Category: Faces

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Drawing Faces People Sketchbook Pages Subway drawings

Quickie Subway Drawings on BART

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I liked the earnest, patient look on her face and her Modigliani neck. I just wish she’d stayed aboard a little longer so I could finish her.

Now this guy was great. He went right to sleep, sitting facing me, our knees nearly touching, and mostly stayed asleep until we both got off at the same stop. Once he startled awake and caught me staring at him but dozed right back off. The guy sitting next to me watched me draw and gave me a big grin as I was getting off, acknowledging our secret from my model.
Red-haired sleeper with sideburns:

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More sleepers:
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Just waiting:
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Too many earings:
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No smoking: (and yes, I know his head’s too narrow but I think it rather suits him)
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All are Ink on Strathmore Drawing paper

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Every Day Matters Faces Life in general People Sketchbook Pages Subway drawings

13 minutes, 4 commuters, politics and art books

Ink in 6×9 sketchbook (Larger)

On my way home from work tonight I intended to continue reading Hensche on Painting (about an American Impressionist painter and his teachings about seeing and painting color under the influence of light). But the BART train was full of fascinating faces and I had to sketch instead. There are four stops between my office and home. The person in the seat two rows ahead of me was replaced at each stop, which made for a wonderfully random assortment of models, with 2 to 4 minutes each to draw them.

Tonight my painting group was here and we talked about whether we were going to vote for Hillary or Obama. As I wrote that sentence, I realized that it doesn’t feel right to call her by her last name or to call him by his first name. I wonder what that means and if it’s unconsciously sexist of me? Or is that I didn’t know how to spell Barack and had to look it up, even though I’ve seen it a hundred times already? Or is it because when I think “Clinton” I think of her hubby?

Susie has been reading Obama’s first book, Dreams from My Father: A Story of Race and Inheritance, about his life pre-candidacy and it has convinced her to vote for him. I’m going to download it from Audible.com and listen to it.

Tomorrow night (Thursday) is the California debate between the two of them, and although I don’t get CNN on my TV, they are streaming the debates live on CNN.com so I will watch it on my computer. Then I’ll make my decision and mail in my absentee ballot. (I like pretending that my vote actually matters.)

I’m just looking forward to the end of the Bush era and not having to run to turn off the sound when he’s on the radio or TV.

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Animals Drawing Faces Life in general Other Art Blogs I Read Painting People Sketchbook Pages Watercolor

Noses (catching a cold)


Pencil and watercolor, 8×6 (larger)

Pooh! I’m catching a cold. Here’s a sketch of my nose which is getting a lot of attention right now. I set up my mirror on my drawing table and Fiona hopped up to bask in the warmth under my lamp so I got to draw both of our noses.

Inspired by Laureline‘s recent experiments, I dragged out my ancient, very first watercolor kit of Schmicke watercolors. She’s right — they are more brilliant than any others. Also inspired Laura I tried using a Mars Lumograph 8B pencil I found in my pencil box to draw instead of my usual pen. It was really silky and fun to draw with and nearly as unerasable as a pen.
I wanted to do a painting about a neat flying dream I had the night before but I need to feel better to get into the spirit of that dream. I’m feeling too limp and funky to paint flying and soaring. Noses are about it for today.

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Art theory Dreams Faces Oil Painting Other Art Blogs I Read Painting People Photos Portrait Studio

Dreamt about Jack Nicholson so I painted him

Oil on canvas panel, 12×9″ (Larger)

I had a fun dream that I was on a date with Jack Nicholson so the next day I decided to paint his portrait. (I wouldn’t really want to date him–I think he’s scary but fascinating.) I downloaded some photos from the web, picked this one and set it up on my computer monitor.

In Photoshop I cropped the photo to 12″x9″ to make it the same proportions as my canvas and then set Photoshop’s grid to divided the image into thirds. Then with charcoal I drew the same grid on my canvas panel (dividing it into 9 rectangles). That made it easier to correctly sketch in the shapes that make up the face.

Here’s the set up with the painting nearly done. It so great to be able to work from the monitor instead of a printed photo though it still can’t compare to working from life:
Jack Nicholson portrait in progress
(Larger) (Alison and Pete your artwork is visible on my bulletin board, along with some other inspiring artists’ work)

When I thought I was done, I looked at both images in a mirror and saw a bunch of problems that needed fixing. I flipped the photo 180 degrees in Photoshop and turned the painting upside down too. That made it easier to spot and corrent problems as shapes instead of facial features which is harder. I wasn’t going for a perfect finished portrait, but rather was trying to have fun and continue practicing with oils.

While I was working was listening to a historical novel about Pierre-Auguste Renoir and the making of his famous painting, Luncheon of the Boating Party (my favorite impressionist painting of all time–it made me cry when I saw it in person). I’m enjoying Susan Vreeland’s book of the same name, but I can’t imagine a non-artist enjoying it as much, since it goes into great detail about colors, composition, art theory, and the struggles and joys of painting from life.

Here are a couple of great quotes by Renoir that I really loved:

“I always paint from life and never paint anything I don’t enjoy.”

“I make it a rule never to paint except out of pleasure.”

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Art theory Faces Oil Painting Painting People Portrait

Persistence, Acceptance and Freedom

Don and Robin

Oil on panel, 9×12″
Larger

This is a portrait of my son and his grandfather, Don, from a photo taken 30 years ago. I started working on this painting a few days before he died two weeks ago. Although he was afraid of dying he had tremendous acceptance, from years of regular meditation. Visiting him was a very peaceful experience. Even though he was experiencing so much loss, having been an athlete all his life and now watching his body fail, he was incredibly serene. We brought him some photos to look at, including the one from which this picture was made, and they cheered him up and made him laugh.

The reason I titled this post “Persistence, Acceptance and Freedom” is both because of Don, and also because I’ve had to accept that I don’t yet have the skills to make this a good portrait in oil paint, despite my persistence, and that this painting is as far as it’s going to get and it’s time to let it go. And that gives me much needed freedom, after working on this for way too many days. In the beginning it was a wonderful way to remember Don and think about those early days. I was determined to do the best I could but now by accepting that this is as far as I’m willing to take it, I free myself to move on to something else.

I didn’t spend enough time with the initial drawing, the photo I was working from was old and funky, and the color had faded strangely. Initially there were three generations in the picture, my son, his dad, and his grandad. First the two men were great but the baby was a mess. Then the baby got good but I messed up one of the men. After scraping off and redoing all or some of the people many, many times I decided to eliminate my son’s Dad, paint the background and clothes, and call it done. The thing with oil painting is that you can edit forever but I need to stop.

I’ve read it’s better for learning to paint hundreds of one-hour paintings than to spend hundreds of hours on one painting. I’ve tried the later and it’s not fun. I’m ready for the former and excited about doing timed paintings — more like sketches — one hour apiece.

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Art theory Faces Life in general Painting People Portrait Sketchbook Pages Watercolor

Squinting to See the Light (funny story)

Squinting to see the light

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Watercolor in large Moleskine notebook

Today at work, 10 of us were sitting around the table in the lunchroom eating and chatting. I sat across from our director, facing the picture window and our 27th-story view of Oakland, the San Francisco Bay, Mt. Tamalpais and the huge, cloudy sky. I was thinking about what I learned in my painting class last Sunday about the importance of learning to see color temperatures and value. A good way to do that is to close one eye and squint, which helps to blur the details, so that you can see shapes and values. I decided to practice on a blue house and a large brick building that I could see in the distance. I tried one eye and then the other, curious if it made a difference between my left and right eyes.

Suddenly I realized the conversation had stopped, our director was asking me if I was OK, and everyone was staring at me. I burst out laughing realizing that I was sitting there making weird squinty faces and they were all thinking I had an excruciating headache or had suddenly gone mad. I started trying to explain what I was doing and they looked at me perplexed. They finally realized it was an “art thing” and went back to chatting about work and TV shows and travel.

When I got home tonight, I looked in the mirror to see just how funny I looked and had to do this quickie self-portrait in my sketchbook. Amazingly it actually looks like me!

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Drawing Faces Other Art Blogs I Read People Sketchbook Pages Subway drawings

Subway Drawings & Mom Visit

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Chubby cyclist. He was so stuffed into his clothes it must have been uncomfortable — but I give him lots of credit for riding his bike to and from the BART station instead of driving there like I do.
All drawings Micron Pigma pen in small Moleskine notebook

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Sound asleep and resting comfortably after a long day.

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She figured out I was drawing her and gave me a big smile as she got off. I didn’t have time to finish her bearded partner though I wished I did. He had a lovely gentle face.

It’s been a crazy week at work leaving me no energy to draw or paint in the evening. My mother ( see her artwork from the 50s here) arrives tonight for a nearly weeklong visit. I’m hoping to do some drawing while she’s here and I start a plein air painting workshop on Sunday with Elio Camacho.

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Faces Other Art Blogs I Read Painting People Portrait Sketchbook Pages Watercolor

Portrait Swap – Ujwala in Watercolor

Ujwala, Watercolor

Watercolor in large Moleskine watercolor sketchbook from color photo
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Ujwala, Monochrome

Watercolor (Ultramarine Blue & Indigo) in large Moleskine watercolor sketchbook from black & white photo
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Forgive me Ujwala; I fear I haven’t done you justice but I thoroughly enjoyed painting your beautiful and expressive face. Thank you for allowing me to draw and paint you.

Update: Casey just posted her drawing of Ujwala too. Check it out here.

Quite awhile ago my friend and fellow art blogger Ujwala in Bangladesh invited me to do a portrait swap with her to be posted on Illustrator Rama Hughes‘ Portrait Party blog but I got sidetracked. She reminded me again recently when I was commenting on the wonderful series of portraits she’s been working on. The Portrait Party blog is really fun. It’s all drawings, paintings, and cartoons done by pairs of artists of each other. Rama recently posted pictures my friend Judith and I did of each other and when Ujwala finishes mine we’ll send them to him. If you want join the portrait party, just follow the instructions on his blog.

When I agreed (again) to do the portrait swap (which just means I paint you and you paint me), she promptly emailed me two great photos. It took me another few weeks to get around to sending her photos. I took pictures of myself at midnight in my old plaid flannel pajamas, holding the camera at arms length under bright light in the studio. The resulting photos showed every wrinkle and magnified my nose since I was holding the camera so close. I decided to forget about vanity and just send her the photos so we could get started.

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Drawing Faces People Sketchbook Pages Subway drawings

“Pitty” Tail – Tuesday Subway Drawings

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Ink in Moleskine notebook.
On my ride to work this morning, he looked so jaunty, with his perky cap, sunglasses, outdoorsy jacket and wearing what my sister calls a “pitty” tail — those skimpy little gray ponytails that balding men trying to hang onto the last bits of their wilder youth wear.

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The morning light was shining in from the window onto his face. He was only there for a minute and then he got off.

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On my ride home the train was very crowded and he was sitting on the floor cross-legged reading. I gave myself room in my sketchbook to draw all of him but he got off before I could.

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He was sound asleep on the seat in front of me, less than two feet away when I got on at 6:45 p.m. He was still asleep when I got off. I hope he didn’t miss his stop. I had a feeling that the woman on the seat beside me was watching me draw. I was imagining what she might be about to say to me (“you better not draw me” or “nice drawing–it looks just like him” or “do you think that’s right drawing somebody who’s sleeping?”) but when I stole a glance in her direction, she was also sound asleep.

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Faces Oil Painting Other Art Blogs I Read Painting People Portrait

Francis: Work in progress, oils

Francis-Grisaille underpainting done

Grisaille underpainting, oil on canvas, 9×12 (larger)

Francis is a little boy I photographed (with his mom’s permission) in the cafe at the Museum of Modern Art in San Francisco. Something about his red hair and sweet, wise nature made me want to paint him. This is a second attempt–the first got tossed. I’m trying a technique I recently saw demonstrated at the California Watercolor Association meeting. The goal is to end up with strong darks, high contrast and glowing skin. The artist who demonstrated the technique started her demo by showing slides of Caravaggio‘s paintings. He is known for strong contrast of glowing light in an otherwise dark scene, known as Chiaroscuro.

Once this layer dries I will be painting over the underpainting with a thin layer of color, trying to allow the darks and lights to remain and show through.

Francis-sketch on toned canvas
(above) First I started by toning the canvas with a thin wash of acrylic burnt umber paint. Burnt sienna would have been better though–this color is too dark and not warm enough. Then I used Saral transfer paper to trace the enlarged photo onto the canvas. Portraits are the one subject that I still do that kind of transfer instead of drawing freehand when I want to be sure to get a resemblance with all the features the right size in the right place.

Francis-Getting started

(Above) Next I started blocking in the dark shapes and lines I saw using burnt sienna oil paint thinned with Gamsol Odorless Mineral Spirits.

Francis-blocking in

(Above) Once I had the shapes blocked in I was ready to start adding the black paint, trying to keep it thin so some of the burnt sienna would show through.

Francis-Grisaille underpainting started

(Above) Then I started adding white paint, trying to make smooth transitions between dark and light. And this brought me to the finished grisaille underpainting at the top. Now I just need to let it dry and then start adding the thin layer of color and see what happens.