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.

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.

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.

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.

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)!

New Paintings this Week