Oil Portrait Study

Study of Lauren
Oil on Linen

I host a weekly life drawing group in my studio on Mondays.  We're just a small group of friends who enjoy each other's company.  Often our poses go for up to six weeks so that members can do polished drawings or paintings from the pose.  This time, though, we ran the pose for four weeks.  Now I know that there are a lot of very good alla prima portrait artists out there but I'm not usually given to alla prima work.  Well, yes, I used to be an alla prima painter but in recent years, I've changed my style to that of a more polished look so I'm badly out of practice on alla prima portraits. 

I do like to do studies every so often and I have decided to dedicate every other session to just painting from the model rather than drawing. This study of our model, Lauren is the first in a long time.  I try in these little pieces to focus on the bigger picture and limit myself to just a couple of brushes.  Basically I use three.  I have a 1 1/2 inch for the background and other larger shapes and a 1/2 inch for the medium shapes and a 1/4 inch brush for the smaller shapes.  I'm learning to wield the larger ones with more finesse and I resist the urge to go to smaller brushes.  Usually I can achieve a fine line when needed by turning the brush on it's edge.  So much more to learn here.  

Oil Painting of a Reclining Nude

"Jen Sleeping"24" x 30", Oil on Linen Panel




Finally! I've been working on this painting for almost three months and because my studio time has been limited, I haven't worked on anything else! So glad to be finished.  The hardest part though hasn't been painting this.  It's been photographing it!  I have a lot of cool skin tones in here and the light in my studio is either too dim or too warm when I turn on the lights.  I finally found the right combination of warm and cool to photograph it in.

 I hope to enter this in some competitions. A couple of times a year, I paint a piece strictly for this purpose.  That means that this won't be for sale for awhile, but that's OK.  I'll enjoy looking at it for a bit.  Thanks for stopping by.

Nude Study

"Study of Jen"

Oil on Linen













When working toward a more polished piece, I fall back on training and work out a couple of color studies first.  I wanted to get a general sense of the skin tones for this painting of a nude, and so turned out this study today. I'll more than likely do a couple of more of just her head and then a few of her feet before I'm satisfied that I have the color where I want it. But I liked the way this one came out today so I'm posting it. 

Female Nude

"What Dreams May Come"
Oil on Linen Panel, 8" x 6"

The figure is my favorite subject. I never tire of painting the nudes or even costumed models. Once a week I sponsor a figure drawing group at my studio and together we pay for 2 1/2 hours of a model's time. This model in particular is a dream to work with. I knocked out this little study the other day. She's for sale. To view the auction or bid, click here.

Oil Painting of Reclining Nude

"Awakened"

18" x 12", Oil on Paper


I've been painting small nudes lately. I think there's an intimacy about them that you can't get with larger paintings. Also the the size allows me to do more of them and experiment with abstracted backgrounds. Abstraction is something I'm deeply interested in. Don't get me wrong - I'm very much entrenched in representational work and have no intention of changing that. But any artist who has trained, knows that a good abstract design lies at the heart of every successful painting. For a long time I've been scribbling in sketch books ideas that I have for combining these two genre's. Yes, I know there are other artists out there who have done this quite successfully. There probably isn't anything new under the sun and I'm not out to reinvent the wheel. But I have to go where my muse leads or my work will get stale. 

 I think the exploration of  new horizons is a call that many artists hear but don't follow out of fear of losing sales. What I've found is that when I paint something I love, others love it too. So. Onward into the new frontier. Er, somewhat. I think you'll still see a lot of my traditional stuff here as I continue to forge new paths. As it goes with many experiments, sometimes the lab blows up.

Portrait, Oil on Linen

Portrait of Jenna

This small portrait was originally meant to be a two or three day study. The model was sitting for a three or four week pose and my intentions were to do a couple of different studies from different positions. For this reason, the lay in was done in paint rather than taking the time for a careful drawing. However the block in came out so well that my teacher suggested I follow through with it and make it a three week full portrait. I can see changes I'd like to make on it now, but over all it came out pretty well. I love working from life but the reality is that it's hard to do unless you have several people willing to help pay for the pose. Three to four weeks is a long time. I suppose as I improve, it will take less time.

Reclining Nude, Oil on Linen

"Imaginings" Although I've been turning out a lot of studies and small pieces for school, I haven't produced anything I deemed worthy of posting. I liked this piece though. It's the last monochromatic piece I produced before heading into a limited palette and warm/cool temperature studies. It was four weeks in the making and I hope you like it. I'll be making some changes later based on suggestions by my instructor and I'll post them once I do. I have 12 weeks left until the sumnmer break and I'm feeling a lot like a horse headed home to the stable. I'll be glad when the summer comes.

Some changes to "Morning Dreams", Oil Painting of a Nude Reclining, 11" x 14" on Canvas Panel

"Morning Dreams"Click here to bid.

"Morning Dreams" indeed. More like morning light! I went into the studio to look at last night's painting and saw all kinds of things that needed correcting. So out came the brushes and palette. Here's the much improved piece.

The core shadows on the figure around her hips appeared at first to be too dark. I softened the core shadow line and increased and smoothed out the shadow to the left of the core. Now the rest of her needed some adjustment so I darkened and glazed into the other core shadows on her along her legs and arm. This improved things dramatically. I also extended her fingers which are bent and in shadow, but looked odd in the first painting. A little scumbling to the highlights fixed things up just fine. The finished piece is much better. Thank goodness for second chances. The photo of the improved painting has been revised in EBay as well. Phew.