Comparison

Two posts ago, I showed the progress of an urban street scene that I was painting with another art teacher that was taking private lessons from me in order to paint in a losser style. Here is his painting (top) and mine (bottom). It is always interesting in seeing how painters doing the same scene differ in their approach. I'd love to get your take on these two renditions, dear readers.

Next year during the Spring semester at Sacramento City College, I will be teaching a pen and ink drawing class. This has never been a medium I work in, but I do like to teaching it. I'm not sure why! This is a self portrait I did in india ink in my pen and ink drawing class, circa 2006.

Early Morning Street Corner

This is an acrylic on stretched canvas painted mostly with flat brushes over a five day period. It was a great exercise on how to take a rather prosaic scene and turn it into an engaging painting. I started the painting with an art instructor at The Art Institute, Sacramento who is taking lessons from me to loosen up his painting style. We worked from a reference photo I snapped about two years ago. I played with light, color, added graffiti and telephone lines to help engage the viewer. This was a challenging exercise for the both of us!

I followed my nose.

Yep, I followed my nose. A few posts ago (in October) I was at the stage in this watercolor when it was a relatively simple portrait of a young Hmong girl from Vietnam. I had no idea where to go with it next except to keep going and as my father used to say when he didn't want to look at a road map (remember those?), "I'll follow my nose". I followed my nose my working on it throughout October and this month . . . just a little bit each day or so.  My nose lead me to this final stage. Hope you like it dear readers.