3 Hour Portraits

So, I managed to get not one, but TWO portraits done this week! With the big painting out of the way, I had yesterday and today free to pursue additional paintings. Since I only got Louisa's back, I really wanted to paint a portrait of her.

It turned out that Louisa was only going to be posing on Tuesday...so I kicked things in gear and finished a portrait of her in 3 hours! I'm pretty happy with how it came out. She said that I caught her on a tired day, but she didn't seem too tired to me!

And today, I got one of Evangeline. I think it looks a lot better up close; please click on it to see more detail! I had trouble with this one, partially because I ran out of steam, and partially because the lighting was really tricky. Her entire right half was a mystery to me because her head was illuminated from the side/back and there wasn't much light on that half of her face. I tried to catch some of the highlights on her eyelashes, but that might've been too much to attempt with the brushes I had.

Another issue I had was with the canvas. I bought a pre-made, triple-primed canvas from Utrecht. The surface was smoother than a baby's bottom, which is often a good thing, but I had major issues getting the paint to stick. The previous portrait was done on a canvas I stretched and primed myself. With a surface that is a bit rougher, it took the paint a lot easier; paint on the Utrecht canvas didn't want to stay in one spot and smudged very easily. Definitely prefer stretching and priming my own canvas for small, fast paintings.

Super proud of these, mostly because I accomplished them in a short time. Granted, they are on small canvases- E is 11x14 and L is...something bigger. 14x16 maybe? Something unusual.

Maybe I'll post some of my photography work next.

Waiting for the semester to end,
-J

Pratt Draw-A-Thon 2010...

...best. Friday. Night. Ever.

For those unfamiliar with Pratt's Draw-A-Thon, the event is a 12 hour (7PM Friday to 7 AM Saturday) long figure drawing-fest.


There are several studios set up with anywhere between one and three models and poses lasting from a few seconds to 6 hours.


Free pizza halfway through. For the last hour or so, all 18 models gather into one room and have a continuously changing pose to live African drums. I went this past Friday with a group of people from school and had a blast.


I brought a lot of art supplies, but mostly ended up using pencils and a brush pen. They give out free supplies, too. I got a pastel pad, a set of pastels, and some charcoal. I missed out on a set of brush markers though, as well as a nice gesso board. Why did they give out all the cool stuff when I was in the bathroom?



This is what Louisa, one of the models we've been painting in Figureative Painting, looks like from the front. Well, a little bit different. She had a badass costume.


And this is what Evangeline, the other model we're painting, looks like with a dress, hat, and glasses! Many thanks to her for letting me know about this event in the first place.


There are a handful of other pages, but they're really uninteresting gestures. The event was really awesome, but looking back it's almost a bit disappointing how few drawings I have. My favorite room was the costume/fashion studio. We never draw or paint clothed models in Fine Arts, so it was really great to have that opportunity. Maybe next year, I'll bring some markers or paint.

Best Friday I've had in recent memory. Volunteer work the next morning was a bit of a pain, though.

Two blog posts in one day? Must be procrastinating or something...

-J

P.S. Oh, whaddaya know? This is my 100th post. Only took me...2.5 years to get here! And over 6,500 page views, too! Thanks to all you crazy people who like to drop by and look at my work and read my ramblings. Stay tuned for the next few years and see if I become a wildly successful toy designer or fail miserably and become the stereotypical starving artist!

Evangeline and Louisa

Several weeks ago


Last Wednesday

I finally finished this two-figure painting in class on Wednesday. It's really interesting to see how certain things changed in the process. In this painting, the woman in the foreground (Louisa) ended up changing a lot. Her pose shifted bit by bit as the weeks passed.

At the pressing of my professor, I changed her head almost completely, among other things. Since we're slated to have the models for another week, I'm planning on taking a smaller canvas that I've had laying around to make a quick portrait of her.

Here's a closeup of Evangeline.

I might go in at some point and make the right side of the hair a bit darker. The highlights on the left side might not be as bright as I like, so I may also fix those. But as you can see, not much changed in the weeks.

Overall, I think this is my favorite painting that I've done so far, perhaps because we had a really long time to work on it. Even though we had two models, I felt like I had enough time to work each thoroughly with just enough time to develop a simple background. I almost wish that I painted the classroom instead of a flat purple background, though.

Many thanks to the two awesome models! Working with students must be interesting, if only for the weird conversations one can overhear. As always, thoughts and criticism are welcome in the comments!

-J