Recent paintings including some that sold

Here are a few of the pieces I am working on now.

1. The girl with the blond hair I started some time ago and never finished.  I'm going to see if I can save the awkward nose - the perspective was completely off but shows

me at least one area in which I've improved.   

Next, I'm using colored pencils to draw two Bob White Quail.  These birds are nostalgic only because growing up in Oklahoma at this time of year I would hear about my uncle going out to hunt them.  I think they are nice to look at.  I seem to be drawn to browns at the moment, which is very new, as I've been into bright colors even fluorescents for some time now.  

Next, I've been working for the last few days on a portrait from photos of a woman and her baby.  I just became a member of an art collective, which started as a secret santa group for Christmas on  Instagram.  We just finalized our name today _Coven of hearts art collective.   I'm thrilled about this as it is a form of support, friendship , and should help with getting my art exposed.  

(I've added in creatures from her photos in her Instagram profile)

And finally, one I started yesterday and have been working on this evening is from a photo of a man dressed as Santa from the 1930s.  From what I read it was used in a coca-cola ad from the time.   I loved his muted realistic outfit.  I'm still in the process of applying snow and have not figured out what i will do for the background.

  In fact, all of these are unfinished of course, but I thought it would be good to make a practice of posting my art here while in process.  I cannot show the portraiture on Instagram yet anyway since it is a surprise gift.    When I have completed these I will scan them in with a better photo.

Finally, this was just a fun painting I did late at night the other day:

I love painting pretty faces, birds, mountains, and suns so this was just a painting for the pure enjoyment of it.   Thank you for looking.  I promise to keep posting more often here and hope to provide information of value from what I have learned over the last few years on my journey as a self-taught artist.