Background for context

Although I didn't do too well with this background (because I was impatient and therefore not precise), I wanted to put it in as part of this portrait of Triste, because sometimes surroundings tell just as much about a person as a depiction of their face.

My friend Triste is in many ways a typical New York chick—that is to say, abrupt, caustic, funny with a bit of an edge, an embracer of left-wing politics and emphatic values and opinions. But she also has this softer side that wouldn't seem to "go" with her personality: she's an amazing baker, has made a garden almost worthy of the secret one in Frances Hodgson Burnett's classic, and creates a simple but classic and beautiful background for her life in her 100-year-old farmhouse in Pennsylvania with her husband and two dogs.

I think I caught her likeness pretty well, apart from going a bit too orange with her colors. This was fun to paint—it made me remember the good times we had when she was a Californian. I hope we see each other again sometime soon.

"Triste"
Pencil and watercolor
9x9" Bee multi-media sketchbook