The Ancestor Portraits

Or Who Lives Here...?

What Library would be complete with out the Portraits of the Venerated Ancestors adorning the walls? I have been looking forward for quite a while, Dear Readers, to filling these tiny frames with suitable TINY portraits! And I even made a start a good many weeks ago! I found a book with lovely miniatures from the Elizabethan eras that I shrank with my copier to the correct size and glued the best ones into the frames I had prepared. I thought they looked Perfect, and could not wait to have the walls ready for them!

In fact you may recall seeing one of them being tested a few weeks ago... 

but I was concentrating on the desk, so you might not have noticed.

Here you can see it being tested..... 

but Suddenly I was not sure that these were the right portraits!

How could that Be?

Well, it had occurred to me that the people who live in this Tree House are not "people" at all.....

so why would they have "people" portraits on their walls?

But then I had to be VERY sure that I was making this Tree House

 for "Tiny Creatures" rather than "people".... 

because the portraits would Surely give it all away!

GONE would be the illusion that "people" could live here..... 

no matter how "human" the habitation appeared!

So I had to be VERY sure just what "Creatures" were living here!

But would it really matter if the "Creatures" had "people" portraits? 

Would anybody even Notice... or Care about such an inconsistency?

Alas, once I had noticed.... I'm afraid the idea just would not go away!

But that meant I would have to paint all those portraits myself!

Even loving to paint the way I do..... that was a daunting prospect!!!

But I FINALLY have made a Start on those portraits!

Here you can see the originals on the book page to the left... 

The upper one is a famous miniature of Anne of Cleves by Hans Holbein, 

and the larger one is a self portrait by the very famous miniaturist Simon Benning.

You can see the reduced versions in the tiny frames.... 

and the Beginning of MY version to the right....

Here it is a little closer... 

I decided that the simplest thing to do would be to copy the picture fairly faithfully 

and just make the face look more like a Creature than a Human.... 

And I chose to paint it at about half the scale of the original.... 

so the reduction would not loose as much of the details.....

 Here the details are starting to fill in.....

Here he is just about finished....!

I was having so much fun I started right in on the next one.....

You can see the original ones to the left...... 

showing the relative scale of the paintings...

The paintings are about one inch by one and a half inches each....

Here the lovely "Lady " is completed!

Then I decided I needed to see how they would look in the reduced size....

So I made copies at one half the size......

 

Can you see the reduced copies at the bottom?

I was so excited.... I started on some more.....

You can see my version to the left and the Original on the right....

And I even started a version of the Famous Anne of Cleves.....

My version at the bottom....

Once I had copied them to the smaller size, 

I glued the copy to cardboard and cut them down to fit the frame...

Here is a side by side of the original reduced version and my own version...

I apologize for the blurry photo.... the camera doesn't focus that close....

Finished size is one half inch by three quarters of an inch...!

(Obviously my copying is not very exact...)

Here is the Dignified Scholar all framed.....!

And the noble lady too..... 

Please forgive the glare! 

I am finding it quite challenging to get good pictures of these pictures!!!!

The other portraits are not entirely successful.....

The Anne of Cleves is too pale in the decorations of her gown.... 

I need to make the details darker as they get lost in the tiny copy.....

And a certain amount of blurring of the details happens when the paper is glued to the cardboard.....

My careful painting of the Gorgeous Lace Ruff all but disappears in the tiny copy.....

But these paintings will be on the side wall... 

even more difficult to see than the first ones on the back wall....

Here you can see them with the ceiling removed..... 

so plenty of light reaches the back wall...

But you can see I have made No progress with the Lighting .....

Can you even tell the portraits are not "Human"?

Well, Never mind......

I am having fun painting these tiny 

Ancestor Portraits!