Jamie -an oil portrait, and...about drawing

oil 12x9 magnify The last painting from my painting frenzy day. Painted from the live model. For most of my figure painting I have used the Zorn palette: white, black, yellow ochre and cad red. I didn't have those with me, so I used my usual primaries: ultramarine blue, cad red light, cad yellow light and white. I was happy with my skin tones, but not with my drawing. Her features are a bit askew. I don't really enjoy drawing. Does anyone else feel like that or is it just me? I draw just enough to be able to paint an accurate painting. This time, not accurate enough! Time to work on that, I decided. So I ordered the book below from Amazon. Here's just one page of my sketchbook showing some of the exercises from the book.

Scott's book is for beginners and the experienced as well. In it he teaches basic principles useful for drawing any subject. I recommend it. Now I know one book will not fix my drawing weaknesses, but practice will! My next portrait showed a lot of improvement. That's coming up in the next post. So how do YOU feel about drawing? IN OTHER NEWS: Southern Californians, mark your calendars! ART IN THE PARK NEWPORT BEACH is coming up on Saturday, October 11th. 10-4 on the Civic Green, 100 Civic Center Dr. Over 100 artists including ME! It will be my first year at this event, so I'm really excited! I hope to see you there. AND MORE NEWS! Tomorrow morning I'm headed off to a workshop in Colorado given by Kim English. Waaaahhh HOOOO! Visiting family too, so I won't be posting for a couple of weeks.

Head Study

oil 12x9 inches Rough head study from my figure painting class with Joseph Todorovitch. I enjoyed the pose with her closed eyes and full mouth.

Alex

oil 12x9 inches On Thursday I joined a figure painting group at "Perma-Dirty" art space in the Claremont Packing House. I really enjoyed painting Alex because of his fair complexion and especially his eyes. I used the Zorn palette: Twhite, yellow ochre, Gamblin's chromatic black, and this time cad red light instead of my usual cad red medium. The red light helped me get more warmth into the skintones in the light, but it seemed too warm to make the darks for skintones in shadow. Maybe next time I'll use both reds. Coming up on Tuesday evening I'll start figure painting classes again with Joseph Todorovitch. I'm beyond excited!

Martha

While in Sedona, my fellow artist and good friend, Martha Cowan and I took turns painting each other. Back in our hotel room after dinner, we adjusted some lamps and one of us reclined on the bed watching TV while the other painted. I was very happy to have gotten a fairly good likeness. Joseph Todorovitch taught us the order of learning how to paint portraits: first strive to make it look human, then make it look female, then like the person. When I first started drawing the figure again (after 30 year break) all my heads looked ape-like! Martha and I had some hearty laughs about me trying to not make her look like a monkey! If you see a hint of tears in her eyes, it's because she was watching something sad on TV! To see her portrait of me, click on her name link above.

Head Study

oil on canvas panel 9x12 inches

It was great fun painting the male figure in class on Tuesday night. One of the students in our class graciously volunteered to take the place of our usual female model. He did a wonderful job, probably because he's a fabulous painter himself. I'm really happy with the forehead and lips.

Head Study

oil on canvas panel 12x9 inches
Our model for last Tuesday night's figure painting class had a beautiful jawline. If I had had another hour I would have worked more on the hair and painted her left shoulder. I'm very happy with how the eyes came out.
In other news, I'm so happy to announce that Monday will be the one year anniversary of launching my blog! I can't believe I made it and can't believe how much I love painting daily and blogging! I have no intention to let up! Today our local paper, the Chino Champion ran a very nice article about my daily painting. Thanks, Melodie for the interview and great article! On Monday I'll post a recent painting I did just to celebrate the act of painting daily...stay tuned!

Head Study

oil on linen panel 12x9 inches

Here is what I did in my figure painting class last night. As you can see the model had strong features, golden brown skin and a beautiful head of curly hair--all making it so much fun to paint her. Perhaps my drawing is not as sound as it should be, but I'm pleased with the color and temperature shifts in the skin tones. While I was painting I had my doubts, but I can see progress in the semi-finished study. By focusing on progress rather than product I can avoid becoming discouraged...a good strategy for learning anything.

Old Master Portrait Study -sold

oil on linen panel 6x6 inches
click here to bid
Thursdays are very busy days for me. I managed to paint in little snippets of time, but didn't finish until 1 am this morning! This is a study done from Jean Baptiste Greuze's "Girl With a Blue Ribbon". I didn't get a good likeness, but I do like the color. I hope it was an exercise that will help me with my figure painting.

Head Study

oil on linen panel 12x9 inches
Here's my study from Tuesday night's figure painting class. The head scarf and long earrings added interesting elements to the pose. Behind her were shelves with various objects. With only about 2 1/2 hours painting time, I included just a couple of the objects so I could use my time to bring the face to a fairly finished state. Still feeling my way through color mixtures, this time I tried using burnt sienna and altered it as I saw shifts in value, color and temperature.

Head Study

oil on linen panel 12x9 inches

Three weeks ago I began studying figure painting again with Joseph Todorovitch on Tuesday nights. Up until now I had used only the Zorn palette: yellow orchre, black, cad red medium and T. white. Exploring new color mixtures was a big challenge...to be honest, I felt lost! Most important is a clear depiction of light and shadow, so I gave special attention to the large shapes of light and shadow.

Head Study

oil on canvas panel (partial) 9x12 inches

Our model for last night's figure painting class gave me a new challenge with this reclining position. I kept trying to look at my panel sideways to see if I had the facial features lined up! She had beautifully toned and shiny skin, which I think I captured well. The ear really was prominent and catching the light. The unfinished areas help to maintain the importance of the face. Three more classes left.

Head Study

oil on linen panel 12x9 inches

Here is my latest study from the sixth session of my figure painting class. My main goal was to concentrate on the face and get both eyes the same size! In the two previous studies I had painted one eye larger (easy to do!) and had to correct as best I could. I worked up the facial features all at the same time as Joseph suggested, and it worked well for me. I'm very happy with the flesh tones, likeness, and psychological feel. Overall, I'm making progress.

Head Study

oil on canvas panel 12x9 (portion)

Here is what I did at my figure painting class this week. I love working from the live model. The painting actually includes the figure down to the waist. I'm very pleased with how the entire painting came out. She had a confident, relaxed attitude, which I was able to capture. It looks like her and feels like her.

Head Study

oil on linen panel 12x9 inches

This study is from the live model at my figure painting class last night. Still using the Zorn palette: yellow ochre, black, white and cadmium red medium, it allows you to just concentrate on value and temperature. I'm happy with the result and painting the stole was lots of fun too.

Tomorrow I'll get my work together to participate in the 2nd Annual Chino Arts Festival and Centennial Celebration on Saturday. It runs from 9:30-4:30 Saturday, May 1 at Aquire Square, which is kinda behind the library. Lots of performances are planned as well as art, craft and food vendors. I'll have my daily paintings, watercolors and giclee reproductions if you would like to come out and see them in person. I'll be there all day painting---come on out and say hi!

Head Study

oil on linen panel 12x9 inches

I've neglected painting and posting the last few days due to some fun times with family and friends. Hopefully I'll get back to painting tomorrow. In the meantime, here is my first ever attempt at painting from the live model, done a few weeks ago. I'm in a figure painting class taught by a fabulous artist, Joseph Todorovitch. It is an honor an privilege to learn from him. To see his work go to www.onejoseph.com