Keith Moon

I painted a commission for some friends as a Christmas Present. It is of their favorite drummer, Keith Moon. If you don't know, he was the lead drummer for The Who.

This was painted with Titanium white and Van Dyke Brown. I like the VD Brown instead of Ivory black because it has a more neutral tint to it. In fact I often use more VD Brown than Ivory Black in my paintings.

Bing Xun WIP3

Nearly finished. I have a few adjustments to make on the eyes and lips, and possibly in other places.

The oil has sunken in of course, and I couldn't find a good angle to avoid that terrible reflection on the right side of his arm.

Bing Xun WIP2

I'm having all kinds of trouble photographing this big painting, which is why I am posting so infrequently. The colors are a little off and I can't seem to fix them, even in Photoshop. Particularly the large green looking patch around his mouth. I swear I'll have it photographed by someone who knows what they are doing in the final version.

I'm almost done with the face. There is something oddly round in the lips area. I know that Sargent always says that a portrait is a picture of someone where something is wrong with the mouth, but these lips seem too wrong to let it slide.

Bing Xun WIP1

I'm having trouble photographing this painting because it is so big. So the quality of the image is pretty high. This is about the best I can do for right now with my camera. I'll try to borrow a better camera from a friend to at least get a better image when I finish this painting.

Send me a comment and let me know what you think.

Baby Commissions: Lea

Here is my second baby commission for the holidays.

It was painted with Yellow Ochre, Indian Red, Burnt Umber, and Van Dyke Brown. It was painted on a 6in x 8in masonite panel.

Baby Commissions: Arlo

Most of the Christmas presents I gave this year were portraits. So I was unable to post them until after the holidays, otherwise they wouldn't have been a surprise.

Here is the first one that I worked on, a portrait of Arlo. This painting was done with Yellow Ochre, Cadmium Red, Burnt Umber, Sap Green, and Van Dyke Brown. It was painted on a 6in x 8in masonite panel.

Bing Xun Dead Color

I'm still working on this and will post again when it is more finished, but I just wanted to send something out to the blogosphere because it's been awhile.

Bing Xun Thumbnail

I started a new painting this week. It may take me awhile to get it up and running because I still have to finish with the drawing and preparing the canvas.

This is only a 5 x 7 thumbnail painting that I did to work out the colors that I will be using. The final version will be an 18 x 24 half body sized painting which includes hands. I haven't painted actual hands in a very long time, hopefully they don't turn into creepy sausage fingers.

Aimee Final

Here is the final version of the Aimee portrait that I've been working on. It was done almost entirely with Raw Umber, Venetian Red, and White. There is also a little ivory black to darken parts and to get the greys of the eyes.

Aimee WIP1

I've worked about three days on this since my last post, so it appears to be a much bigger jump between this and the dead color stage.

I avoided posting because I thought it looked horribly un-viewable up until now. I almost stopped working on it because I didn't like where it was going, but I gave it one more day and now I can finally see how the painting will turn out in the end and be happy with it when it's completed.

For the skin tones I am only using White, Raw Umber, and Venetian Red. I used some Cad. Red in the lips and some Ivory black in the whites of the eyes and shadows.