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 #6





















August 30, 2011, Heidi
Unison soft pastels on Sennelier La Carte
12"x16"

Heidi sat for us wearing the same clothing pose that she did last week.  Again, a 3 hour indoor session with breaks every 20 minutes.  I decided to stand in roughly the same place as last week to see what would happen.  This time I used Unison pastels- having recently received the 63 half stick set, and some additional open stock colors (love that Blue Violet 4!).  Unisons are softer and richer in color than the Rembrandt soft pastels that I had used in the beginning of the project, but not quite as soft to me as the Terry Ludwigs used in some of the other portraits.  Using a slighty firmer pastel really influenced the way I painted this week compared to last week- this portrait is not as loose and painterly as with the Ludwigs last week- one reason I don't like this painting as much as last week's.  I do love the Unison colors though- these pastels seems to "sparkle" on the page.  This session I was tired and another reason for the difference compared to last week.  Last week's painting is a better likeness to Heidi than this one- this actually looks more like a friend of mine named Judy!   Since I wasn't acheiving a likeness, I decided to finish the face up earlier in the session and spent more time on the clothing.   I'm not really happy with this portrait, but next week will be a new head to paint...
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