Amy

Twos, fives, a ten, and twenty-fives. I tend to get bored during the twenty-fives nowadays. I'm not exactly sure why, but I guess the reason why I prefer shorter poses is because I move my hand faster out of necessity, and doing so makes me I feel as if I'm conducting an orchestra or waving a magic wand. Or something similarly cheesy like that. I guess another way of putting it is that I end up feeling the natural rhythm and flow of the sketch. Whenever that happens, my drawings usually turn out well.

It's too difficult for me to reproduce that sort of experience and sensation with longer poses. I'm sure there's a way; I just haven't stumbled upon it yet.

Lynda

Three-and-a-half hours. 11" x 14".

Toni

Three-and-a-half hours. 11" x 14".

Pasadena Plein Air

Various sizes, from 5" x 7" to 9" x 12". These four were all done in under 1.5 hours last weekend at a plein air workshop with Bill Perkins and company. Thanks guys, for being so friendly.

Our goal was to focus on color relationships to help establish the time of day and the atmosphere of a scene. Rendering was largely thrown out because the short time frame necessitated a focus on the big picture. In other words, since your main light source - the sun - is moving, you have to paint just as fast, if not quicker.

I mixed with a larger palette than I was used to for these exercises. I'm not accustomed to seeing so much chroma in my work.

Dick

Three-and-a-half hours. Tonight I sat behind my buddy Gamlet, who was classically trained at a fine arts school in Armenia. He always does fantastic pieces at the workshops and I admire his impressionistic style with its bold use of color. I borrowed some of the color notes and value composition he was using - doing so felt like doing a master copy and life painting all at once.

I need to be careful about where I wipe my brushes. My paintings have a tendency to get too chalky because white somehow sneaks into where it isn't supposed to be.

Gabby

Four hours. Every painter knows the rule, "Treat white as poison - don't put it in the shadows." It's generally a good idea to follow, because white has a tendency to chalk things up fast. However, when you paint with a limited palette consisting of titanium white, cadmium red, yellow ochre, and ivory black, every now and then you have to be brave enough to break the rules.

Today was one such occasion. The set-up involved a warm spotlight as the key and skylight filtered through north-facing windows as the fill. Since the color of the dome of the sky is blue, that meant I needed to mix a blue for the top-facing planes in the shadows, but the only way I can mix that color with the Zorn palette is with ivory black and titanium white.

You have to be really subtle while doing this and focus hard on nailing the correct value, otherwise you risk dismantling the whole structure of the painting. Hope I was successful.

Malo

Four-and-a-half hours. 11" x 14" on canvas. I have another portrait painting of Malo from my Thursday night class with Ignat, but you're not gonna see it, because it didn't turn out nearly as well as this one.

Kirsten

Three hours. I painted this portrait on one of those inexpensive $2 Speedball pre-gessoed panels that my old teacher Rick warned me about using. I was feeling cheap though, and of course, got my money's worth. The paint kept slipping off this thing, and unless I piled it on thick, every brushstroke would strip the paint underneath it to reveal the white of the board. Gah!

Overall, it wasn't too terrible an experience, as in the process I learned more about proper brush handling and of making a habit to apply more and more paint - ha!

Speed #4

Two hours plus from imagination. Just wanted to get a quick doodle in tonight so I won't be rusty later on in the week. It's always better to practice even a little bit every day, rather than binge on marathon drawing and painting sessions all at once.

I've been poring over the Malcolm Liepke book I bought the other day. Wanted to try his impasto style for a spin. He has such expressive brushstrokes!

http://sexualityinart.wordpress.com/2007/09/24/malcolm-liepke-figurative-sexuality-paint-as-elixirs-for-melancholy-and-want-part-1-of-x/

Erl

Four hours. I wish I had time to paint the tattoos on Erl's head. He's got some really wicked ones.