Figure In Environment

I'm really happy with how this painting turned out. The assignment was to paint a figure in an environment. I took a casual photo of one of my classmates in Heads & Hands, and it turned into a really nice picture. I love the gesture of her pose, and the way the left knee comes forward. Also nice are the light shining on her hand, and the rim lighting on the sweater. It was difficult getting all the different gray values in the wall, but I think it turned out pretty effectively.

Two Portraits

Here are two new exciting models. One is an ultra-powerful Korean businesswoman, and the other an elite Iranian textile designer. I have mixed feelings about these two portraits, because although I think they are pretty good to look at, the likeness is not really there. With the painting, I can blame it on the fact that this is my first real painted portrait, and the brushes are not quite as accurate as a pencil. But I'm not sure about the drawing. Seeing these together, one thing that is noticeable is that the painting seems much more vibrant because of the colors. But drawings have a very nice quality about them that doesn't translate well into photos.

More Stuff

Mixing classes here. My painting class is sort of a survey, and the painting on the left was our first clothed figure. It was actually kind of a relief not to have to stare at a naked person. But strange too, as anything new is. My painting turned out pretty well, as I was able to incorporate a lot of the background elements.

The portrait on the right is from Heads & Hands. My prof wanted us to try blue paper, which I didn't like much. The model was cool though. He had this Beatles-like mop hairstyle. And he had this slight smirk that he was able to keep on his face the entire 5 hours of the pose. Amazing!

Go Figure

With these two paintings I started to turn the corner a bit on my figure paintings. Especially the hands & feet one - I'm finally feeling more comfortable with the subtle colors and shading.

"Mablo"

These are my first two homework assignments in Heads & Hands. They are drawings of two relatively unknown but up-and-coming models. To protect their identities I'll refer to them as Marcia and Pablo.

I actually don't like the drawing of Marcia. Even though it's a decent likeness, the drawing quality itself is not very good because I had a lot of trouble working on that type of paper (Strathmore Drawing). Whenever I would try to blend the vine charcoal, it would all rub off. Pablo's drawing is charcoal pencil on Strathmore storm gray paper, which for me is easier to work with.

Heads & Hands

My second class is called Heads and Hands. I thought I was pretty good at portraits ... until I took this class. My teacher is really good, though also very tough. It's a very structured class, which I like, and these drawings are all full-day (about 5 hour) poses. These are from the 2nd and 3rd week of classes - my first couple of drawings were horrendous. The first drawing is using the 'lift-off' technique, while the second is done in charcoal pencil on a storm gray paper.

Painting the Figure

I'm a bit behind on my posts because this semester has been really hectic. I'm taking two classes, which is a full load in the summer. The first class is Introduction to Painting the Figure. I had a lot of confidence going in because of my still life class, but that got shot down pretty quick. It turns out that painting the figure is much different than painting objects, because basically it's all one color, with a lot of subtle shades and blends. These are the first two paintings I did in class.