Mini Portraits

 Hello there,

 

I hope you are feeling well and have lots to be thankful for today.

 Recently, I came across an artist on social media who was challenging herself to do 100 mini watercolour (wc) painting in 2025. I have been wanting to improve my portrait drawing/painting skills, so I thought I'd take the challenge to make 100 (or as close as I can get) mini portraits this year. I started a couple weeks ago and I can see an improvement already.

These are the first four.

The idea is to learn from my mistakes and highlight what I like about each one. For instance, I like the highlights in the first painting (top left) and the hair in the fourth painting (bottom right).

Fifth portrait, stage one.

I did my fifth portrait on March 25. This time I decided to use a reference photo. The results are better, but not a good likeness. I tried to 'fix' it and ended up overworking the piece, a very easy thing to do with watercolour. However, I really like the nose in the final piece.

My sixth mini portrait is of my son. My painting is a younger version of him, but I think I've caught his essence. It's not a super good likeness, but he is recognizable. I'm encouraged by how much I've improved in such a few weeks and only six paintings.

I find it much less daunting to do these mini paintings (3x3) than to tackle a full-sized portrait. It also helps my expensive Arches paper (a Christmas gift from my husband) to go much further.

How about you? Would you consider doing a similar challenge? Leave me a comment. I'd love to hear from you.

 

Blessings,

Teresa

BEE SINGER QUEEN

Bee Singer Queen is Book 1 in my Tales of Ellmoria inspirational (allegorical) fantasy series and was my first published novel.

BSQ was short-listed for Best Fiction in the Word Guild Awards 2024. It won the award for Best Book Cover, thanks to the talents of Austrian artist, Jedida, who I commissioned to do Coleesta's portrait.  

For each of my four novels, I simply gave a brief description to Jedy and she would reply, "I will talk to Jesus about that." Then she would come back with wonderful portraits that brought my story characters to life.

 

 

Introduction

 Hello there,

Since this is my first blog post, let me give you a brief introduction.

My name is Teresa M. Arsenault and I am an author of mainly allegorical fiction. I've been inspired by authors such as George MacDonald, C.S. Lewis, Donita K. Paul, and many others who, like me, have found the vehicle of fantasy a wonderful way to display the splendors of God.

I live on the east coast of Canada (PEI) with the love of my life, Terry Arsenault. As of the date of this post, we are days away from our 38th wedding anniversary, but our history goes back much further. Terry and I dated in our teens and signed a pseudo marriage certificate in 1973. That is a story in itself, which will be in our work-in-progress - YOU ARE NOT MY ENEMY - the first book we are co-authoring.

Terry and I are both hobby artists. Terry is quite proficient at sketching in graphite, and has recently started working in chalks and pastels. My main medium is watercolour. I also enjoy encaustic painting, and the occasional mixed media project. Oh, and I LOVE to crochet. I'll be sharing some of my projects here and perhaps some of Terry's as well, from time to time.

Of course, I'd also like to tell you about my books - past, present and future. I may even share snippets of works in progress to get your opinions or reactions. I haven't operated a blog in quite a long time, so it may take me some time to catch on to all the mechanics of it. 

Thanks bunches for stopping by. Please feel free to share any of my posts on your social media spaces.

 

Blessings,

Teresa