Painting quick self-portraits seemed like a good way to work through my feelings while supporting my elderly mother in hospice, especially with my limited studio time and energy. The most recent, #6 above, is my favorite so far because I focused on finding light, beauty and strength rather than darkness (and because I omitted my frown lines). I used a limited palette of titanium white, yellow ochre, venetian red, cobalt blue and a little Gamblin Asphaltum and a cool white light bulb.
Studio set-up with mirror
Here’s my funky set up with the big mirror propped up on a dresser drawer. In all six of these self-portraits (above and below) I focused on capturing something of what I was feeling in a short session (3- to 4-hour studies) without worrying too much about getting a true likeness.
After I did these two studies on one piece of Arches Oil Paper focusing on values (started with transparent earth color underpainting), I caught a nasty head cold. I feel super lousy and haven’t had the energy to paint but I’ve done a couple sketches, below.
Pomegranate and persimmons on a brick. 2B pencil in 8×10 moleskine.
Drawing helped take my mind off my sneezing and nose running like a river.
FarhooD S via Sktchy app. graphite, 11×8″
I think I made his hand too small. Here’s his photo on Sktchy:
Another quick post of a recent sketch done from an inspiration photo on Sktchy. I love the app and I love drawing people more than just about anything. Pears and bowls and pretty landscapes are great, but nothing can match the joy of drawing people for me. Below is the reference photo. I’d intended to add color but liked the black and white version too much.
Inspired by a Sktchy photo, created in ProCreate on iPad with Apple Pencil, when it was too early for bed and I was too tired to go to the studio. Sat the iPad on my knee, looked at photo in Sktchy App on iPhone. And here’s the inspiration photo:
Shower cap inspiration photo on Sktchy by Danith R.
Let me know what you think about shorter posts like this. I’m going to try to post more often to the blog, with more pictures and less words. Sometimes less is more (posts) if I can get stuff posted quickly without long explanations. But don’t worry, there will still be lessons I’m learning in the studio posts too.
I so enjoy the Sktchy App where people post their photos, artists post their sketches of the photos and everybody is so positive and encouraging. Each weekend Sktchy hosts a Weekend Art Extravaganza or “WAX,” which is a cue or art concept to inspire artists to apply to their sketches. Last weekend it was “Candlelight.” I found the inspiring photo below on Sktchy and used it for this painting.
Photo reference for candlelight
Do join in on Sktchy if you have an iPhone and want practice drawing people (and their pets and home/cities) from all over the world, all ages, all lifestyles. It’s so much fun!
Color Boot Camp Part I Monochrome. Left to right: Color reference photos, B&W converted ref photo, my two studies
When my art friend Chris Beaven commented on the previous version of this post that it would be interesting to see my studies compared to the black and white versions of the photo references, I did a virtual dope slap (Of course! What a perfect way to see if I got the values right!) and then decided to redo this blog post to show that comparison (above).
While I often convert color photos to black and white to see the values, when I did these studies from Bill Perkins’ Color Boot Camp on New Masters Academy I wanted to try to do the conversion in my artist brain instead of using technology. But putting my studies next to the converted photos gives me just the reality check I needed. I can see that I did pretty well in painting the values from the color photos.
In the lesson he set up one model in four different lighting situations and then demonstrated doing a 30-minute painting of each in black and white. He recommends doing the studies in no more than 30 minutes, emphasizing that it’s more important to do many starts, without worrying about getting a likeness or making finished paintings. I have to admit spending longer than 30 minutes, probably up to 3 hours on some, and in retrospect, the longer I worked the less effective the study was.
If you want to see Bill Perkin’s studies and mine in greater detail, click the “read more” link below.
CBC Part 1-3, Janas #1 High Key, High Contrast Study (My favorite of 8 below)
Being a member of the New Masters Academy is like having a treasure chest of jewels to explore, with new art classes added all the time. The only downside is that I have to assess my own work and be my own teacher since NMA doesn’t offer feedback to the video lessons’ assignments.
I revised this post by publishing a new version of it so I’ve deleted the content here. Please see the next post for the rest of the content from this post.
I’ve had so much fun since I discovered the SKTCHY app. It’s so simple: people upload photos and artists use them as inspiration to draw from and then upload snapshots of their artwork. (click on collection below twice to enlarge.)
Collage of recent sketches and their Sktchy.com inspiration photos
Above are my sketches and their Sktchy reference photos from the past week in a collage (made using free PicMonkey online). The Sktchy app is super easy to use, with an incredibly wide variety of people to draw and really interesting artists’ work to be inspired by. Join me there! It’s big fun!!! (FYI, it’s currently only available for iPhone/iPad; Android version is in the works).
Click on any of my sketches below to see larger or in a slide show. They are all in a 12×9″ sketchbook.
Walter Justice, colored pencil
France Belville Van-Stone, graphite
Kalie Jones, colored pencil
Khyla Duran, colored pencil
Shwan Kamal, photo ref, watercolor
Fernando Quijano, Jr. Graphite, attempt #2
Fernando Quijano, Jr., Colored pencil & Graphite, attempt #1
JR Handyman #3 Final, oil on DuraLar, 12×9 inches, 2016
When Jeff the Handyman (who does excellent carpentry and electrical work) came over to look at a job, he was kind enough to let me take his photo for the series I’m painting of people at work in my neighborhood. I tried three times, before and after I started studying head structure and anatomy. With the third study (above) I felt like I’d said what I had to say, with the skills I have at this point, and was ready to move on.
Above is the final study and immediately below are all three attempts in chronological order.
JR #1 Final, oil on panel, 12×9 inches, 2015
JR #2 Final, Oil on DuraLar, 12×9 inches, 2015
JR Handyman #3 Final, oil on DuraLar, 12×9 inches, 2016
My favorite part of all three above is the sky reflecting on the top of his head. With each attempt my drawing improved a bit. The more I learn, the more I see, and the more I see, the more I know I need to learn!!!. Below are all three studies with work in progress (WIP) steps. I’m not offering the WIP to show how it “should” be done; just the approach I was experimenting with. I am always trying on techniques of other artists I admire but haven’t yet found the approach that “just works” for me.
JR #1-C, oil on panel, 12×9 inches
JR #1-B, oil on panel, 12×9 inches
JR #1 Final, oil on panel, 12×9 inches, 2015
JR #2-A, Oil on DuraLar, 12×9 inches. I always like this sketchy stage the best.
JR #2-B, Reference photo and painting start
JR #2 Final, Oil on DuraLar, 12×9 inches, 2015
JR #3-A, Portrait start with reference photo
JR #3-A Portrait Start, Oil on DuraLar, 12×9 inches
JR #3-B WIP, Oil on DuraLar, 12×9 inches
JR #4-C WIP. Realized nose was too long.
JR #3-D WIP, Shortened nose, started glasses
JR #3-E WIP. Beard got too wide.
JR #3-F WIP. Narrowed beard & hair, redid shirt
JR #3-F WIP with my Parallel Palette, which I like a lot.
JR Handyman #3 Final, oil on DuraLar, 12×9 inches, 2016
Marcy #24 “Sleepy Sister” Oil on DuraLar, 9×12 inches
When my sister Marcy offered to pose for me for my birthday, I had no idea it would take me 6 months, more than 2 dozen mostly awful drawings and painting attempts (pictures at bottom of post), and lots of study before I could produce a portrait that actually: a) looks human and b) resembles my sister (as I see her).
Although I have a long way to go before I feel competent at this, I am choosing to pause here briefly to honor and share my progress before I raise the bar again on my study of portraiture.
Attempt #1: Painted live in about 2.5 hours. I learned how much I didn’t know about painting portraits
After my first try (above) and many more failed attempts (displayed at bottom of post) I realized I needed a better understanding of head anatomy. I accepted that I can’t fix a bad drawing with pretty paint. I studied my books and videos, tried to memorize proportions and divisions of the head (e.g. eyes are halfway between top of head and chin) and did some head drawing exercises (again…) that I still didn’t quite understand. And I continued failing at drawing and painting Marcy from the photo I took when she sat for me the first time, again from life on another visit and then from other photos.
I’ve done portraits I liked in the past, either by drawing freehand and then correcting again and again, or by enlarging a photo and tracing it onto canvas or paper. But I just couldn’t reliably draw one from life. So I read more books, watched online videos and investigated in-person and online classes. I found a comprehensive online academy last month that is giving me just what I wanted to learn. I think you can see how it is making a difference, starting with #18 below, drawn from life when Marcy posed for me again. In my next post I will review and share links to the learning resources I found.
You can see the progression, from the hilarious to the hideous to the almost-but-no, sorted with most recent first. Some are just bare starts; as soon as I could tell it was unsalvageable, I added the piece to the pile of fails and started over. The paintings are all oil, 12×9″ on Matte Dura-Lar except for the earliest ones on panels. The drawings are mostly on Vidalon Vellum except for the first few 14×11″ on paper.
Marcy #24, oil on Duralar
#23, Drawing for #24, graphite and conte
Photo for #23-#24
#22, “Almost” – completed.
#22, “Almost,” start. I like this earlier stage better than the finished version.
#21, start, discarded (see #20 visible beneath Duralar).
#20, drawing for #21 and #22. I LIKE IT! Conte on Vidalon.
Photo for #21 and #22
#19, drawn from life, completed.
#18, drawn from life, start, conte on Vidalon
*AFTER THIS I STARTED STUDYING HEAD ANATOMY. #17 Oilon Duralar
Jana Bouc, Artist 