Vickie Completed

This is the final appearance of the portrait that I've been working on at GCA with two of my friends Carlos and Bob. I'm pretty happy with it, I feel that I've extended my learning curve on this one. I would have liked a bit more time on the jacket and the underlying forms but oh well, game over. After watching Scott Waddells portrait painting video I'm anxious to do another one and wouldn't you know it I've hired a model to pose for me at my home studio on Saturday. I can't wait, I've already got a concept in mind and i built a modeling stand and ordered another lighting setup from B&H photo. On this one I'm really going to be slow rolling those forms because there's no deadline! Yay!

More Breakfast In Bed

I'm making headway on "Petit Dejeuner Au Lit". I don't know where my wife picked up these rolls, but they're about four weeks old and show no sign of mold. Even the bugs aren't going near them. Maybe they give them to the soldiers in the foreign legion. I'm glad I didn't try to eat one of them. I'm working very hard to get the finish as I go. What's working pretty well for me is that up close the paint looks pretty brushy and expressive, yet from back a ways the forms look pretty refined. I'm definitely getting up out of my chair and stepping back a lot more. I want my strokes to be on the form but I want the "big look" as well.

Vickie and Ingrid

"Vickie" 16"x20" oil on linen panel, is almost finished. I found out that that yesterday's session may be my last with this model so I spent the day repainting parts of the portrait, tidying things up here and there. I figure I can always use a mannequin for the outfit. The figure drawing, 18"x24", pencil and pastel, may end up being my unofficial graduation drawing from GCA. Part timers don't really graduate, but I've been there for over four years, and I followed the proscribed course of study, cast drawing, cast painting, figure drawing, figure painting. It's a great program, and I highly recommend it, but I'm at the point now where I need more than eight three hour sessions with the model to really get a finished figure painting, so I'm going to start hiring models on my own for one long session a week, where there's no deadline, the paintings done when I'm done, and then I'll keep doing portraits etc: in shared sessions with friends. I'll probably still take an occasional workshop there, so I'll still have one toe in the water, so to speak.