-Dan dos Santos

Once a year, for the past seven years or so, my friend Irene Gallo and I have asked 12 artists to create a miniature painting to be donated to the MicroVisions auction. The proceeds of this auction support the Society of Illustrators Student Scholarship Fund.

The artists are allowed to paint (or sometimes sculpt) anything they want. The only restriction is that the final image be 5 x 7 inches. Over the years, we have seen some pretty amazing pieces come out of it, and this year is no exception. In fact, this year may be one of the best yet. But more on that in the upcoming days!

This year, I got to do more painting than organizing, as I contributed a piece to the auction as well.

Painting at that size can be quite challenging, as I’ve come to learn, and doesn’t go quite as fast as one would think. On the upside, it’s a great chance to paint whatever you want, and not feel so guilty about blowing off work since it’s for a really good cause.

So for my MicroVisions piece, I decided to paint a comic book character that I have been wanting to paint for a long time now. For copyright reasons, it’s probably safest if we just call her “The Warrior Princess”.

The final image, seen above, is all oils on board, and of course, measures just 5 x 7 inches. Attached below are a few progress shots I took for you guys along the way.