Peppers Underpainting

I just started working on a small painting of peppers. I will probably do a number of small still lives to kind of get the hang of this whole painting system that I am working out. Basically using acrylic paint as an underpainting and using oils on top of that.

I finished the underpainting today. The main idea of the underpainting is to get the drawing, colors, and major value shifts accurate in the painting. So for the stems I used a more planar approach with just flat colors, and for the peppers I rounded them as if they were generic cylinders. This way I have the basic color and values accurate for when I start to do my overlaying painting with oils which will make my life much easier.

I would move into working with oils now, but I should give this paint at least a day to dry.

Finished Portrait: Kristin

Here is an image of this portrait now that it is finished. It isn't varnished yet so it is a little duller in color than it will be once I varnish it. But otherwise this is it.

I'll repost a better image as soon as I varnish this painting. Which could be as much as 6 months from now.

Small Figures: Becca

This was on of the best models that we ever worked with. She could hold a pose like a statue, probably because she was a former gymnast. Anyway I tried something different with this pose by trying to work in a little background into the picture, but I think it only distracts from the image. There just aren't enough values to work with using graphite so when I added background I reduced the number of values that I could have in the figure, which in some ways flattened the image.

Becca 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.

Small Figures: Peter

This great model was an off-season body builder. So he had a great deal of girth but not too exaggerated muscles. There was actually a slight disagreement after the model left over his weight. One of the students drew him to look larger, while another student drew him to be thinner. They disagreed on who had the more accurate drawing.

Which brought up an interesting question about drawing from the model. Does an artist simply draw the model as they visibly appear or do you as an artist draw a more exaggerated version of the feeling that you get from a model? In my class we had two students one who saw him skinny and drew him skinny, and the other who saw him as being fatter and drew him fatter. Can either of them be considered wrong if they were drawing the model in the size that they perceived him to be, or are they wrong because it wasn't accurately depicting the model? I won't try to answer these questions on this blog, it's just something to think about.

(By the way, I drew him in-between being too big and too thin, I took the safe road.)

Peter 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.

Portrait Thursday

I really don't like painting ears. One day I will look back once I have perfected how to paint an ear in ten minutes and laugh at my ear painting process of today.

I worked on the neck, ear, eyebrow, and painstakingly painted the hairline around the forehead.

Now all I need to paint is the background and add some touch ups and I will be finished. I'm actually only one day behind schedule for finishing this portrait. Now if I could paint a portrait in a week instead of two weeks then I'd really be in business.

Portrait Wednesday

I spent all of Wednesday painting just the lips and a little of the chin. Oh, also I lowered the corner on the right eye, it was looking a little too Celopatra-ish. It does seem a little impressive to think that six hours of painting lead to only a few minor changes, about a two square inch range of canvas was actually painted on today.

I'm still trying to paint this portrait fairly quickly though. So hopefully i'll finish within the next day or so.

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