Oil Study, Luke at 15

This is a painting I did of my oldest son Luke over the Christmas break, using a limited palette of Gamblin oil paint and a smooth canvas. I started out with a reference photo I took and then worked from life to make adjustments to color and detail.

Luke is at a very (ahem) interesting age. "Not a child" as he keeps reminding me, but certainly not grown up yet. He is quite a lovable guy, always willing to give a hug or a "luv ya", but also feeling the stress of being at a difficult age of discovery, independence and growth. I wanted to capture that diametric combination of confidence and uncertainty.

Holiday Greetings!

Cheers to my fellow bloggers! Thank you for your comments, suggestions and advice throughout the year. It's been great fun getting to know so many of you, such talented artists and writers. Best wishes for a year of creative endeavors and much artistic and personal success.

New Still Life Painting

Still mucking around with materials--trying different paints, mixing mediums and canvases.

This study was painted on a canvas sample I received from my mentor. It is Claessens brand and has a nice, smooth surface. The paint is Gamblin oil, very limited palette of about six colors and the medium I used was Galkyd mixed with a little linseed oil. The still life is much tighter than I normally like to paint due, I think, to my inexperience with the materials. My next painting will be a portrait using the same materials but, hopefully, with a looser brushstroke.

PHOTO SHOOT FOR AN UPCOMING PORTRAIT COMMISSION
I'm also working on how to set up a simple indoor photography shoot for an upcoming portrait commission. I usually work outdoors when possible or resort to using available window light. But I find that to be very limiting, especially in the winter. I will post a few photos of the setup once I figure it all out.

Above, "Garlic and Olive Oil", 14 x 11, oil

Experiments in The Studio

Working With A (Sort Of) New Medium
I've been working with mentor and portrait artist, Bill Chambers, these past few months and learning a great deal. One of his suggestions was to switch from water-based oils to regular oils and to try a simple still life in both to compare brushstroke and application. I posted the water-based oil painting (bagel) last post. This painting (above) was done in regular oils. I can't say I'm totally sold on the regular oils yet. I really like the texture compared to the water-based but I have a real problem with the chemicals used for thinning and clean up. For instance, I'm not sure how to "greenly" dispose of the jar of dirty mineral spirits that has accumulated. This could be a problem. Anyone have suggestions?
Painting: "About Last Night", oil, 11 x 14"


The Value of A Good Critique
This was a painting I "finished" a while ago. Something always bothered me about this painting, but I never quite knew what it was until I spoke with artist Fred Graff during a recent workshop. He pointed out that the two figures in the foreground were completely separate from the background. The high contrast and location of the figures make them compete with the central figure and the building.


So with this information, I decided to make a few changes to the painting, starting with the two figures. First, I reduced the contrast of the figures by adding opaque white over them. Opaque white is really not opaque, but translucent. I then added a darker wash on the sand near the figures to help anchor them to the painting.

I darkened the broken window in the background to reduce the contrast in that area, and I darkened the area in the foreground, lower right corner, to guide your eye into the painting.

Lastly, I recropped the painting to make it a vertical instead of a horizontal. This brought the two figures out of the center and helped move focus to the little boy in the red shorts.

At left is the painting after the corrections have been made.


Painting: "Discovery", watercolor, 20 x 17"

Watercolor Workshop with Fred Graff

A few weeks ago, I took a workshop with watercolor artist, Fred Graff. Fred is not only a wonderful artist, but a fantastic teacher as well. His focus was on composition and design, as well as application. We all learned...how much we have yet to learn!

It was nice to take a break from portrait commissions for the week. Now it's time to catch up.

Below are a few studies from the workshop:

This painting was started with an abstract underglaze and the figure was defined using negative space.


"Joanna", watercolor on illustration board








Same concept, different subject.


"Tools of the Trade", watercolor on paper










I painted this after the workshop using the concepts I learned.


Mr. Bojangles, watercolor on paper













This is a small oil painting I did earlier to compare media, an exercise suggested by mentor Bill Chambers. This one was painted in water-based oils, the other two will be regular oils and watercolor.

"Willis Has The Blues"

This watercolor portrait was painted from a photograph I took of a man in Ocean City, Md this past sumer.

Willis is a street musician who plays on the boardwalk. I was drawn to his long dreadlocks, wiry whiskers and interminable stare.

New Portrait Commission

What a busy, busy month. I finished up several portrait commissions, started a mentoring program through the Portrait Society of America and worked on a few other paintings.

Below is one of the portraits of a client and her sweet dog, Addy.

A Watercolor Pet Portrait of Ludwig

Left: A full-sized value sketch preceeds the painting. This is where I study the features and work out the values (light and dark areas) then transfer an outline of the sketch to the watercolor paper.

Right: The finished portrait

This little guy is Ludwig, a beautiful German Wirehaired Pointer, whose distinctive feature is his wonderful, wiry coat. Ludwig's fur is made up of a multitude of colors, depending on the lighting, but my favorite part to paint was his unruly whiskers. Luddy, as his owner calls him, has a very sweet temperament and was a joy to work with.

The reference photograph I worked from was taken in a natural morning light that had cool highlights and warm shadows. Perfect for the color palette I ended up using.

My client had planned to present this portrait to her husband for a surprise birthday present. However, he was a little too sharp for us and our fabricated story of why I was at the house that day to photograph didn't fool him one bit. No matter, Ludwig's portrait turned out beautifully and made a great gift.

Sunshine, Sketches and Strong Women

Sunshine
Last week was our family vacation at the beach. Vacations with teenagers are fun; we went para sailing, go-cart racing (Is my family really that competitive? They actually ran me off the track!) and walking the boardwalk. I did some reading, a little bit of painting and even got a hint of a tan (sort of, if you look real close).







Jake buried up to his neck, and Stephen doing the honors.













The view from our front door, Yves taking a stroll.

Sketches
I didn't get much time to paint on vacation but I did pull off a few quickies of beach people.










Strong Women
Two books I read recently. One was "This Child Will be Great" by Ellen Sirleaf Johnson, the first woman president of Liberia.

The other one I am still reading, "In No Uncertain Terms" by Helen Suzman, who was in the South African Parliament for 35 years and an outspoken advocate against apartheid. If you like biographies, particulary those about amazing women, you may be inspired by these stories.

Now...back to work!

Oil Painting of Betsy

I finished up an oil portrait of my mother-in-law Betsy this week. The intent of this portrait wasn't to create a formal portrait for posterity. What I really wanted to capture was a particular mood and feeling. I'll leave it up to you to decide what you see or feel in this painting.

The title is "Tot Ziens", which means see you later in Dutch. It was a phrase she often said to us.

Watercolor Cats

Just finished up a triple pet portrait. These cuties are all from one family, each with their own distinct personality. The challenge with this commission was to photograph each cat individually and show something of their uniqueness, yet making sure that all three photos worked together as a solid composition. Not as easy as it sounds. After 100+ photos, hours of photo groupings, color sketches and various corrections, the easy part was the painting. Now all that's left is to frame and enjoy.

A Watercolor Landscape with Figures

"Discovery", watercolor 17 x 20"

This is a little different approach for me. Usually my focus is on the figure(s), with the background being secondary. What inspired me about this image was not only the boy in the photo, but the landscape of the buildings and the way they were pieced together.

I was in a tourist shopping area in Jamaica, where everything was manicured and picture perfect, kind of like a Jamaican version of Disney. I decided to duck behind some of the buildings and this is what I discovered.

Mily: A Watercolor Pet Portrait

May was a crazy, busy kind of month. Studio time involved several portrait commissions, including a triptych pet portrait; five exhibitions to prepare for this spring and summer; and three portfolios to send out. Below is a recent completed pet portrait.

Mily is a beautiful American Bulldog with a sweet personality. She was such a pleasure to photograph and paint.

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Step 1: Small color value sketches. I do 6-12 sketches before deciding on a direction for the painting.

Step 2: Full-sized value sketch.

Here is where I get to know my subject

better and work out any value issues.

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Step 3 & 4: The painting as it progressed.

Starting with an excellent reference photo is crucial to the success of the painting. I rarely use existing photos, instead preferring to take my own. Taking over 100 photos for a portrait is not unusual. I find that even with that many photos, only about 3-4 are suitable for the portrait.

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Beautiful Milly--framed and ready to go to her permanent home.

Life Drawing: A Fine Art Exhibition

June 5 is the opening of Double Door Gallery's juried figure show. The show includes, not only a finished painting, but the original sketch that was done from a life drawing session.

At left is my submission. Joanna the Belly Dancer is one of our favorite models. The painting is titled, "The Dancer" and was done in oils.

The quick sketches below were done from our bi-monthly figure session.

Portrait Society's Annual "Art of the Portrait" conference

What a wonderful four days it was. It was jam packed with demos, critiques, networking, discussion...where do I start? How about a few highlights:

1) A drawing session with Tony Ryder. His drawings and paintings are magnificent. It was very cool to see him work and have him critique our drawings.
Below: Tony talking about his process;
one of our models, Mike; my 20-minute sketch of Mike

2) A painting demo with Mary Whyte. Mary is one of my favorite watercolor artists and a sincerely inspiring person. Not only did she demo, but she also gave a talk titled "Creating Your Best Paintings Ever" and was part of a group panel discussion on "The Business Side of Art".

Below: Mary painting from a live model, her finished demo

Other highlights:

Portfolio critiques

The National Portrait Museum

Painting demos by some of my favorites: Scott Burdick, pastel artist Judy Carducci, Chris Saper, Dawn Whitelaw and too many others to mention

An absolutely wonderful presentation by Richard Schmid

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I'm totally spent, but in a good way. Once again, I am fired up and thinking, "You know, I think this is truly possible..."