Portrait Class: Week 10

          Last night in John's studio, students spent an hour warming up with quick gestures, which was great, but we only had an hour to paint.  This was fine, but the model, a teenage girl, was reading and had a difficult remaining still while reading.  She is a great model, though, just a bit fidgety last night.

Working on Back

           As I posted earlier, I haven't had much opportunity to work on a figure's back.  As I was flipping through a Victoria's Secret catalog, I came across a picture of a model sitting on the beach.  Although the photograph flattened out the forms of the model, I thought it would be a good challenge to attempt to add depth to the her.  This is what I came up with:

 

            I think managed to add depth to the figure, but not so much with the foreground or the background.  Also, I hate the composition!  It seems very contrived.

           I haven't painted from a photograph in a while, so it was good to do it again.  I wont always have a model available to paint from.

Portrait Class: Week 9

For this class, John had us practice 2 minute "gesture drawings with a purpose" for a half hour and then a half hour pose where we searched for the planes of the figure.  Afterward, students had an hour and a half to paint.  On an 18X20 wood panel that I had previously sized with rabbit glue and oil primer, I painted the above.  I thought the oil ground was more stable than the acrylic gesso, and I will prepare some more panels in this manner.  The buttery texture of the oil primer was more advantageous as opposed to the slipperiness of the gesso.  The paint stayed in place and resisted being absorbed.  

I liked the composition I chose, but Adele suggested I add a painting/frame behind the model to allow the model's head to push forward.  This helped, but I think that if I had more time I would darken the area surrounding her head in order to achieve more of a contrast.

Furthermore, my portions are continuing to improve.

Portrait Class: Week 8

Perspective is improving:

Portrait Class: Week 7

Adding some color:

Portrait Class: Week 6

             For this class, we work on the figure. I had an awkward, challenging view with much foreshortening. To gain a better understanding of the form, I made obvious lines around it, a technique suggested by Giovanni.  As it turned out, my model's pose was very similar to a pose by a painter my instructor John Kilroy worked with - John Asaro.

             

John Asaro