Category: Custom Portraits

Sophia’s Bunny

Posted on by Jennifer At Your Toy Portrait

8″x10″ acrylic, 2011. I just recieved an adorable photo of 4-year-old Sophia holding this painting. Her mom, Dawn, tells me that Sophia looked at it and, after a slow moment of recognition, smiled and said “LOVEY!!” Dawn ordered this portrait after Lovey the bunny blanket had been lost and found for the millionth time, the better to preserve it — just in case. To see more of the many blanket/animals I’ve been painting lately, click here, and for more bunnies, here!

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Chip

Posted on by Jennifer At Your Toy Portrait

5″x7″ acrylic, 2011. This potato head leads a life packed with action and adventure! Joanna’s husband takes clever photographs of Chip to amuse their nieces, and he has come to be a true member of the family. He has a fully-developed, folksy, sassy personality too, and enjoys calling people in his high, squeaky voice. Joanna ordered this portrait for her husband’s upcoming birthday.

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Twin Hippos and a Quilt

Posted on by Jennifer At Your Toy Portrait

8″x10″ acrylic, 2010. You might think that these hippos are identical, but four-year-old Charlotte can tell them apart — it’s “something about their smiles,” she says. Charlotte also has twin two-year-old sisters, and so having two alike-but-distinct hippos seemed important to her, Charlotte’s grandmother Pat tells me. The quilt was handmade by Charlotte’s other grandmother. I’ve painted several portraits of late that include multiples (or one representative of multiples) of the same toy which are all in circulation at once — very interesting! Pat will give this portrait to Charlotte for Christmas.

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Mousey and Lovey

Posted on by Jennifer At Your Toy Portrait

8″x10″ acrylic, 2010. Oh, the irony… for years I wanted to paint nothing but the human face close-up, because it frustrated me to have to deal with lots of clothing or surrounding space. And now, here I am completely immersed in painting fabric — an loving it! The two subjects of this portrait were super exciting and challenging with their stripeyness and strongly-lit textures. Also, this painting was a last-minute Christmas order which had to finish within three days! The painting is a gift for one-year-old Leah from her mother Denise, who bought Mousey while pregnant as a clever way to let her husband know they would be having a girl. Leah gravitates toward a special spot with a snap and a tag on the blanket, Lovey, who “revolutionized sleep in our house,” says Denise.

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Emilia’s Bunny

Posted on by Jennifer At Your Toy Portrait

5″x7″ acrylic, 2011. Colleen found me via a local Etsy search, and since she lives mere blocks from me, I had the pleasure of meeting this bunny/blanket in person! Not wanting to separate it from 2-year-old Emilia for any significant length of time, Colleen and I worked together to take a nice photo for me to use. The family does have a “back-up” bunny which stays at Emilia’s daycare, but I suspect that there is no substitute for the home bunny. In this portrait, the bunny is arranged on top of a green blanket that is a another favorite of Emilia’s.

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Paint-Bunny

Posted on by Jennifer At Your Toy Portrait

5″x7″ acrylic, 2010. This bunny, who belongs to four-year-old Ella, is one of four identical bunnies: One sits pristinely on a shelf, while the other three enjoy equal rotation and affection. Ella can tell them apart with one little squeeze. The most beloved of them has a spot of brown paint on its back, left foot and is known adoringly as “Paint-Bunny.”

Sometimes the source material I’m given to paint from is inspiring to me for ridiculous reasons. In the photos sent by Ella’s mother Kristen, the bunny’s wide gestures and forward posture and the dramatic back-lighting evoked a Nineties-era Hype Williams hip-hop video for me. This kept me amused throughout the painting process, even while I kept in mind Kristen’s wish that the portrait be “very serene” and “a little vintage looking.” Is there such thing as late-nineties vintage?

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Jane’s Ducky

Posted on by Jennifer At Your Toy Portrait

5″x7″acrylic, 2010. Jane, who will turn three in January, LOVES ducks. In fact, she loves anything yellow just by association. She was a duck for Halloween this year (really a chick costume, but close enough!) She was given this duck/blanket when she was four months old and the two have since been inseparable. The portrait will be a gift for Jane’s third birthday from her mother, Virginia. My Sonja, also almost three, currently collects rubber duckies of all sorts in a tattered paper gift bag, and she enjoyed watching this painting take shape in my studio! See a gallery of my other blanket-related portraits here.

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Housewarming Bear

Posted on by Jennifer At Your Toy Portrait

5″x7″ acrylic, 2010. Linda’s son is twenty-nine and is buying a house. This is his favorite old bear, and Linda thought that a portrait of him would make a cool housewarming gift. I made sure to include the tag, which was his favorite part.

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Gundy

Posted on by Jennifer At Your Toy Portrait

5″x7″ acrylic, 2010. Brendan’s girlfriend has had “Gundy” for more than twenty years, and it’s very charming that he wanted to give this little portrait to her as a Christmas gift. I agree with Brendan that the shirt, which was designed by a friend as a way to hold the tattered neck together, adds significant character. He felt that Gundy’s portrait should show him as he looks most of the time –propped against her light blue pillow, shirt rolled up and stomach hanging out! (Gundy, not Brendan, of course. As far as I know.)

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Lucy Bear

Posted on by Jennifer At Your Toy Portrait

5″x7″ acrylic, 2010. Oh wow — you just have to see what I was working with here. The source photo was lying on our dining room table and my husband came across it. He literally screamed: “What HAPPENED to this toy?! It looks like someone shot its face off!” But of course, this moose’s Cthulu-esque face has been LOVED off, and he’s actually looking pretty content reclining there against a pillow.
Lisa, whose daughter has always called her moose “Lucy Bear,” also supplied me with a “before” photo. I hoped to paint something that shows a bit of his current, loved state, but also restores some of his moose-ish dignity.

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