Dr. and Mrs. William Spies
 

This was a commission request from one of their children, for their 60th wedding anniversary. The background was their special request, they had seven children who they called their "seven shooting stars."
It was presented to them on Saturday at a large family reunion.

Hi Marta!

Love the shooting stars concept! They look very happy and proud :-)

Hi Carl,

The shooting stars concept was actually one I resisted, but it's what they wanted.

I'm not terribly happy with the way this painting looks in here. I take the picture, reduce it to the number of pixels it says must be, and it somehow loses most of it's detail, so it almost looks cartoony. It takes steel nerves to post anything because the other portrait artists that post in here are just so awesome. I start worrying " Does my painting really look this bad, do I get so involved in the painting that I lose touch with reality?" But then I go down to my studio and salve my anxiety with a look at some of my favorites. I wonder if everyone has these kind of mind boggling self doubts!

Marta,

I know what you mean. No one has replied to the last drawing that I posted. If I don't get enough compliments -I get depressed :-)

I noticed that there was still a lot of grey and 'muddiness' from the photograph. I usually remove that with PhotoShop. Even at 72 dpi and the file size restrictions, you should be able to get an image as vibrant as the original. It takes work to get the photograph to look as good as the original. Let me know if you have PhotoShop and need help.

Carlos