Category Archives: My Art

Paintings & Workshops ~~ Catching Up

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I’m WAY behind in reporting on my art activities.  I am hoping to give some brief updates to get back on track.

After seeing Danni Dawson’s work at the Art League’s conference mentioned in the last post, I enrolled to study portraiture with her over in Alexandria, VA.

Our first model was a lovely young woman draped in a Spanish lace mantilla.  I made a series of studies of her — and they went downhill from the first one!  See for yourself:

The model:

My studies:

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First Attempt

2015-01-20 15.55e

Second try

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Third – Aargh!

2015-01-23 10.41-1

Fourth Try

 

Pre-Teening at NIH – iPad Figurative

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I had the privilege of hanging around NIH with a dear cousin while he had a consult or two.  While waiting in the lobby one day, I saw this darling girl in her summer frock, talking on the phone with her mother nearby.  I couldn’t resist taking a covert photo and then painting her up with Art Rage on my iPad as soon as I got home.  So sweet.  Took me back to my own girlhood and crisp cotton dresses.  You don’t see scenes like this every day.

Girl on phone

Girl on phone

Rubber Ducky in Gouache and iPad

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While in Maine, Ceci and I stayed in an aging (i.e., inexpensive) resort hotel which had a beautiful waterfront view.  Another delight (for me, anyway — Ceci thought I was a bit nuts) was a cute little rubber ducky.  I couldn’t resist positioning him here, there, and everywhere around the room for a series of silly photos.  Later at home, I  memorialized him again by painting him in gouache and on the iPad.  Here are the paintings, followed by some photos:

I'm nuts!

I’m nuts!

love that fish pose!

love that fish pose!

Selected poses.

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Mixed Media Experiment – Sam ‘n Max Biking

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Shortly after dear Alison Neustrom passed away, my sister Cecilia and I flew to Maine for a mixed media workshop, turning to art to help manage grief.  We wanted to try our hands at combining oil paint with patterned papers to produce unique images, with artist Katie Wilson.  Ceci’s first effort was a portrait of granddaughter Evie; I worked on a biking scene of grandson Max steering dad Sam.

Ceci's Evie

Ceci’s Evie

Max Steers Sam on a Sunday Ride

Max Steers Sam on a Sunday Ride

Catching up on the Last 8 Months – Finishing Rita’s Portrait

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When last I posted in Oct 2014, I was closing in on the finale of my portrait of neighbor Rita – debating whether to make a few more tweaks despite her preference that I ‘stop right there’.  I couldn’t resist, though.  Here’s how she looks now, but don’t tell her that I’m tempted to start re-tweaking eight months later.  Need to shorten her chin & widen her lower jaw line just a smidge.

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Rita’s Portrait ~~ Session Five: More Home Work, using the iPad

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I had made good progress during my work based on the reference photograph, but I decided it wasn’t good enough.  As a way to visualize changes that might improve the painting, I decided to do a mark-up on the iPad, using a side-by-side comparison with the reference photo.

markup of portrait using iPad

markup of painted portrait, as a result of side-by-side comparison with photo. iPad screenshot.

I cropped the photo included in my September 8th post and imported it digitally into the ArtRage app on my iPad.  I then ‘painted’ over the portrait area, trying to remedy the problems I identified in the painting.  This was a freehand process, done by ‘eyeballing’ the photo reference.  ArtRage is not able to make measurements for a closer comparison of the two images.

I like this markup as well as the final painting — if not more!  The ability to easily edit iPad marks liberates me from feeling that each (potentially incorrect) modification is ‘permanent’.  Playing around with the marks often yields spontaneous and interesting ideas that I would never have attempted initially in oils.

Even though I liked the resulting mark-up, I knew it would still be a challenge to implement these ideas in oil paint on the actual painting.

 

Rita’s Portrait ~~ Session Four: Some Home Work

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A few days after my third meeting with Rita, I decided to spend some time at home, making corrections based on the photo I’d taken at the prior session.  Then I blew up a print of the photo, marked up the dimensions of key facial features and then taped it beside my updated portrait for a closer comparison.

A quick look confirms that the portrait is better than it had been, but . . .  the chin is too long.  The lower cheeks and forehead are too narrow.  The nose isn’t quite right and the eye on our left droops too much.  The hair is too high (but I love it so!  Will I bite the bullet and whittle it down?)

session five, after implementing changes identified via my iPad analysis

session five, after implementing changes identified via my iPad analysis

I show it to Rita who likes it ‘as is’ and doesn’t want me to make more changes.  Hmmmm.  What to do?

Rita’s Portrait ~~ Session Three

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The next time Rita and I got together, I focused primarily on developing her eyes and trying to capture the slight grin we’d arrived at for the facial expression.  Didn’t want to touch the hair or general coloration, which I liked.

Rita at session 3.

Rita at session 3.

At the end of the session, I made a photo or two of Rita in this position and with ‘the grin’.  You can see immediately that I’ve got a ways to go!

Rita, in the selected pose.

Rita, in the selected pose.