Red Tie Studios Portrait Blog

Finished Poe portrait

The new composition worked much better! Everything clicked, and it only took a day to finish it after we had reworked the poses. There is nothing like the excitement of nearing the finishing point in a painting.

Poe portrait painting

Since this portrait wasn’t for a client other than ourselves, we took a long break in between starting and finishing the painting. We were also rethinking the composition midway.

Poe Portrait

David and I (and our furry Maine Coon, Mojito) wanted a family portrait to hang in our living room, and decided that there was nothing better than having an illustrated family portrait. We wanted to add elements that spoke to our personality and interests, while being fun and happy overall.

Finished portrait Bella and Cookie

Bella and Cookie’s portrait is finished! We love the way it turned out, and the multiple hugs we received after we delivered the portrait showed us just how much Andrea and Tony loved the portrait as well.

Bella and Cookie Drawing

Since we had great photos of Bella and Cookie, the drawing was easy as pie!

Portrait Bella and Cookie

Cookie and Bella are the two lovable dogs of Tony and Andrea. Their portrait was commissioned to be ready for the holidays as a Christmas present, so we created a beautiful (and quick) portrait of Cookie and Bella, with love. Luckily, we were able to take our own photos and get high detail, great quality, [...]

Finished portrait Rosie

We finished Rosie’s portrait! It has a great mood to it, perfect for Rosie.

Rosie Painting

We came up with a few different color pallets and compositions until we decided on the right one. We started setting up the composition, color, and building out the painting digitally.

Portrait Rosie

Portraits are always best when drawn from a live model, and we had the pleasure of drawing and photographing Rosie live while she was visiting Red Tie Studios this year. We were also able to talk in depth about what type of themes she wanted in her portrait.

Finished portrait Jason Ford

Jason’s portrait was completed as a 24″x36″ large format poster using his favorite process of “mind mapping” to display favorite memories of Jason. On the copy given to him, his friends wrote him messages to further personalize the piece.

Jason Drawings

Jason’s portrait was created digitally, yet mimics traditional media and graphite. A special method was used for the drawing starting with a thicker and darker stroke, using a lot of movement, followed by erasing to accentuate the textures, then detailing with a smaller stroke weight.

Portrait Jason

Goodbye parties are always better when you give a memorable gift that shows how much you appreciate the person who is leaving. Jason Ford’s portrait was started for this same reason, to say thank you, goodbye, and to share fond memories.

Finished portrait Michele Pagano

Michele Pagano’s illustrated portrait was finished at 12″x18″ as a thank you and goodbye gift given by one of his Ph.D interns. What a unique gift!

Michele Pagano update

We made some changes to the details in the composition for the portrait of Michele Pagano. The first set in red, the second in green, and the final drawing in black. This is now ready to to be cleaned up and painted with comic book colors.

Finished portrait Brittany

Brittany’s illustrated portrait gift was finished at the large poster size just in time for the goodbye party at her company. The final artwork is set off by a bright color scheme which carried the theme of having fun in California.

Brittany drawings

We drew different versions of Brittany, hoping to capture her personality through reference photos taken by Eddie Vasquez. These finalized drawings are going to be compiled into the final artwork for the portrait.

Portrait Brittney

This illustrated portrait was a going-away gift for a coworker that was leaving to pursue opportunities in California, where she is from. She has a very fun, high energy personality that we wanted to show. The rough sketch was done knowing that we wanted the portrait to fit into a typical size poster frame of 18″x24″. [...]

Portrait Michele Pagano

We were contacted recently by Ph.D. candidate David Frescas from New York, who wanted to give the gift of illustrated portraiture to Michele Pagano, award winning scientist, and his research instructor. We love working with people who know what they want just as much as the ones who leave us completely in charge of their portraits, [...]

Finished portrait Maddison

Worked on Maddison’s face and finalized the tone and lighting, we are very happy with it now! It got increasingly more exciting to work on it as we saw it all coming together. Be sure to visit the portfolio for the finished portrait of Maddison.

Value study DJP

30 minute value study.