That painting that breaks your heart

I am taking a break from my painting and thought now would be a perfect time to share some of what I am doing.   

For about three months now I have been working on a double portrait. I am not a strong portrait painter so it has been a little difficult for me and the subject doesn't make it any easier either. It is of my grandparents who I adore and miss. I am a little anxious as well because I fear I will be in the spot light of my whole family and trust me, we have a very big family with a lot of opinions. However the one that I care most for is my grandmother's. My grandfather passed away in 2001. 
One day I am going to paint another portrait of them but at a very large scale. This painting is only 24 x 16. 

The photo of the ear is my grandfathers. I just wanted to show off some of the skin tone. I am proud of the colors that I have come up with. I had a really hard time figuring out what colors to use at first. I worked on an old man painting and the flesh tones came out perfect! However, I couldn't repeat it. Then I was going through some old notes and saw it! I actually wrote down each color and put a little color swatch on the paper next to it. 

I have tried and restarted three different times on three different canvases. 

Here is a photo of all three next to one another just to give you an idea of my struggles. You can see that the painting to the far left is the one I am keeping.  

While painting this painting, I have been brought to tears because of how much I care for and miss these two people.

This photo of my grandma's hair is where I am right now. I am not sure how to clean up the sides of her scalp but I will figure it out.  I will do their glasses and things the very last. So I will keep you updated! :) Thanks for tuning in.    

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How Creative Are You?

Today me and my children were watching Brain Games. One particular part of the show they talked about how we as adults lose our creativity. By proving this, they took a simple picture of a red circle and two rectangles and gave the participant 5 seconds to come up with as many ideas that they could think of that reminded them of the picture. Most of them only came up with one. That includes myself.  Then they invited some children to look at the photo and give their ideas. The children came up with up to 3 - 5 ideas in those 5 seconds.

I really thought that I was creative! But this showed me that I tried way too hard. I tried to think of rational things. The children just let go and said any random thing they could think of and some of the best ideas came from them.

One girl said, French fries and Ketchup among other things. Sushi even.

After this test, the adults were give a different picture to try to come up with ideas for. But this time after seeing all the things the kids came up with, they were encouraged to "think" like a kid again! Or to bring out their inner child.

This time around however, the adults relaxed and so many ideas came through in their 5 seconds. 

I really wanted to share this idea with you and maybe you can test yourself. See what you come up with too! Are you as creative as you think you are? 

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