“Ivory Skin & Black Lace” 12×12″ oil on panel. Thanks to La Esmeralda Stock on dA for the reference photo I used as inspiration!
My latest effort. This was done on the “Artist” panel by Ampersand. A good panel, classified as “budget,” but also still archival. I have a lot of these panels. It has a dovetail slot in the back, so it can be hung as-is on the wall, or slapped in a frame. I love the dovetail slot feature, which is why I’ve stockpiled a lot of these boards. They are about 3/8″ to 1/2″ thick (I think 3/8″) and the sides of the panel are painted a complementary color, so if they are hung unframed, the edges of the board look finished (somewhat reminiscent of “gallery wrap” canvases, which can also be left unframed).
I enjoyed this painting and think the model is very striking. She’s great fun to paint. So dramatic! Her skin is so pale and light, I confess I had trouble capturing that adequately with my color mixing. I think I made her a bit more “pink” than she was in the reference photo, but hopefully she’s not too ruddy or flushed. (All monitors are calibrated differently, but on my computer display, she doesn’t look too red-skinned.)
“Lady with Hat,” 6×8″ oil on Gessobord. Thanks to swiftsugar of DeviantArt for the stock photo I used as inspiration!
I loved the expression and pose of this one. The original photo that I used as reference had an exaggerated “golden” tint to it, which I didn’t want to paint. So I ran the photo through my iPad photo editing app (not iPhoto) and chose an option that took away a lot of the yellow. Then I used the adjusted photo as my reference. It was an interesting little iPad tweak!
There were a lot of golds, greens, and muted oranges in this one. A different color scheme, but a lot of fun to paint! She has a very vintage look to her, her expression and the way her head is tilted.
I enjoyed painting this one, and now it’s time for the next!
This is a first for my blog, and I feel a bit geeky about it. I’m posting this from my studio! I have a nice computer set up here ($100 used Mac Mini–who says that these older computers are obsolete?) and have finally configured it to upload files to my site, scan and edit artwork in Photoshop, read photos from my digital camera, and the whole bit.
Anyway, back to the painting. I’ve fussed with this one for a few days and have to say I’ve very much enjoyed the process. The reference photo used had some lovely skin tones—warm and cool, subtle shifts in color, and a calm, and beautiful expression on the model’s face.
I’m also trying to paint a little more boldly and thickly, though I guess it’s not enough yet to be obvious in the painting itself.
“Lady in Green,” 6×8″ oil on linen panel. Thanks to WhimseyStock for the use of the stock photo as reference!
I used a DickBlick linen panel for this painting. I haven’t used this brand of panel before, but I have to say I enjoyed it. There’s something about the texture of linen, and I’ve really warmed to it. This is one of the Blick’s “high end” line of panels, I assume meant to compete with brands like Fredrix’s archival linen panels. I like both brands and will pick whichever is on sale!
Back from a longish break (Colorado! I went to Colorado!). I did a fluffy cat painting the other day (need to create a blog entry about it) and tonight it is Señorita, a 10×10″ painting on panel.
“Señorita,” 10×10 inches, oil on panel
This is another painting from my “novela” series (inspired by the Mexican soap operas, you can read more about it at the bottom of this post). I liked her expression—emotional, but not sad, beautiful, and slightly dramatic. And with lots of bright pastel colors!
I painted this on a 10×10 inch panel, with a textured acrylic primer (“gesso”). It’s an interesting texture that I’ve learned to like—it’s not always what I want, but sometimes it’s interesting to use it. The panel is thicker (around 1/2″ thick or maybe a bit less) with a dovetail slot (you can learn more about dovetail slots here). You can either hang the painting on the wall as-is (with the dovetail slot) or frame it like you would any other regular painting.
I’m not sure exactly what’s going on with this one. I loved the drama (drama, drama, drama! 😀 ) of the expression and the pose. I tried to keep the brushstrokes loose, but sometimes that doesn’t always work out.
The panel was primed with an oil-based primer, which makes it so nice for wipeaway and texture, like you see in the background. I first covered the whole panel with a thin wash of a brown, which I then wiped away, keeping some of the color to stain the background and also to show the texture of the priming brushstrokes.
The expression is a bit ambiguous. Is she afraid, scared? I think she is indecisive, ready to make a decision and not sure which way she’ll go. But interpreting her expression is up to the viewer to decide.
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!
I’ve been a busy, busy bee, painting and painting and painting!
This post is the story of two profile paintings, and learning when to stop, or in other words, am I quitting too soon? Or going too far? I am still learning and don’t always get it right.
The other day I started a painting, got it sort of “done,” and posted it on Facebook. I got some compliments. But I didn’t think I was done! So I did some more to it. And then even more. And I do NOT think it’s improved. I should have quit while I was ahead.
So tonight, I did a little oil sketch and “quit while I was ahead.” Maybe I’ll have to find a few dabs here and there to touch up, but I very much hope that there won’t be much more to add to it.
Blue Shadows, 6×8″ oil on panel
Thanks to hermitmessiah on DeviantArt for the use of the stock photo. I found the reference photo so fascinating because of the strong color shifts, and wanted to try to capture warm/cool temperatures in the blues and greens in the shadows and reflected light, as well as the muted flesh tones. Also loved the overall pose and expression.
Here’s the painting from the other day that I should have also quit while I was ahead, but didn’t.
Eavesdropping, 6×8″ oil on linen panel.
There’s a little more I need to do; it’s probably not “ruined” (at least I hope not) but I should have just stopped earlier.
The problem was, it didn’t look enough like the reference photo, and while it doesn’t have to be an exact likeness (I was going for a feel, and expression, not the likeness per se), I wanted the likeness a little better! I mourn the loss of the original version, which was fresher and simpler, but didn’t look like the guy in the photo at all.
This painting is part of my “novela” series, which I find great fun, so many wonderful expressions and emotions to explore!
Many thanks to Mehlissa who made her stock photo available for artists to use as reference.
I found this photo a few years ago, and finally got around to using it! I enjoyed trying to analyze the shadows and cool muted tones in her skin and attempting to capture them with paint. In a way this painting was a major breakthrough for me, as I’ve been trying to push my understanding of color and brushwork.
I painted on Gessobord, by Ampersand, a wonderful type of artists’ panel that is primed with an acrylic-based “gesso” that has the texture of eggshell. It’s an absolutely sublime surface to paint on, for either oils or acrylics! With this painting, I used oils.
I’m loving this new portrait drawing group! We meet weekly (won’t meet next week due to the holiday, alas). Each week we get a volunteer model to pose for us—three 20-minute poses. We are a diverse group, and use a variety of mediums—oils, acrylics, watercolors, pastels, charcoal, and good old pencil. I’m doing pencil so far, but hope to drag my oils in soon! I rarely get a chance to do a “long” (one hour being relatively so) pose.
Here’s this week’s offering:
“Karen” on 9×12″ sketch paper.
Karen was a wonderful model, very patient with us! She said it was hard to keep a smile on her face (we all understand how that is!) and so her expression ended up being more somber. She wore a lovely and colorful print dress, which I didn’t bother to capture since I was just drawing in pencil.
Time again to post some latest Life Drawing efforts.
I had two evenings of figure drawing (each night at a different place) this week. Both nights, I sucked. Oh well, it’s been a while since I was able to attend figure drawing. And next week I hopefully will be able to attend a portrait drawing group, where artists meet to do portraits only from life! I am looking forward to that.
Drawing from life is an ongoing thing. For many artists it is. We keep coming back to do it again, and again, and again. We don’t outgrow it, and we shouldn’t! Without that regular drawing practice, we get rusty (like I’ve been getting lately) and that’s bad. Don’t ever believe that you’ve had “enough” life drawing because you took a semester or two of it in college.
Anyway, here’s what I’ve got to show this time.
Small portrait, drawn from life
The one above was done a few months ago. I never got around to posting it, until now. And the one below, same thing. Done a few months ago, didn’t get around to scanning it or posting it.
Figure drawn from life. On 8-1/2″x11″ sketch pad.
Below is the only sketch produced this week. I cropped the drawing to just show her head. The rest of the sketch didn’t turn out so great.
“Amy” (but it doesn’t look ANYTHING like her!). Sketch from life.
