One, Two, Three

Occasionally, someone will ask about my painting process. I have in the past, posted my usual digital painting and oil painting process.  But once in a while, I’ll choose this method.  It’s not an overall block-in, refine and refine again way to work.  It is instead, a little by little fill in method. While this technique …

The Red Dress

Oil on Linen 24″ x  24″ Lots of reflected light, on a sumptuous linen surface=so much fun to paint!  Below you’ll find progress images. When not working alla prima, I generally begin with a value based underpainting- blocking in the entire painting to create a first layer.  As you can see, with this one, I started with …

Exhibeo Honorable Mention

A welcome surprise, “Betsy” won Honorable Mention in The Human Figure competition at  Exhibeo Art Competition Magazine.  In addition, Jonathan Raddatz, from Exhibeo has written a lovely review  of my “Young Series”, in which “Betsey” is a part. You can find the review  here. Thank you, Jonathan and thank you, Exhibeo!

The Depot

Oil on 17.5″ wood panel While shopping at Home Depot, I spotted a wooden disk that I had to have. While it’s ridiculously heavy and I have no idea what it was created for, it served as a terrific surface for this painting. I think I’ll pick up another panel next time I’m at the Depot.

Lots of Layers

  This one is more tightly wound than I would like.  I was so enchanted with the light on the hair and face, that I got carried away.  I should have gone alla prima with this. Instead I blocked it in (thinly under painted hues and values), and kept refining to achieve more detail, in order …

Alla Prima

I’ve been oil painting almost exclusively lately, weighing different techniques against one another. I tend to paint tight more detailed work only when it feels right to me, depending on what I’m trying to achieve. But, I must say that working alla prima-direct to surface, wet into wet in one session, like the painting above, …

Watercolor Wednesday

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Two Sides

Two variations of K. There are so many ways to portray a subject.  Even when the portrait is figurative, a straight forward depiction of likeness; a literal likeness of an individual, it’s a challenge to decide which aspect of your model you want to highlight or capture.  That said, I’ve been playing with “sets”.  These …

Experiments In Oil#2

Thanks for all your thoughtful and kind comments on experiment #1. Onto experiment #2.: Experiments #1 and #2 have photo challenges in common,  even though this surface is not shiny. These colors are somewhat brighter than the original and playing in PS didn’t get them right.  No glazing here, the paint was applied fresh but …

Experiments In Oil #1

I’m without a commission at the moment, so I’ve been pushing into “what if” territory in oil paint.  I’ve played with three paintings, all handled differently.  The subject is the same, though posture and expression vary greatly.  Above is the first.  I applied many more layers of glaze than I normally use, to see if …