Tegan

This young lady modeled for our portrait group last week. She was so professional and we appreciated her steady gaze, excellent posture and ability to return to the pose--and her beautiful costume, of course!

Teenager in a Volleyball Uniform

I can't remember this model's name but she came to our group through  a modeling agency and she did an excellent job with her pose. We don't have many people pose looking downward and her face was tilted slightly as well, making it especially challenging for both her and the artists who were drawing and painting her.

This was my effort. I will try a side view next time, where the light is not likely to change if she moves slightly.

16' x 16" pastel on Canson gray paper

Jamie, a Female Basketball Player

Jamie posed this morning at our drawing/painting group in her University of Tennessee basketball uniform. There is always something intriguing about every model. For me it was this model's eyes. I really liked the shadows underneath them and their shape.
20" x 21" pastel on Canson paper

Pastel Painting

This guy posed for our Saturday portrait group last week. He attends Renaissance Festivals on a regular basis and he dressed in his pirate costume.

This was a two hour session from life.

17" x 22" pastel on Canson paper

Charlie

I started this portrait from life at the Hyter Group, a portrait group that meets in Toledo on Saturday mornings at Common Space 2. Our model was Charlie, a Vietnamese immigrant who was into body-building in his younger days.

I had a pretty good base down and planned to continue it the following week. Unfortunately, I left it in my trunk at Oak Openings when I took my dog for a walk on one of the trails and something happened to it. At home, I removed it from my trunk and discovered tiny track marks all over the painting and also on a leather bag. Something, perhaps a chipmunk or a mouse, was able to squeeze into my trunk. Maybe it was attracted by the smell of the oils. I don't know.

I had to smear the entire painting into a series of tones while it was still wet to get the footprints out. So I decided to fix it and I used a cell phone picture I took of the model as my guide.

11" x 14" Charlie

Original Oil Painting Portrait of Jessica

I couldn't resist doing a full color version of Jessica in her over-the-top costume. If a model is willing to wear long heavy gloves in July I feel it's my duty to paint them in full color. I was going for a Rembrandt look with this- heavy dark background and luminous features.

The jewelry was a lot of fun to paint too. Jessica was going for a vampish look I believe and it really works.

12" x 16" oil on linen

Watercolor pencil portrait

Jessica, our monthly model at the Hyter Group for June, has so many faces and such a great wardrobe. Love her.
This is a new experimental medium for me: watercolor pencils. You block in the basics in pencil, wet a brush and create a wash with the dissolvable graphite. Scary- as there is no going back once you put the water on.

I used two grades for this portrait. HB for the light areas and mid tones and 2B for the very darks.

15" x 20" on Cold press ill. bd.

People are interesting

When my daughter was seven she told a fiend that she didn't like coming In to my studio because there were always so many eyes staring at her. I was just beginning to paint a lot of portraits then and to attend a weekly portrait group where artists worked from the live model. I would prop the paintings up against books in bookshelves, lean them against the wall or hang them on a temporary hook to let them dry. All the people seemed to be in the same pose, most often a three quarter view of the face. I rarely arrived early enough to get a straight on view of the model.

Yesterday we didn't have many people show up for our portrait group so I was fortunate enough to get a head on view of our lovely 14 year old model, Katelyn. 

11" x 14" oil on canvas 

Shall We Have Tea?

You might think I haven't been painting, as I haven't posted much lately. You would be wrong. This is my busy time of year, and I am up to my ears in commissioned pieces for Christmas. I have stopped accepting them as of now. I want to enjoy my Christmas too so I plan to have the last one of the seven I still need to paint in the mail by December 15. There- I have said it and posted it publicly so it WILL happen.

Still, I could not miss the opportunity to paint Jessica form life again. She is such a great model and I loved her outfit. I had the distinct advantage of arriving with an underpainting done form a photo my friend Jim emailed me. so it was just a matter of making some adjustments and coloring it when I arrived last Saturday.

I wish I had used oil primed linen. The canvas I used has a glossy look that is hard to photograph. It looks fine in person but I'll have to take it outside to photograph it without glare sometime soon.

Time for Tea?

11" x 14" oil on canvas

Ami, a Portrait from Life

I like how this one turned out. Our model, Ami, posed nicely. She hardly moved, and I had a very good place to paint in. This is a 9" x 12", oil on linen, painted at our Saturday morning painting group.

Colleen from our Portrait Group

Colleen posed for the Hyter Group yesterday. She wore a black blouse but I am not that fond of black so I changed the color to a violet. A great model who held her pose well and didn't complain. I have located my pastels so I decided to use them! The day was perfect except for the opera music playing loudly in the back of the room. Oh well.... can't have everything I guess.

14" x 18"

Pastel on Canson paper

Not Hemingway

This is my two hour portrait of Neil Frankenhauser done at the Hyter Group yesterday. He thought he resembled Hemingway in my version. I agree. Someone else had him looking like Sean Connery. Anyway- he was a great model. Facial hair is always fun.

11" x 14"

oil on linen

Man in Fedora- Open Studio

He posed for our Saturday drawing/painting group. I loved the hat and the scruffy looking beard. I used a 'reclaimed' canvas for this painting: an unsuccessful painting from a previous session at the Hyter Group. I like the fact that the white of the canvas is already gone and I don't waste a lot of paint covering it. Derrick posed in front if a green backdrop and hsi hat was green so it kind of faded into the background.

He wanted it so I sold it to him for a very good price. Two hour pose-- 11" x 14"

Jessica from our Portrait Group

Thought I had better be doing some painting from life in preparation for my upcoming workshop with Nancy Seamons Crookston at the Scottsdale Artists School.

This is Jessica from our Saturday morning portrait group at Common Space II- corner of Hill and Holland Sylvania in Toledo, Ohio.

She loves to dress in period costume and I have a feeling we will have her back again because she is a great model! Bruce found her at the Toledo Museum of Art when he was up there to see the Manet Exhibit.

I focused on the face while she posed and finished the hat when I got home.

14" x 18" oil on linen

Recycling Old Canvas or Board

I paint so many pieces that there are bound to be failures. I know- everyone else has perfect paintings.

So once in awhile I will paint a landscapes over a bad portrait and a portrait over a bad landscape. It recycles the boards so it saves some money and it also encourages experimentation. Why? I think it's because the painting underneath provides the unconscious with a direction to go-- or at least a direction to cover up. lol

Anyway--- this is a start of one: the landscape was a 20" x 24" plein air piece that was a disaster in my opinion. The model is from Cameroon, and she modeled for our portrait group this month. Unfortunately I could not be there every session so this is as far as I have gone. I have some photos so I may try to finish her up. She is the most beautiful and inspirational model we have had in a long time.

You can still see a little bit of the building that was a focal point in the old painting. The texture and the rough spots in the old painting encouraged me to go a little farther with the background and really lay the paint on- so that was fun.

Sweet Girl from our Portrait Group

Lexus' parents named her after the car. She doesn't mind the name and it seems to suit her. She is a very classy and adult-looking 14 year old. Painted at the Hyter Group in Toledo. We meet on Saturday mornings to paint or draw from the live model at the corner of Hill and Holland Sylvania in a former school building.

12" x 9" oil on linen

Ashley from our Painting Group

Everyone at the Hyter Group was in love with Ashley's long wavy hair. I give the girl a lot of credit - she showed up dressed as a cowgirl or something. Straw hat, cowboy boots and cute denim vest. I brought my pastels with me so I could be sure to get done in one two hour session.

Not sure of the likeness but I like the slightly pensive look that came out of this.

18" x 19.5"

The Model from Saturday's Group

I loved painting this model... she was beautiful and she held the pose so nicely. I love the painting I did too, and that is not always the case when you have two hours to paint someone.