When I saw a photo of this guy, I loved his funny rooster-tail man bun and made him my next portrait victim. I decided he was Hawaiian, gave him a tan and put him in a happy beach scene (see below for the process). It was fun to try to create the effect of bright sun on his shirts.
Original reference photo from Pinterest
(Left) Combined reference photo; (Right) first layer of oil paint
Above on the left is a composite I assembled in Photoshop for the reference photo. I can’t remember if I found the beach scene on Google or used Photoshop’s AI Generator to create it because I tried so many different things.
Freckles Minus Freckles, oil on gessoed Arches Oil paper, Zorn palette, 9×7”
Her nose! That interesting shape is why I wanted to paint her when I saw her photo (see below) on Pinterest. In the photo she is speckled with freckles but I was only interested in getting that nose!
Painting at 2 hours ( + 5 minutes to mess things up).
My intention had been to paint this in one session but I started too late in the day. I could have left it as it was at the the two-hour mark, but instead of walking away and getting dinner, I stupidly decided to just touch up one thing (which was unsuccessful of course because I was exhausted) so I had to basically touch up everything.
Inspiration photo from Pinterest; no photographer credit provided
Justin Timberlake After DUI Bust, Zorn palette, oil on paper, 11×7’
There was something so poignant about the news photo of Justin Timberlake after his bust for Driving While Intoxicated and I wanted to capture it in paint. Then something hilarious happened when I was preparing the photo of the painting for posting.
I clicked on the ℹ️ symbol in Apple Photos to make sure the picture I was selecting was the correct version for posting. I noticed a little white dot appeared in the middle of the photo. When I clicked on the dot, Apple AI/Siri told me that this was a painting of Robert Fergusson painted by 1700s Scottish painter, Alexander Runciman. WTF?
Isra Hirsi, daughter of Ilhan Omar, oil on paper, 8×7.5”
I was so struck by the photo (see below) of Isra Hirsi, the daughter of Representative Ilhan Omar, when I saw it in the New York Times. She was being interviewed after she was arrested for participating in a pro-Palestinian protest at her university. The look on her face seemed to say so much.
First sketch, 10×8”
After I sketched her (above) I had a dilemma. I loved the sketch but could see that I had gotten the dimensions very wrong. So do I paint from my sketch or try again to get the correct likeness? I decided to do another sketch, get it right and then do the painting.
As usual I got about halfway through the 12×9” painting, wasn’t happy with it and abandoned it, choosing to start over. I went for a smaller format since I was working from a screenshot of a tiny photo and was relatively happy with the results.
I used the Zorn palette to simplify things, but added a few other colors for her shirt.
Summer Selfie, Oil on Shellacked Arches Oil Paper, 9”x 6.5”
After the wig experiment I got even braver and cut my hair very short for the first time since I was about 12. I was going for something spiky, between Laurie Anderson and a pixie cut but this is what my curly hair wants to do.
I painted the oil sketch above from a photo as a test for using shellac as an archival primer/sealer/ground on paper. I used the Zorn palette (black, white, cadmium red and yellow ochre).
I got bored after painting my head so everything below my chin is pretty rough.
Getting Started with Shellac
Although it comes in a colorless formula, I bought amber shellac so that it could seal the paper and tone it at the same time (and it’s easier to see what you’ve covered). Since it’s transparent you can do a drawing with pencil or charcoal on the paper and then shellac over it and still see your drawing. (See below)
Shellac Over Pencil Sketch on Paper
Fun fact: Shellac is made from a substance secreted by female (she?) Lac beetles to make their tunnel-like tubes on tree branches. It is harvested by scraping it off those trees in India.
Shellac dries super quickly (in under 15 minutes) by evaporating out the denatured alcohol, which is the liquid the shellac is dissolved. It barely smells at all but it’s still good to have ventilation.
It’s best to make it fresh from flakes, but since I can’t buy denatured alcohol in California to dissolve it in, Zinsser canned shellac is my only option. You buy it at the hardware store, not the art store.
Application: It should be stirred first (not shaken). Then you can apply it with a cheap hardware store bristle brush (or a nicer one if you can get denatured alcohol or don’t mind using ammonia to clean it). Supposedly you can also let the brush dry without cleaning it and when you put it back in the can it will soften and be ready to use.
You can also apply it with a rag, a squeegee or anything except a sponge brush according to the hardware store guy. For this first experiment I just spread it with a flat paint stirrer stick and it worked fine and made a nice variegated background.
I really like the interesting painting surface that shellac provides—not too slippery like acrylic sealant but not so dry/absorbent like gesso or Arches Oil Paper without sealant.
A Few Tips and Mistakes to Avoid
For more shellac tips, watch artist Aimee Erickson’s video demo on using shellac to prime pages in a sketchbook for oil painting.
Shellac is thin and as it turns out, quite splashy. After I applied the shellac to my paper, I put the lid on the can, and, as I usually do with my gesso bucket, I tapped the lid with my rubber mallet to seal it. That sent golden shellac from the rim of the can splattering all over my table, the wall, a framed (in glass fortunately) painting on the wall and everything on the table. Now I carefully wipe the rim before tapping it with the mallet.
I did the drawing for this painting directly on the shellacked paper. Even though I had pretty good luck with the drawing, I still needed to do some erasing and redrawing. That roughed up the surface unpleasantly in some spots. Shellacking over a drawing may be a better solution.
I tried shellacking 140 pound cold pressed watercolor paper instead of Arches Oil Paper for another painting. Even though it does seal the paper, I found the painting surface quite unpleasant, and won’t do that again.
My social media feeds kept showing me wigs (how do they know my formerly boisterously curly hair was getting thin, grey and wimpy?) The influencers looked so cute in their (probably very expensive) wigs that I decided to try one.
A dog park acquaintance who always wears a wig recommended I order one from Temu. It was cheap, hideous, huge, hanging over my eyes and shedding. It quickly went back to Temu, a store I’m not a fan of.
Then a friend pointed me to some higher-quality inexpensive wigs on Amazon. I bought the one I’m wearing in the picture because it reminded me of what my hair looked like in my 20s: long, thick, wavy, chestnut color.
Unfortunately, not being anywhere close to my 20s anymore, I looked ridiculous in it close up. But it was fun to take a selfie wearing it and then paint a self-portrait before returning the wig.
About Painting: I recently watched an online painting video with Carol Peebles. Her guidance about comparative measuring in portrait drawing clarified so many things I’d been confused about. It helped me to get a likeness with much less struggling.
Painting is so much more fun when starting with a good drawing! I’m really happy with how this turned out. I think it’s my favorite self-portrait ever and I’ve done at least 50 of them over the years.
This calf was in a photo on my Vermont friend Ruth’s Strava page and I thought it was so cute I took a break from the people portraits I’ve been working on to do a quick oil sketch of it.
Ruth told me about the photo: “It’s the dairy farm next door. Run by Sebastian Von Trapp, who is the great grandson of Captain Von Trapp. Sebastian’s grandfather was one of the Von Trapp singers!”
Portrait of Fiona’s Friend with the Mona Lisa Smile, oil 10×8”
I’m finally back to painting and drawing again after a very long break. For nearly a year I had illustrated my dreams and the daily Wordle and had posted about half of them. Then I burned out.
For the first time in my life I went for months without drawing or painting and for the first time since I started my blog in 2006, I stopped posting to0. I was afraid my passion for painting was gone for good and wondered who I would be without it.
Finally my desire to paint and draw came back (hooray!!!) BUT I was so rusty! Before the burnout I was able to quickly sketch a decent likeness. That was gone (as you can see in some of the failed attempts below!)
Some of the preliminary sketch starts (that didn’t end up in the trash)
It took more than seven sketch-starts before I kind of remembered how I draw (above).
Final painting and 2 of the failed painting starts
Then it took 5 painting starts before I felt I had a good enough beginning structure to keep going and complete the portrait.
My goal was to capture her Mona Lisa-like smile and I wouldn’t stop until I did.
Sadie and the 2021 Swim Trophy, watercolor, 10”x7.5”
My granddaughter Sadie loves to swim (and play soccer, basketball and read books, too). At the end of the season, after winning many races and awards, to fundraise for her team she swims lap after lap and people pledge $ per lap.
Reference photo
Trying to paint Sadie from this photo led to me giving up on oils and going back to watercolor. As was my way with oils, I tried repeatedly, persistently (obsessively?) but couldn’t make it work. This watercolor isn’t perfect, but it captures the joy of the moment and that makes me happy.
With watercolor I’m able to paint to a certain point and then happily call it done. Watercolor doesn’t allow you to keep fiddling forever like oil does.
Final drawing for the painting (after many corrections)
I again used a limited palette because it’s fun to see what I can do with only 3 colors. This time it was DS Hansa Yellow Medium, WN Permanent Alizarin and WN Cobalt Blue.
Test of Limited Palette Primary Triad using DS Hansa Yellow Medium, WN Cobalt Blue and Alizarin Permanent
I used to think it was really weird that artists limited their palettes. I thought one needed every possible color in order to capture color exactly. But now I prefer the harmony a limited palette provides and don’t really care about capturing exactly the colors in real life. I’m not trying to be a photocopier.
Strawberries, Cheerios and Milk, 20×21″, watercolor 2013
The watercolor paintings in this post are from 10-20 years ago. I haven’t been posting new work for several months because I got stuck working on one oil painting portrait. I struggled with it, overworking, reworking, starting over, rinse and repeat. There’s something about being able to endlessly work on an oil painting that triggers my perfectionism, and not in a good way.
Pink Rose, 2003, Watercolor, 16×12″
Watercolor and gouache have natural stopping points. You have to pause to let the paint and paper dry. You can’t keep painting layer on layer endlessly or you have a muddy mess. You either call it done or you start over.
Sister City Parade, Watercolor, 22×30″, 2001 (An actual parade going down the street in my neighborhood when I was moving in 22 years ago)
I also became sensitive to solvents. I stopped using Gamsol while painting but even the smell of drying oil paint without solvents made me feel icky. Just using a little Gamsol for brush and palette cleaning left me with the taste of metal in my mouth and a headache, both signs of chemical sensitivity. I already have funky lungs so that was it. Bye-bye oils.
Ruth Bancroft Gardens Old Barn, ink & watercolor, 5×8″ 2013, SOLD
I’ve always preferred the look of watercolors to oil paintings anyway. In fact the only paintings I have hanging in my home are watercolors. I thought I would go through a grieving period but it’s been a couple months and I’ve felt only relief and excitement.
Sleeping Neighbor, Watercolor 30×22″, 2009, SOLD
I have thousands of dollars worth of oil paint, oil brushes, canvases, panels and oil paper that I will sell at some point. In the meantime, I’m finding it thrilling to watch water and color flow on paper again.
Sold. Michelle’s Rose, Watercolor, 2015 (SOLD) (Painted as a demo in a watercolor class I was teaching)
Jana Bouc, Artist 