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...



Tuesday, September 13, 2011

"36 Heads", portrait #5





















August 22, 2011, Heidi
Terry Ludwig Pastels on Sennelier LaCarte paper
12"x16"

This portrait was fun to paint.  This is my second time painting Heidi since the project began, this time, inside.  Heidi is a great model to paint from- she holds the pose well and keeps her eyes quite still (not shifiting around), and always gets back into position without issue- she also has great skin tones, and both times has worn fun clothing (although I don't paint the whole figure, her clothing choices seem to be good for portrait sessions).  Again, the usual 3 hour session, with breaks every 20 minutes.  I painted with Ludwig pastels for this one- I'm enjoying the painterly strokes I get with these softer pastels- this painting is much looser than the first one of Heidi on July 26. There are some issues with proportions here, the eyes are bit off and the nose is pointing more straight ahead than it should be, but overall, I'm pleased with the results.  I'm not sure why, but necks are giving me a challenge- and seem to be unable to get the correct shadows on the neck- I can see them during the model session, but can't seem to translate the form to paper.  In this painting, I decided to bring a bit of the skin tone into the background, and think it works okay.  Looking back, I don't think the backgrounds on my paintings have been working- they aren't colors used in the painting anywhere except the background, and don't have harmony. 
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