"Just a Little Tin"
Oil on Board, 5" x 7"
Well, this was fun. This started out to be a small exercise in value and temperature - my favorite subject for exploration, and ended up taking more than a few hours to get right. Still, it was a lot of fun and the results were worth it. What's really surprising to a lot of my students, though, is that it took me as long as it did. They've seen me whip out larger pieces in half the time. But these days I'm taking a bit more time with my work in tweaking things.
I think the lesson here is that we are our own worst or hardest critic. I'd like to think that I'm learning to be a hard critic of my own work. Sure I can find a lot wrong with my work, but more importantly, I'm better able to answer the question; "did I achieved what I was after?" Starting a painting without a concept in mind is a lot like taking a road trip without a map. Sure, you may get to a lot of interesting places, but you won't necessarily get anywhere you started out wanting to go. So these days, before sitting down to paint even a small thing like this little ditty, I try to have a clear goal in mind. That way, I can answer the question, "was the trip worth the goal?" If I've actually learned what I was after to find out, then even if the painting is a dud, I've been a success.
A Study of Carlton
I run a life drawing group on Mondays at my studio. I have about seven loyal friends and students who enjoy this time with me.
Carlton is one of my favorite models and I particularly enjoyed this pose because of the warm and cool contrasts.
For the past few months, I worked strictly in graphite to get back in practice but since we have switched to longer poses I'm back into paint. I'm a bit out of practice with painting directly from the model as I haven't done it since last June when I was in atelier, but I hope to whip these out a bit faster and more accurately as I get back in the swing of things.
Some time ago when I was still attending Georgetown Atelier, we had a little red headed model who posed for us. During her breaks she would don this gorgeous red robe that had a huge hood on it. It was an irresistible combination. I asked her if she would model for me after class for a photo session and she agreed. We met one evening and worked together for about two hours. The results were so good that I almost couldn't wait for the end of school so I could get started on a painting.
While I prefer to work from life, the model lives in Seattle and I, unfortunately, live in Port Angeles - a difficult commute for either myself or the model. Now that school is over, I'm a bit reluctant to spend a lot of time commuting. I had previous done a small portrait from life of her in the class so I was confident that I had her coloring. For working from photos I use a large flat screen monitor in my studio that rotates to vertical. This provides more realistic coloring and I can adjust things as I need to.
There were many photos that came out beautiful and worthy of painting and some I will pursue at another time, but this particular pose (with some changes on my part) worked because of the edgy quality of her gaze. It seemed perfect for the story of Red Riding Hood. Umm...just who is the wolf here?
I spent about a week on the drawing which I did to size and then reduced it for the purpose of doing this color study. The study is only 8" x 11" on "Yes" canvas. The finished piece will be 19" x 27.5" but likely done on board. I'm still working out my preference. This came out so good, I'm going to frame it too. I'm having a great time! School was so intense, I almost forgot how much I love to paint. It's good to be back.
