Bluebird

Raven Undone

I just got back from a workshop with Michelle Dunaway at the Village Arts of Putney in Vermont. Its a beautiful and an inspiring place to say the very least. The format of the workshop was perfect in my opinion. We worked on figure the first day, portrait on the second and a two day 'model in an environment' pose in the next couple of days. I wanted learn how to turn the form in a realistic manner and came away with a good understanding on how to do so. A few simple things made all the difference. My goal with the painting posted here was to achieve luminous skin tones and to subtly turn the form. And I think I was able to scratch the surface on that one! Am now waiting to push the limits (read colors!) and see how far I can go. 

Painting Branko

Branko gave us an assignment to explore and push color and we chose to make him our model for it. It was so much fun that we painted way past midnight, despite having an early flight to catch the next morning! The weekend at Laguna was perfect. We walked to the beach, hiked to the 'top of the world', lazed on the patio gazing at the ocean, happened to spot some whales swimming about but also managed to paint and talk all things et art! Inspired. 

Songs of Silk

It was a painting marathon of sorts. I woke up and went straight to the easel and spent most of the day doing this. Surprisingly enough, I liked how this turned out at every stage. That rarely happens! I took time to work on this one but with a deadline in mind. Today I mostly used the Rosemary masters choice brushes as opposed to the Ivory line and I liked how they could hold a lot of paint and how easy it was to maintain a sharp edge! And now am tempted to order more! Posting some progress pics:

 

    

Playing the blues

I had started working on this a few days ago and waited too long before I got back to it. The under lying paint was too dry and I almost had to start over fresh. I played around with the background a lot before deciding to go with what I have now. I also decided not to put in much detail on the models face. 

Wings of Fire

This is the first in a series of figurative paintings that I am planning to do. I posted a picture of the painting earlier, though I felt it needed some more work. I added some variation to the background, upped the value scale on the figure and increased the details on the scarf. After the round of tweaks, I think its done!

The Londoner

I started off with a pretty rough lay-in and I was convinced that I had forgotten how to draw. I soon realized that a slight change in the shoulder placement is all it took to make it look right at the very least. It started to read better once I started building up the values and pushing the scale. It came together in the last few minutes! Well, you never really know what works until it just does! 

Garden chores

Its still in progress. I am just about done with filling the canvas with the overall colors in the painting. Yet to build it all up and finish it off. I'll be sure to post when its done.  

David

From an open studio costumed figure session at the Community School of Music and Arts. It was a good change to paint from a live model. I plan to do it more often. 

The Exhibit

The subject lends itself well to studies, good for drawing and exercising the value scale. I want to aim for more finesse and varied brushwork the next time around. 

Dressed Up

I started with painting the face and then moved on to the head wrap and the dress. A few tones of color and a hint of a shadow were just about enough to suggest the intricate neck piece. I had initially planned not to include the flower, but did so as an after thought. I think it works well to balance the composition. 

The reference picture is from the Watts Atelier program. 

Poised in Pose

I was a little too excited to render the Silk in the costume that I painted all of it first. I realized that the high value contrast is what makes it shine! I struggled quite a bit when I finally got around to painting the facial features. The scale was too small for comfort. I'll remember to go big the next time I am painting the full figure. This is meant as a gift though and I thought 5x7 would be a good size. 

Setting limits

Why I haven't been using transparent red oxide is beyond me. It is going to be a constant fixture on my palette henceforth. The depth it adds to the shadows with it's transparency is truly unmatched. For the most part of this painting I used a limited palette consisting of burnt umber, transparent red oxide, terra rosa, yellow ochre and white of course. Color mixing turned out to be much less of a hassle and it was easier to maintain the color harmony.

White Dress

I hadn't thought about what I wanted to paint next; and so decided to rework an unfinished under-painting from earlier using the puddles of dried paints that I had left on the palette. This was an effort to reduce waste and an experiment with inventing color from a black and white reference. An exercise to get better at understanding values. I am happy with how it turned out and hence pretty pleased on many levels! :)

Spectacled

A simple sketch, just to get the paint juices flowing. This is a scene from union square on a bright sunny day and she had comfortably settled in with a book. I added the tree as an after thought and moved it around to add some balance. I am not sure if it was necessary for the composition! Hmm. Btw, can you tell that she is wearing glasses? 

 

 

Ms. Murphy

The one thing I have learnt from trying to paint portraits is to not give up! And it feels like a real achievement when at some point the sketch begins to look like the person you are trying to paint. Every small shape and every little curve is so important to achieve the likeness and to me, painting faces is the most difficult thing yet and that is why I love it so much too! I am also posting a desaturated version of the painting above; gives a good perspective of the value scale. I gave this sketch to E as a Christmas gift, and I am of course elated to know that she is happy with it ! :)

Benediction

Let's just say this is in honor of the character so well reprised! Took me two days and multiple attempts to wrap my head around the tiny details that were going totally amiss. Happy to have completed this simple sketch; I think I've managed to achieve a fair amount of likeness, which was the whole point to say the very least! With such a distinct face, the mistakes seemed elusive but were really quite 'elementary, my dear'! 

Enlightened

I decided it was time to tackle the formidable to-paint list I have had for a long time now. I started with the Zorn palette on what was to be a self-portrait, but it turned out to be a complete wiper! I know what did not work though and I plan to be more mindful of it the next time around. After this experiment, I am feeling more confident about painting familiar faces where the likeness becomes more important than just the aesthetics. Btw this being the 50th post, its a mini milestone met! :)

Back Again

An early in the day effort, all while trying to keep myself from biting my nails off during the immense excitement from some amazing tennis this morning! Though most of the work only went in after it ended. I am not very fond of classical realism but it is great for practicing drawing and the subtle value shifts. I changed my hold on the brush a few times and had more control than I had thought was possible. And starting with a black canvas is not something I might repeat. The colors seemed off, was difficult to get a handle on the darks and I couldn't achieve the 'cast' look with the same palette as the one I had used for 'Lady in Grey'.

Lady in Grey

The reference is from the Watts Atelier Program. I kept in mind to break the painting down into and filling in the shadow and light areas before modelling the form with mid-tones and highlights. Taking color out of the equation helps to focus on the values! Though I did use a hint of terra rosa in the reflected lights to add some interest.