Tuesday, December 21, 2010

New 4x4" Oil Portraits


















Can't believe a whole season has flown by since I posted. I've had a great month selling oils on Ebay, almost enough to make this year as good as the past 3 when the economy was better. I found some small 4x4" square canvases and got obsessed with doing really detailed (for me) likenesses of my models. I like them but want to get so much better and faster at this. Here are some from the last 6 weeks or so.

Saturday, August 28, 2010

More New Paintings

Misty in Black, 8x10"

Cassie (from life), 10x8"

Vera in Black Leather, 10x8"
Vera in Black Leather was the last painting I've done from a photo in several weeks. I think I got too formulaic and posterized the colors too much; the blues are too light and bright. The other two, from life, were more fun to paint although there's always a rougher look to the life paintings due to the short painting time (around 2 1/2 hrs).

5x7" Oil Paintings

Vera in a Red Sequinned Dress, 5x7"

Kristen in a Purple Hat, 5x7"

Laura as a Clown, 5x7"
These were gridded in pencil, then painted. For me this is a tedious process but does help in getting a facial likeness, which is important to me, since I know all the models and consider them friends...

Recent Figure Paintings

Abby, 5x5"

Waverly, 4x6"

Stephanie C (from life) 8x10"

Girl with Pink Hair 6x8"
It's been a schizophrenic painting summer for me with lots of ups and downs. Started with large swimmers, went to faces from life, then gridded small oils from photos. Had to take a break when my shoulder blade began to hurt from so much painting! Now after a break I'm into sessions with live models again. Such is life for me! No consistency but lots of passion.

Tuesday, July 27, 2010

New Oil Paintings

Here are 4 paintings I've done in the past week from model photos I took. I find if I can get the faces right everything else falls into place. I'm still using a grid and pencil underdrawing. Experimenting with different surfaces.

Saturday, July 17, 2010

Inspiration! Paintings from Photos of Models

Recently I've had 3 2-hour photo sessions with 2 of my favorite models, Vera Wood-Wright and Waverley Tinsley. I am totally inspired, because I know both models, to get a GOOD facial likeness. This is so hard even though I have drawn faces forever.
I need to study facial anatomy. I'm experimenting with grids and a burnt sienna imprimatura with many of these.

Paintings from Life

Here are four recent small oils done from life. The smiling female model was fun; poses were 1 hour each. The male model is the great Dave Larson, our local hero! He has more experience than any other Austin model.

Tuesday, June 22, 2010

Oil Paintings from Photos

These 2 were done from photos. I like the results better than from life (more detail and "finish") but the process isn't as much fun.

Oil Sketches from Life

Here are 4 oil portraits from the last week. The top 2 are the same model, same day, about 45 minutes each. Bottom 2 are the same model, different poses, 30 minutes each. There's never time for small details in these quick studies but they bring out the best in me. I never thought I could paint the bottom pose in 30 min. (with hat, glasses, patterned shirt)!