Mugshot Twenty Eight, Possible Family memeber

This one was really hard. I tried it twice, this is the better of the two. The majority of the face was in shadow, but the skin was all pink and green, and the pinks were green and the greens were pink! I did the underpainting as I learned but it was more difficult to get the values down simply. I was seduced by those shimmering half tones.

Mugshot 27: Possible Family Member

OK, back in the saddle. Returned from frolicking and resettled into the routine. While I was away I terrorized my family members, pleading for photos. Most relented but said they never want to see the paintings. (!!!!!!) Thank you everyone for your forbearance, and I won't identify anybody.

Last night was the final episode of Jennifer Balkan's second figure painting class. In this second part I learned the importance of doing a loose underpainting for the values. What a difference it makes - ain't no words! This single thing allows you to keep your values in a family, which helps the image to have weight and coherence. This is the piece of information I have been looking for but I didn't know how to ask for it or even what it was. It was a very exciting class, only 4 of us , so lots of one on one help. Jennifer is funny and generous and pounded everything into our heads, reinforced with demos and our own hands on experience. A great class, great people...I should have tried to get their photos as I will shortly run out of possible family members soon.

Reclining Nude Study

Still more wiping...full moon I hear.

This is the last of 4- 30 minute paintings from the painting group, first 3 really unspeakably bad and I could feel myself sliding into the abyss, and then I got one! I am quite proud of myself when I do an acceptable one because working with this time limit and all the discomfort of bad light, French easel, forgot the necessary color (cad yellow), etc., requires such absolute concentration that I lose all self consciousness. Then I am exhausted and have to have a beer.

I will be in North Carolina for a few days helping my father celebrate his 90th birthday. Maybe when I take up the brush again the wiping phase will be done.

Fernando/Study

I have had a whole week of wiping paintings! Not too upsetting though -- I am trying to do something new, a new way of using color, so this just has to be worked through. This painting is a quick study I did with cad red light and black. I got a good likeness without much suffering, which is always encouraging.

Nude Study/Back

I have been working hard on another project this week and there's nothing much to post.... but here is a study from my painting session with a model. This was a 30 minute study and a huge improvement over the last back I painted a couple of weeks ago. At the beginning of the first back I mumbled some remark(out loud even, such hubris) about how easy a back was going to be after doing a complicated and difficult front (limbs, stomach, breasts, facial features, hair, all!) and then produced a painting of a flat porcine slab.... frightening. But this one is much better because I am improving in my understanding of value and temperature. Backs can be hard! I love this model though.... something about her wants to be painted.

AND THANK YOU FOR YOUR GENEROUS SUPPORTIVE COMMENTS!

Mugshot 26: Sylvester S.

I am now in the second half of Jennifer Balkan's class and we are doing color mixing, then doing a painting with the mix. So far we have done two red/greens: Viridian and cad red light and sap and Winsor red. Since I had already taken Sylvester's picture and was ready to go, I used purple/yellow (which we haven't discussed yet) because he seemed to require it. Having a decision about which color range you are going to use greatly simplifies the process, you just line up the colors and get going. I was slinging stuff around on this one not quite knowing how to get what was necessary out of a purple/yellow combo. In any case, he is a handsome devil and reminds me of Zapata.

Mugshot 25: Jill W.

This is an honorary daughter who came for a visit and succumbed to the purifying mask.

Also, I want to thank all of you for your generous comments on these paintings. It's so exciting to open up the blog and see response. It helps to keep the fires lit.

Tom P.

This is a mugshot of a good friend. I am thinking I have to shift out of the criminal element because their photos are so terrible, bad light, bad color, pixillated when enlarged....it shouldn't be that hard. I am thinking I will take my own mug shots of the people in my life with my new fancy pants camera and have more CONTROL over some of these issues.

Mugshot 24

This guy had a very high creep factor.

Mug Shot 23

Ah, testosterone. You can see it at work.

I admit I was in a rapture working on this nose, It was so --- there, such a fleshy anchor for this boy's face. Also, since I have been getting in bad trouble with backgrounds that I add after the figure is painted, I laid in an acid yellow wash first thing to give me some color to relate to as I painted the head, and it was a much more comfortable way to go. I had to soften it tremendously later, but at least I was in the family of yellow at the end.