Portrait Painting Class, Week 6.

Week 6 of my portrait painting class... painted from a live model... Rob (oil on canvas, 9x12")....

So that you get an idea of what my head block-in stage looks like, I took a picture during class (I apologize for the quality -- I used my camera phone). Starting with a toned canvas (cadmium red light and ivory black), I drew the lines in transparent maroon thinned with mineral spirits. I usually spend the first 20 to 40 minutes of class trying to get it right. If you don't get this stage correct, it makes for a very long class. To borrow from a popular in-class idiom: You can't polish a turd. And to paraphrase from Richard Schmid's teachings: 90% of all painting problems are actually drawing problems in disguise. Point being -- the drawing part is important.

For the painting part, my instructor, Meadow, helped on the background and painting the nearest cheek and part of the forehead. Including the drawing, all the rest is me. As I paint, I'll correct some of the (hopefully) minor drawing problems, so you'll notice some changes between the original block-in and finished painting.