20 Minute Hand Study

1 Hour Gesture

5 Minute Gesture

My favorite gesture by far.

3 minutes is almost too short for my style. The wet on wet technique that dominates my way of painting does not work well in such a short period of time. There’s no time to dry between layers and while everything blends together beautifully there’s no definition in the figures. 5 minutes however, at least when using just two colors is just right. We tried a six minute long pose and it took the spontaneity out of it.

3 Minute Gestures

The first gesture of the week. I enjoy this one because it shows my progress from the first time I took this class. I was known as puddles that semester. Not because I have a habitual problem wetting the floor, but because all my gestures looked like puddles of color. Beautiful puddles, but puddles none the less. At least this one has a ghost of a figure. That makes me happy.

Meg, 2-4-09 (40 Minutes)

This model was a bad two weeks for me. I don’t have anything against her, but I hate drawing her. She is near impossible. Her coloring is difficult as well. Everytime I sat down I happened to be in mostly shadow and her shadows tend to be grey. We were supposed to be doing one to two day drawings, but most of mine turned out so bad right away that I just kept starting over. Blah. But it is over and I am very happy with the next set of paintings.

This is what I have been slaving over for the last week…

*Edit: I changed the color balance to show a closer version of the color of the painting. My camera takes very yellow pictures because of the flash. I need the flash because I am too shaky to take a good picture w/o.
This is my version of Sargent’s Spanish Dancer.

I am working on a second painting that I think will that if it is not a diptych then at least be a sister piece. I am hoping for a diptych. I love diptychs. Both paintings are huge, coming in at 24″ X 32.” For watercolor, that is gigantic.

Joe

*Edit:This is an updated picture. I finally had time to set up my wonderful HP Photosmart C4580. (It’s amazing!) I also finally installed photoshop on my computer not too long ago and now I am able to scan my paintings and let photoshop piece them back together. This makes a much better image because my photo-taking skills leave much to be desired. So after a very busy busy weekend of painting and the exhibit I bring you the new image.
This is a portrait of Joe. I did this one in three days. The portrait of his mom is a full sheet, this painting is a half sheet. I think this one turned out okay. My teacher said it was the best portrait in watercolor that he has seen come out of the academy. He really likes it, clearly. I like the way I painted. I don’t think there is anything wrong with painting, I just don’t like how I drew it. That’s a huge problem. My other watercolor teacher has been telling me for a year that I need to stop being such a shitty drawer (not exactly his words, but it wouldn’t be a surprise if he said it like that). I figured it would sort itself out, but I think I may have just gotten lazier over time. This also comes on the heels of working on a painting yesterday that I drew over the summer where most of the drawing is so wrong. I was very proud of that drawing until I looked at it as I was painting yesterday and noticed that most of the lines are very off. Granted, that was a semester ago, but I really haven’t improved. I’m not patient enough.

Also, I need to scan this painting in because this picture is really too yellow. All the nice greens and blues are missing. I will try to fix that on Monday, but I am also going to be getting everything ready to enter two contests later in the week so I will be very busy Monday.

Margaret

This is a portrait of Joe’s mom. There are a few things that I really like about this painting, mostly in the face. I like the way I painted the eyes and skin tone. I don’t like that I messed up on the drawing of the eyes and they are not on the same line. I also don’t like how the nose is drawn because it looks a little sunken in. However, I do think I got a likeness and I would like to try this painting again.
This is also just a detail, the painting is huge and I really don’t like how I did the rest of the painting. I just made a few bad decisions and did not have the time to really carry off a painting so large.

Sketchbook 3

This is at Fabyan Forest Preserve in Geneva (I believe.) I had a very fun day painting with Katie. It was gorgeous. We also were in the newspaper because many artists gathered at the park for a paint out.

Sketchbook 2

This is over a couple of days. Maybe 3 or 4 hours total.