This is my favorite model, I am over the moon when she shows up. She is so paintable.
It was a 30 minute pose. When I look at the painting the next day, it seems that the strokes are so few and the painting is so small, how could it have taken that long -- but when I am doing it I am going like a house afire and always irritated that the time is up. So much has to happen before the paint even goes down though....I have to figure out what part of her I want and then get the parts connected and then decide on and mix the paint and then get it down. Well, this is no big deal, it's the same for everybody, just that it has to happen fast, so it's amazing to have anything coherent at all. The fact that there isn't time to think is maybe the best and most valuable part of the exercise, because I am frequently surprised by what I did.
This is another good model. She is absolutely perfectly still, AND she remains smiling the entire pose. Also, she has a very distinctive elongated head which is shaved on the sides, cut very close in the back and top front, and for the crown(!) a top knot of dreadlocks bleached to a very pale yellow. I always mean to get that top knot in the painting, but frequently, like this one, the adjustments that I have to make for that long head and face force the top of the head off the panel. Oh, but she is fun to draw and paint!
Another 30 minute painting. Because of a strong back light, she had a very complicated light pattern on the front of her body with only a little sliver on the left breast fully lit. It sort of makes a design pattern here rather than making a body feeling mass -- however, interesting to have to get all those grayed colors down fast. Still loving the sense of bulk though.
This is my favorite model, I am over the moon when she shows up. She is so paintable.
I found this photo in the New Yorker magazine along with a big article about Putin. It said he has had lots and lots of botox in his face. It is VERY smooth....
