Nothing fascinates me more as an artist than painting from a live model. There is an unspoken dialogue that happens between model and artist, the model expressing emotion, the artist trying to capture and translate that emotion on paper or canvas.

Painting from life is much different than painting from a reference photo. People are not static like photographs. Over the course of a model session, the model may shift slightly, the lighting may change, and at the end of the session, the reference has gone home. Working from life, however, affords an artist a richness of detail and emotion that is difficult to capture from photographs, so while it is a great challenge, it is worth the effort and time.

"36 Heads" is a project I hope to complete in one year- painting 36 portraits from life.

Many artists show only their best art to the public. This blog is an attempt to offer a glimpse into the artistic process itself. Some portraits will be successful, many will not. I do not touch up the art after the model session is over- the artwork is taken home and photographed without adding finishing touches.

So many things come into play as to why some sessions are a success, others not. The atmosphere of the session, my energy level that day, even the mood of the model, these things and many more affect the final painting. Sometimes I experiment with different materials, which leads to different results.

The project began on July 26, 2011. On to the heads...



Saturday, September 10, 2011

"36 Heads", portrait #4


Crop detail: 4 1/2" square of painting to the left   
August 16, 2011, Farrah and daughter
Soft pastels on Sennelier La Carte
12"x16"

Okay, remember I said at the beginning of the blog that some portraits in the project would work, many would not?  This is one of those that I hesitated including because I do not like it- but it is part of the project so feel comitted to include it despite my disppointment.  Several things during the session led to decisions that I made as an artist that did not work out in the end.  I have no experience in painting young childeren in person but was excited to have the chance!  Mistake number one:  deciding to include both models in the pose- it wasn't until I had started into the session that the composition of the pose from my vantage point wasn't working- the young girl's head is straight below her mother's head, and it would be more pleasing to see them off centered from each other to keep the eye moving around the page.  If I had to do this again, I would have just left the girl out and focused on Farrah's portrait.  Mistake number two:  deciding to paint the adult first (which is more in my comfort zone), and waiting to paint the young girl towards the end of the session.  In the second half of the session, the young girl had trouble sitting still for the required time- of course I should have realized that someone her age would have problems keeping still, but I forged ahead without thinking. She never sat still long enough for me to finish her.  Had I worked in the reverse, I may have made better progress on her and would have been able to finish Farrah in the second half of the session.  Mistake number three:  painting in the orange lamp during the last 10 minutes of the pose.  Just because something interesting is in frame does not mean it needs to be included!   Although this painting disappoints me, I did enjoy using the Terry Ludwig soft pastels on LaCarte (blue color)- the two work very well together.  I also used a few Unison pastels, but the majority of the painting is from the Terry Ludwig 60 stick Maggie Price Values set.  I'm finding this set to be very versatile- and suprisingly good for portraits!   The face of Farrah I am quite pleased with, although it is quite small- I'm including a cropped close up- I like the way the pastels responded to the paper, the choice of colors, and the proportions in this one aren't bad.  Working this small on features was a challenge, especially with the chunky, square Ludwig pastels, and I will be going back to my standard sized "heads" in the next one!  One nice thing about this 36 heads project is after the 3 hours, I go home and photograph the work and put the painting away in a portfolio. The 36 heads project paintings are not touched up after getting home and are done, and don't hang over my head waiting to move forward like some of the other work waiting in my art room...

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