pictures too, though it almost seems like we're trying to highlight Elora's shoes, as they are closest to the camera.

I. This spot was at one end of the alley, so the light was shining in, which could be good or bad. It was actually a cloudy day up until this point, which worked well so we didn't have harsh light like with some of Joshua's pictures. I liked all the colorful boxes here, and I experimented with the colors being bright, or faded. I like the faded one, but I know from experience that sometimes when I print these, the photo place tries to "correct" the picture, and it doesn't look quite how I'd like. Anyway. I like the layout and face of the top left one the best, but the blowing hair in the bottom left is fun too.

J. Finally, I thought this was funny. I loved this place because of the bright colors, the black fence, and the red line, but I didn't even notice until I was viewing these on my computer that the wall says "2016"  right behind Elora! Haha. I wonder if someone else was taking senior pictures or something and put that there? Either way, that's perfect for commemorating a birthday!

Which one do you like best?