Background Ideas

I'm trying to decide between which background to use for this painting. If you want to throw in your vote now is your chance. I will be painting this on Thursday so let me know before then if you are swayed by any particular background. You can either e-mail me or comment on this post.

The first box is what the painting currently looks like, minus the clamp of course.

Small Figures: Ernie

Every so often I like to practice drawing portraits through drawing plaster or plastic skulls. If you've never heard of this before it may seem odd. However, drawing a skull helps to inform an artist about the underlying structures of the human face. It is much easier to see the distinct plane changes on the forehead and cheek bones and to see the subtle movement of the jawbone on a person after you have drawn from a skull. I suggest skull drawing whenever possible.

Ernie Sketch

Small Figures: Heather

Here is a figure drawing that was done at the New School of Classical Art in Providence. It was a two day post which was basically 6 hours of drawing. Done using the Sight-Size method of drawing. I'm sure I'll try to explain that method at some point in detail, but not now.

This model was named Heather and she was one of the best models that we had at the school. Unfortunately she only worked twice. She was formerly a Miss Rhode Island and could always carry a pose with great poise and elegance. Something that can be a rarity among models. We were very luck to work with her.

Heather Sketch

I have dozens of small figure drawings that I did while studying at the New School of Classical Art in Providence. The head instructor of the school was Dana Levin, whose work is pretty fantastic, check out her website if you get a chance (http://danalevin.com/). I plan to highlight each of these small figures individually writing about the process involved and give people insight into the models' lives as well.

Back to Blogging

Now that I finally have some free time again I will be able to start blogging regularly.

In the last two days I have been working on this portrait. Hopefully I'll be able to finish it within a respectable period of time. I'm working on timing myself to see just how long it takes to actually complete a painting.

Anyway this is mostly just dead colored, even though it is a more detailed dead color than I would otherwise have done. In the next painting I will limit it to just the major planes of the face. Only the forehead and the nose have been "first painted".

If you have any questions or comments let me know. I'll be much more active in the next few months with my blogging.

Rob, do you have any questions or comments? Also you should send me that portrait of your bother, I'd like to see it.

Unnamed Portrait, note: Color not accurate