Hamilton Ave House Commission

A while ago I was contacted by a woman who had seen the commission of the the red house in the snow that I painted back in March. The new client's mother's house was the subject this time and it was a house with multiple angles that wasn't easy to sketch out. Added to that the shingles were those brown, textured ones that I wasn't sure how to paint...and there were a lot of them. That was the first thing I practiced before beginning the commission. I ended up using a very light grey Tombow marker to create most of the texture on the shingles and then added a little watercolor. The house had shutters and canopies over the windows and lots of foliage. I was working from photos because it was going to be a Christmas gift for her mom, so I really couldn't go there to look at the house unless as she said, "The car wasn't in the driveway." The staircase was missing from her photos so I was able to take a few more photos that included that area. Then I was faced with the area behind the stairs. In real life what you saw was mostly the neighbor's driveway with a motor home parked there as well as the neighbor's house being very prominent. When I took the photos and loaded them onto my computer I was happy to see that there was a small streetlamp with a sign having the house number. So I included that and did a lot of foliage and just a hint of the other house.

The client asked if the painting could be done by Thanksgiving weekend because she would be home visiting from Pittsburg. I met her and her family and they were all thrilled with the result. She said it was better than she ever expected. I'm so glad!

The client posted a photo of the painting on the Sayville Artists FB page and wrote such a nice compliment. I was thrilled to say the least.