APPLES

Watercolor on 140lb. cold press h2o paper and 8"X10" in size with a deckled- cut trim. Initial green hues wash was applied wet-on-wet with a flow from top to bottom by holding the paper at a sharp angle. After this initial wash dried, I painted in the negative dark shapes between the apples and finished by painting the little bit of foliage. Time to bake these apples with a sweet crumble crust on top... yum, yum, eatem up!

CRAP!!!

What the hell?!? I didn't want to post this! It's ain't done yet! Go away!...YOU HAVE SEEN NOTHING!!! Get the hell off my blog and come back at a later date when I've finished!... oh...and have a nice day (or night) :-)

For me, a record.

Count em! Eleven people in this family, and I was commissioned to do a portrait. I have never painted this many likenesses in one painting...a personal record.No pain, no gain. I'm painting in acrylic on a 22" by 28" canvas. Each face is approximately 3" from top of head to bottom of chin. The piainting is now about 85% completed. I work on it from half an hour to maybe two hours a day. With my busy teaching schedule, sometimes days to a week may go by before I work on it again. Now that we are getting closer to the holiday season, the family is getting anxious, and I will most likely finish it within the next week. What a job and what a great experience to have under my belt.

A little pin heady, but that's OK

It's Friday, and I'm back at The School Of Light And Color in Fair Oaks, California for another 3 hour figure painting session with some other fabulous painting compadres. Damn hard work...and...damn challenging and fun! I started out with a good rough sketch-in of the model's head then proceeded to sketch her body. Oops!, her head is too small! What the hell...if El Greco could distort his figures, then so can I ! As usual, my painting is still in that rude and crude stage. The model's flesh tones are certainly not there yet. I'm struggling with her sneakers and hair, and so on and so on...but...I think the foundation of a good painting has been laid. Check out the model's designer, ripped and torn stockings not to mention her cardigan and pearls...very vogue indeed! And to think, I only had to chip in $10 for the model fee, Hell, that will only get you one lousy vodka martini! Shaken, not stirred, barkeep.

Another Watercolor Study

A little ink line work, expressive hued watercolor, and a touch of colored conte crayon. Painted in 150 lb. cold press watercolor paper. 15"X18". From a B@W photo I found on the web.

Back in the saddle again...kinda scary at first.

Today I took some time off to attend a live model painting session. Some very good artists were there with a lot of experience doing this on a regular basis. It was a three hour session. I got this far. There are so many ways to start a figure painting . My approach today was to contour sketch with a brush and lay in color areas at the same time. I did not crop in close to the model, so I had fun painting the environment around her, Anyway, got my feet wet and will try to do this on a more regular basis, because it's a lot of fun and the practice keeps one on the straight and narrow or to put it another way, keeps one's skill level sharper. The other photo you see here are oils by a two of my compadres. My effort is in acrylic. I was the one and only acrylic-er!

The "hard" work of playing

I'm still searching for a cool portraiture style for my watercolor studies. Last month, I painted a North African Muslim young man on Tyvek paper (bottom portrait). Cool stuff, and I even did a very successful workshop with this material. Problem is, is that I'm still in love with good old fashioned 140lb cold press watercolor paper. I have decided to go back to my expressive bright hued palette on cold press. This middle painting that I did yesterday unfortunately is way, way, WAAAY overwrought with clown-like, rainbow colors. Pooh! This is where the "hard" work of playing comes in...lots of intense painting time to end up with a complete botch job! Well that was yesterday. Today, I went back to "work" and painted this top portrait. I do believe that my hard work may be on the road to success...we shall see... mustn't jump to conclusions...stay tuned.