I did some final tweaking to this painting and I think it’s done!
For some reason I had trouble with this; perhaps it’s still “not right,” but I believe in letting go eventually and moving on to the NEXT! So that’s what I will do with this.
Again I used a reference photo from Jason Aaron Baca (model) with photographer Portia Shao. I love his photos because there’s so much drama there. I love the drama! He’s so generous to make his stock photos available to artists.
With this pose there was a slight “searching” or “beseeching” expression on his face, which I enhanced. I did a few slight adjustments to his features (just to mix it up a little). I hope this will make for a somewhat arresting portrait.
Painted with oils on another Sourcetek (I think—or was it Raymar? I think it was Sourcetek) panel. I love the texture of these panels. I covered the entire panel with a thinned-down layer of Transparent Oxide Red, which I wiped away in some spots (to paint in the face and flesh tones) but I left much of the Oxide Red still there. I think it worked as the background.
Another painting done, and a couple others that haven’t been blogged about yet.
“Demure” oil on Sourcetek canvas panel, 8×8″.
And yet again, I used one of my favorite photographer’s work for reference. Thank you Cathleen Tarawhiti for the use of this stock photo!
I always feel I’m in the process of learning, and many times there is this feeling of uncertainty—did I get this right? Am I off the track. . . again? I guess all artists go through this to some extent.
It was fun to explore the cools and warms in this subject. I purposely left parts of it unfinished—that’s the fun of it! Let a bit of the canvas texture to show through!
Now onto another recent effort, still not done as I feel I must fuss with it some more.
“Roman Youth” 6×8″ oil on Sourcetek panel.
Many thanks to Jason Aaron Baca and Portia Shao for the stock photo I used as reference! Mr. Baca (the model) is another favorite of mine; I have quite a few of his photos on my iPad, ready to paint!
In this photo I am struggling with a few things, so it’s not quite done yet. I hope to finalize this little oil sketch in the next day or two.
The reference photo shows a fuller-length pose of Mr. Baca in some sort of Roman-style period costume, and him looking up, searchingly . . . I enhanced that expression (plus changed his features just a tiny bit—like to mix it up!) and came up with this. I want to tweak a few things a bit more and then I hope it’s done! And onto the next painting.
And both of these above paintings were painted on Sourcetek panels. I love, love, my Sourcetek! I’ve been doing some spring cleaning and have been finding hidden pockets of Sourcetek. Here, there, everywhere they are stashed! Those 5-packs of boards in various sizes and types (oil primed linen, acrylic-primed canvas, hardboard, birch, all types!). I had no idea that I’d bought so many! Well, it’s time to use them up!
And I forgot, one last painting from a few days ago:
“Piercing Gaze” 6×8″ oil on Sourcetek panel.
Yep, another Sourcetek panel, I believe! This time I used a stock photo by Stockingbird on DeviantArt. The original photo was a nude (crouched pose) but I couldn’t get past the face—the sublime warms and cools, the neutrals, they cried for attention. For this painting I used a Zorn Palette (which I’ve used before) which is an excellent way to get back on track with color. You only have black, white, vermillion (orangey-red) and black to work with. You mix all your colors with that. Adding black to colors can cool them down and you can create some good subdued blue-greys and greens with the addition of black. Another interesting experiment. It won’t be the last time I use the Zorn Palette!
