I needed a bio image for the Hippogriff Cookbook, I felt it was appropriate to use bearded me.

This was my first time doing a portrait in class, typically I’m working full figure and also trying to suggest some sort of environment. Like a lot of artists, I find the head, hands, and feet really difficult. I liked the models face and had a nice position, so I thought I’d try and tackle a portrait. We had about 2 hours for the pose, broken up into 20 min segments. I tried to make sure that within that first 20 mins I had all my proportions and placement figured out.

My teacher is allergic to oil paint (more specifically the smell of linseed oil), so I’m using Golden (brand) open acrylics. They stay wet longer than regular acrylics, but still nowhere near the way oils do. I was getting frustrated at times as the paint was drying too quickly and becoming tacky. I really do prefer oils.

-A self critique-
Things that I feel worked:
General structure/proportion feels good.
Skin tones are working better.
Reflected light on forehead and underside of hat.
A decent likeness of model.
A sense of character.

Problem areas:
Structure of nose is “off”.
Plane change of cheekbone on screen right feels too abrupt.
Mustache/beard has no transition, thus feels more pasted on face.
Something about the neck feels off, like it’s too thin.

18″ x 24″
Oil on canvas board
Portrait of Dave

I signed up for a figure painting class at the Berkeley City College and partially did this study to get ready. The class starts tomorrow and we’ll be painting from a model using watercolor, acrylic, and gouache. I wasn’t sure I wanted to take a class so soon after finishing school, but it’s only one day a week and on a subject I really want to improve in. Also I figure I’ll check it out and if I don’t like it, I can drop it no problem. And man, community college is so much more affordable! About $100 per class instead of the $2,000 at the Academy of Art.

Did this in photoshop and worked on it for around two hours. I kept the whole piece very loose, trying to capture the general feel of the character. My emphasis was on the basic structure, rather than details. I also wanted to focus on the play of light over the figure. Light and how it plays across a composition is what I look for most when looking at paintings. It’s something I try and remind myself to practice in my own work. I’m happy with the direction I was headed in and am satisfied with the squint test (squinting the eyes so the image blurs out helps to look at a piece as a whole and not focus on the details). I’m not totally happy with the lightest values on the face. I feel I in effect used too much white (I didn’t actually use any white there, but a very light yellow-orange, but I think I just got too close to white and or used too much of that value/hue).

Regardless, it was great practice. I gotta keep doing more of these.

Ended up fleshing out more of the face, but obviously only tackled the one side. The anatomy and structure is definitely funky as I had no reference, but I can at least see that I’m making progress. Sweet.

I’ve been doing quick figure studies in-between my work projects. They’re coming along, but drawing/painting the figure is incredibly difficult for me. In this piece, I wanted to get away from a specific idea of form. I started with large abstract shapes for the smoke and then started to lightly suggest the figure with little hints of light. It’s simple, but it’s neat to apply what I’ve been learning in the studies to a personal piece.