After about eighteen painting sessions, my portrait of my sister Emily is finished. What a challenge this was!
In case you don’t know, my sister (an a.m. news anchor in southern Illinois) has turned her love of makeup into a side business thanks to her YouTube channel, Beauty Broadcast. Poof–I call her Poof–reviews mostly drugstore cosmetics and presents tutorials in her 400+ videos. I’ve always said that the kid was a star. She was featured in Elle magazine last year. In November she won YouTube’s “On the Rise” competition and had her channel featured on YT’s front page. She wants to have a party once she hits 100,000 subscribers, and she is very close to reaching that goal.
So she’s all kinds of fabulous, and I absolutely adore her. Here she is in her Beauty Broadcast room, which is painted raspberry, decorated with zebra print, and dominated by her desk and all the makeup. Believe it or not, this is only part of her collection. Cosmetics companies send her free products hoping that she will review them, she buys new items that interest her, and people like me give her high-end makeup sets for her birthday and Christmas, which are two days apart. I bought her the colorful box near the brushes, the white case with the big buckle, and the little brown box with the eye near the top right corner. I’m not totally sure on that last one, but rest assured that Poof knows every single color and brand name in her collection. She also knows which compartment of which drawer it’s stored in, along with how she got it, whether it smells good, sparkles, and does what it says it will.
Last month I posted a time-lapse video of me painting her face:
Portrait Painting Demonstration by Kelly Eddington: Emily
Satisfied with that part, I moved on to her makeup collection, which was a blast to paint because its colors were so vivid and its textures were shiny and slick. I spent days and days working on it. The wall color was reflected on every silvery or white object. Nearly every color I mixed required a speck of magenta or the wonderful hot pink frequently called “opera.”
A couple of days ago, nearly 90% finished with the painting, I accidentally spilled a lot of intense, stainy magenta all over the pencils in the crystal glass on the left side. The spill was spectacular and by far the worst watercolor screw-up of my life. I gasped and began swearing as I rushed to soak up as much paint as I could with paper towels and cotton balls, repeatedly adding water to the problem area and absorbing it.
The adrenaline rush made my hands shake, so I had to calm down for about an hour before I could attempt to rescue the painting. With the help of a little opaque white, I was able to disguise the offending pink, and I repainted the glass and the pencils, which had been smeared by the paper towels. Traces of pink remain here and there, but I think they work and even reflect the wall color a bit better than before.
As with Tyler’s portrait, the wall was surprisingly difficult. This is three or four coats of magenta and purple, smeared and rubbed with cotton balls to achieve a relatively flat surface. As I finished it, I started to realize that Poof’s portrait has a lot in common with Tyler’s in terms of composition and pose. Both subjects sit a little to the right-of-center at a desk. Right arms are up, and left arms are down. I painted three-quarter views of both heads, which are just about the same size. The wall colors are complimentary. When I put Tyler’s painting to the left of Poof’s, they seem to be gazing at each other. All of this was completely unintentional.
Poof and Tyler’s work schedules are keeping them apart more than they would like these days, unfortunately. She’s up at 2:00 a.m. for her morning news gig, and he’s a first-year lawyer working a typically longer than 9-to-5 job. Most days they see each other for about an hour if they’re lucky, although weekends provide some normalcy. I had originally assumed that each of them would hang their portraits in their respective offices, but maybe Poof will put Tyler up in her office, and he will hang her portrait in his office, and they can be together that way.
I can’t wait to frame these and give them to my sister and brother in-law on Christmas day. Neither have seen the actual paintings yet, just the photos I’ve posted, and you really need to see these in person to get the full effect.
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12.16.2010
Found you through AAG. These are absolutely stunning. I’m incredibly impressed!
Wow! you’re amazing. This is beautiful
Beautiful work! I love Em’s video’s, and you have amazing talent!
Such gorgeous work, Kelly!
Thanks everybody! I’m so proud of this painting. It was a lot of work, but the look on Poof’s face when she saw it for the first time was priceless. :)
i love your perspective in the artwork! and tyler’s features are spot on! well done, amazing work! :)
beautiful work. really and truly – you’re an amazing artist!
Wow! They seem so real. You are so talented– both you and Emily!
Oh.My.Gosh.. You have an incredible talent!! Just found out about this site from Emily’s youtube video, and I’m stuck here on your page, just enchanted by your wonderful paintings! I mean, the colours are absolutly stunning! I love love love your paintings, but my favourites so far is the ones from Burano.. <3
I'm gonna check back here every day, for sure!
Well done! :)
Love from Norway!
This is the most beautiful painting!! I love your sister’s videos. =)
Omg! I tought that was a photo at first… You are AMAZING! Like the best i’ve ever seen! It must have taken you YEARS to do such an amazing peice of art. You are gonna go far in life:)
I do not have words to explain how amazing this is. You have something truly unique and beautiful to share with the rest of the world.
Hello,
I’m a subscriber to Emily’s youtube channel and I just had to stop by and look at the paintings Emily had talked about in her recent video. WOW!! They are beautiful and I never would have known you spilled some magenta paint on the glass with the pencils, you did a great job covering that up. Did you take a picture of Emily and Tyler like this or did you just do this from your memory? Either way they are breathtaking.
Take care and I look forward to seeing more of your work.
Nicole
Omg you are so talented, such detail, and with water colours, I use acrylics and am just sort of starting out, I would love to be able to paint like you….fantastic…
this is sooo amazing!! You are incredibly talented!!
I came to check out your website; your sister sent me :)
Great job!!! I’m soo amazed!!
This is just amazing!
OMG!! You are amazing! I learned from your blog, through who else..Emily! :D
As soon as she said you made a painting of her I had to see it, and to be honest I didn’t think it was going to be this amazing! :O
Congratulations your work is incredible!
You have such great control with watercolor. You are so talented!!!!! Heard about you through Emily’s YouTube channel!
Kelly,
These are absolutely stunning and so striking. I love the unintentional way they are looking at each other. That could not have turned out more perfect.
I’m so happy you were able to fix your magenta madness spill–what a panic I would have been in as well. Of all colors, hot pink? Well, you saved the painting and did so amazingly well. We’d never known had you not mentioned it.
Maybe one day soon-we will all see a 3rd addition painting added to these two?? As in a wonderful Family Portrait! (3 w/baby and Cupcake makes 4) lo
I would LOVE to get a portrait like this of my two kids. (ages 20 & 23)
Could you email me and let me know what your commission rates are? I don’t have a reference photo of them yet-but rather just an idea I am thinking of doing.
Thank you. Emily is lucky to have such a great sister (and family)
Have a Happy new Year!
Jody (customanimalart)
What an incredible gift. I can not believe the detail you managed to capture in these paintings, truly amazing. I can’t wait to see the video of Emily & Tyler receiving these. What a talent you are!
You are amazing. You tought about so many details, it is perfect and they look like themselfs. Congratulations.
You are AMAZING!!!! Like seriously…I have no clue how to draw a simple straight line, but man…this is Fnattastic!! It is soo REAL n the details are AWESOME!!! You ROCK!!
Your abilities and talents are unsurpassed! I see so much of your face in Emily’s here.
Wow! These paintings are amazing! I heard about you through Emily’s YouTube channel and you definitely have an amazing gift!
u r amazing !!!!!!!!
THEY ARE THE PERFECT GIFT, U ARE SUCH A GREAT SISTER AND I COULD SEE WHY SHE LOVES U SO MUCH
you’re absolutely amazing! Your work is so beautiful. I follow your sister Emily on her YT channel and the resemblance btwn the painting and her is unremarkable. Great work!
You did an amazing job!
I wish i had a sister like you!
I am a subsciber to Emily’s channel and I was brought to tears when she shared her family video of Christmas day. What a unique gift she received from you. You and Emily are amazing sisters, I wish I had that type of relationship with my sister. Your work is undescribeable.
I saw your work on Emily’s channel and had to comment on your website – those paintings are absolutely amazing and beautiful. Their portraits are so true to what they actually look like. You are extremely gifted. My father in law is a professional painter using water colors as well so I understand the difficulty working with it. There is no better gift to give than something you put your total heart and soul into. You are an absolute darling of a sister and it made me a little teary eyed just to watch them get their portraits. Best of luck in the future and God Bless.
What a lovely gift, and so very well done. I am bookmarking this site and if I come across the right photo will keep you in mind for a portrait. I would love to do my husband, but he’s not easy to get a good photo of:)
Simply stunning Kelly! you’re truly gifted. i have been hearing about your paintings from your sister’s YouTube channel. it’s quite apparent that you are a talented painter…that Emily isn’t just boasting about you because she’s your sister. you are great! i wish you nothing but the best for 2011!
OMG I seen your painting of Emily and feel in love with it.then came here to see more work, your my favorite artist now!!! How soon can I order a custom painting of me in my studio I do make up, and another studio I have crafting jewelry making??I’m ready to reserve my portraits soon as you can let me know how to pay>>
I watch Emily all the time, and I love her! I watched the video of you giving these to them on Christmas, and I started bawling myself, hahaha. But you do such amazing work! Every little detail is there. My eye looks at the whole painting cause everything is so beautiful, and Tyler’s painting is just as amazing! Everything around him seems like him, from what I have seen of him on Emily’s channel. and Emily’s painting is so her.
Really amazing work Kelly! :)
Kelly, your painting is wonderful! All of your work is! Emily is about the best YouTube guru there is, and Tyler is so great that he supports her!