August Paintings

I'm finally getting around to posting art I created in August and late July. It was a busy month- perhaps not so much as far as art creation goes- but in other aspects of my life. I started a new position at LE Smith working in the marketing dept., and I taught for two weeks at Lakeside, Ohio.

Here are some photos from the two weeks I spent teaching art at Lakeside, Ohio, Marblehead.

Painting a cottage

 Still Life Painting in Oils

 Working on his cottage painting- yes 12 year olds can paint

 Fancy Dog Paintings

 Portrait Drawing -- a full class

 Let's Draw Dogs!

 Let's Draw Cats!

Angel 18" x 24" oil on canvas

Angel posed for a portrait group I attend last year. I was never happy with the painting I did so I pulled it out recently and reworked it. I think it's easier to work on a portrait that is close to life size than to paint the smaller sizes I usually work on. And of course, photos are always more difficult to work with, but easier if they're photos I take myself. Then I can adjust the color in Photoshop to match what I recall. The real problem is with the room where we paint: there is a lot of reflected light from windows, which changes as you paint and a few overhead lights tend to turn on and off at will, which drastically changes the lighting as you're working.

This painting is still not perfect, but it's better than it was and I'm tired of working on it.

Another Portrait

Jada 11" x 14"

oil on linen

Jada posed for our Saturday morning group. She is eighteen years old and moving to California this year to go to college. I think I've made her look a bit older than she actually is.
Jada won Miss Buckeye State, which is a huge honor. You have to be smart!

This painting was done 90% from life in one pose and I finished her dress and the background home using a photo reference.

Portrait of a Seven Year Old

I forget the name of this child. He is a friend's grandson and she asked me to do the painting for Christmas so she could give it to her husband. He has an adorable dimple in his chin and the pose is unusual.The reference photo was a poor quality cell phone picture but somehow I managed to make it work. I used an image editor to increase the contrast so I could see the form better. She told me what she liked about the photo was the ratty cowboy hat and the fact that he was sitting still--unusual for this child according to her.

What Do You Do with Really Bad Photos?

This happens a lot. Someone dies and their brother (or mother, or cousin, or son etc.) realizes there are no good photos of them. Not one! They might be going through albums or cell phone pictures searching for photos to put up on the slide show that has recently become obligatory at most funerals.

"Omigosh!" They exclaim. "There is not one good photo of Uncle Fred."

Then Fred's daughter decides she wants a good photo or something to hang on her wall to keep his memory alive. She finds a bad photo and brings it to me and asks if I might be able to create a good painting using it as a reference.

At this point I should offer a firm "NO!"

But I don't. I tell the relative I can create a painting, but it will not be much better that the photo. However, I can make it impressionistic. For some reason an impressionistic portrait is better than a blurry photo when you hang them side by side on the wall. Or so they tell me.

8" x 10" oil on canvas

Mr. Evans

Finishing Touches

I had to go back in and "finish" this painting, especially after doing the drawing of her and seeing how much information I missed when I did the initial study. Here is a link to the first two hour painting if you want to see where I started.  I had a picture I took with my phone for detail so that helped. I mostly wanted to correct the values. Doing a two hour drawing emphasized the difference between light and shadow and I think I missed that the first time around. So here is "Amended Ami", with the areas in light just a bit lighter, the darks just a bit darker, some manganese blue added to cool the background and a few edges softened.

Ami
9" x 12" oil on linen
SOLD

Rework it if you're not happy-- it's only paint

I've had this painting of my daughter sitting around for a couple years and I knew I wanted to crop it and make some changes. She agreed to sit for me if I let her watch a movie so she is not looking AT me in the painting. The movie only lasted a couple hours though so I didn't have time to get to a point where I was happy. The danger with reworking a piece like this is that you may lose some of the freshness associated with painting from life. But in this case I hated the portrait so much it didn't matter. It was a case of fix it or throw it away.

The original painting was 16"x20" and I cut it down to 12"x16".

Gangster in a Fedora Hat?

Derrick posed for the Hyter Group in a green hat and he was posed in front of a green backdrop. I was not there the day they posed him or I might have asked why. Anyway-- too much green so I changed the color of his hat to maroon and I like the effect much better. A green hat will always be associated with Robin Hood in my mind. I think he looks a bit like a gangster in this painting.

9" x 12"

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"

Drawing Matters

I like to paint so much that I often neglect drawing. When I was a child I drew and doodled all the time. As I grew older I lost the desire to draw and I immersed myself in earning a living. Then when my daughter was born the desire to draw returned. Suddenly I wanted to create an image of her that represented how wonderful and beautiful she appeared to me. That was 14 years ago and I am still drawn to create portraits, although I seldom draw them. Today I "cut to the chase" and execute my drawing as a block in made of different values. Line becomes secondary. I don't often think in terms of line anymore; it's all about shape and value.

We had a guest at our Black Swamp Art Guild meeting last month and she posed for members who were interested in drawing from life. It was a great exercise for me because it forced me to pick up the charcoal pencil I had been carrying around forever.

I discovered that I now draw like I paint. There are not many lines. The edges blend and the tones become gradients that connect to shapes. I think if I want to draw and actually make lines again I will have to switch to a medium like pen and ink.

This is our lovely model, Brittany- about 40 minutes.

Gold Star Portraits

Sherry Ann Franks coordinated another memorable event on Sunday. Every year Sherry Ann puts in countless hours to put together a Blue Star/Gold Star program that honors the families of local military families. It is a solemn ceremony with a color guard, bagpipe player and inspiring music touches the hearts of everyone who attends. This year the mothers who received Gold Stars (their sons were killed in the line of duty) released white doves as well. This is the fourth year I have done paintings for the families and it doesn't get any easier. The photos I use are not ideal and the time frame is tight- usually four weeks to get two paintings done. But I know these parents will treasure their portraits as a reminder of their loved one and I'm honored to be a part of it.

American Frame donated the frames again this year.

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