Thursday, December 14, 2006

House Portrait Mailboxes





House portraits are very popular items for me. Customers sometimes can be a bit unsure about how to proceed when ordering one so I thought I would cover that in this update. The portrait gets painted on whatever side of the mailbox the customer wants. The door and opposite side can be used for landscaping and personalization.

What I need to complete a project like this are several good quality photos of the house. This means, distance shots as well as close ups of the house, landscaping and any other details you would like in the painting . I would say my biggest challenge is getting people to send me quality photos that actually represent the house and grounds properly.

Once we get past that hurdle, I spend some time speaking with the customer via e-mail about details they would like included, also, we talk about lighting quite a bit sometimes. This can be a tricky thing....you might know the color of your house but it is not always obvious to me from looking at the photo. The light at the time the photograph was taken plays a big part in how the photo looks to me. So this is the time when I'll talk about how the house looks to me, what the color looks like and ask if this is in fact, the true color of the house.

House portaits are incredibly detail oriented and time consuming to do. Layers and layers of paint go on to create the base coat, shading and highlighting. Inbetween all these layers, time must pass so that the paint is dry before I apply the next layer. The landcaping and other details go on once the house is finished...at this point I stand back and take a good long look to make sure I have not missed anything. House portraits are very rewarding to paint.

2 comments:

Anonymous said...

Ruth, your work is absolutely stunning. You are so talented! This one is gorgeous, I love it!
hugs
Ingeborg
www.gorgeouscrafts.com

Ruth Welter said...

Thank you so much Ingeborg!