Quick sketches

May Journal Project                          Day 23

Sketch for "My Sister's Shoes- 2001"                            MJP #23

Looking through my journal from 2001 I found a quick planning sketch I'd done for a painting.  It's the one in the middle.  Today I added a couple more sketches and a little color. I'm going to leave these pages alone now so I don't loose the essence of my orginal drawing.  Sometimes less is more.

Last summer I wrote a blog post about my sister  including an image of a painting titled "My Sister's Shoes." When I painted her portrait I was working on my master's degree. During that time I created many pieces inspired by old family photos.  I was particularly drawn to ones where  body language expressed the subject's mood or thoughts.  In this photo my sister, Janis, is about four years old.   I just loved her posture and attitude.  

I also loved those shoes.  I remember as a little girl how excited I was when I was old enought to pick out my own patent leather "mary jane's."  They were so shiny and made wonderful sounds as I walked on the wooden floors in our house. They were a little to slick for running though.  If the portrait had been of me there would have been bandages on both knees!

"My Sister's Shoes"                2001  &    planning sketch - I changed the position of the left arm to give her a little more defiant look.  The dress is brown in the painting because I remember my granny had made us itchy ones in that color.