Mimi Torchia Boothby

Category: portrait

  • Nonnie with color pencils

    I am participating in a 5 day workshop focusing on faces, called Faces101 by Carla Sonheim. For this assignment, we were told to draw from photos of people that we know very well and to use colored pencils, which cannot be erased. Quite the challenge for an artist. I liked the last one I did…

  • The widow lady

    I love old photographs, even when they are faded and scratched, because they contain a wealth of information which can be coaxed out with patience and some paint. This is Rachel Bower, the ancestor of a dear friend. I know nothing about her really, except that she lived to be old. There she sits, waiting,…

  • The incredible lightness of being

    One of the hardest things to do in portraiture is to catch the essence of a person. Features are bad enough, but to actually catch personality is the trick that everyone who ever painted a portrait is wanting to do. I have been very fortunate in my life to know people of all ages, and…

  • All smiles

    On a roll after painting Theresa yesterday, I painted another face. I was fortunate to have gotten the reference photo, taken in natural light, which is the most important consideration for a painted portrait. The smile is one of the most ubiquitous facial poses we see, but it is the hardest to paint. Smiles are…

  • Glowing Motherhood

    Needing to get back to painting some portraits, I picked some of my favorite people to paint. When I start a portrait, it’s always scary because I don’t know it it’s going to turn out ok or not. I usually draw my subject more than once, to get to know the lines in their face.…