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Tuesday, May 25, 2010

Samuel















Samuel wore a wonderful three-piece suit (black with white pinstripes), a white shirt, and red patterned tie. He looked very sharp and business-like, and his costume set off his ruddy complexion and coppery hair and beard.
Once again, I opted for drawing instead of painting. Two of these drawings were done in colored pencil on coffee-stained paper. The charcoal portrait (the best likeness of the bunch) is on sauce-treated paper , and the seated figure study is in colored pencil on sauce-treated watercolor paper. All the drawings are 18" x 24".

Friday, May 21, 2010

Edna


Usually I show the whole body of the model on a half 140 lb. watercolor sheet, 22 x 15. Since the time was much shorter I painted a portrait, 15 x 11, on 300 lb. Georgianna

Friday, May 14, 2010

Lisa Models


Lisa's pose reminded me of the figures in the Frank Lobdell book I just got. Also reminded me of a figure from Bischoff or Diebenkorn. I used agrayscale underpainting and it helped make the colors look more solid. Karen

Tuesday, May 11, 2010

Lisa

































It was good to be back at the firehouse after a two-week haitus. I was feeling sort of sick of the big paintings I had been doing, and decided to change it up and draw instead. I brought a whole bunch of media and tried my darnedest to get wild and crazy. Didn't really succeed at the wild and crazy part, but at least the processes felt fresh.





The charcoal portrait on plain paper went quickly and caused the model, Lisa, to say, "It looks just like me," which is something I always love to hear.


The portrait in black and red ink on coffee-stained paper was drawn with twigs.



The seated figure is pastel and colored pencil on watercolor paper that was treated with sauce. Ditto the hand/book study.


At first, I thought the charcoal portrait on coffee stained paper was the least successful of the batch. Now I think I like it.

Wednesday, May 5, 2010

Larry Models at the Firehouse


I used a large brush to do most of this painting and finished with smaller brushes working mostly with the negative spaces. I also used an underpainting. It is a 20 by 20 acrylic. Karen

Larry

I really needed more time to finish this 24 x 24" portrait of Larry, a most charming model. The light was okay. I prefer daylight because it is more challenging. Although I felt I was doing well with figures, every once in a while I need to push the envelope and do a portrait. Next time I will do a portrait with a frontal view.