Lynda

Two-to-five minute quick sketches, and a two hour pose. I think I'm finally starting to loosen up in my quick sketches.

Bernini and Friends

One hour each. I went to the Getty after lunch to check out their Bernini exhibition on display, and sketched a couple of busts while I was there. The first, Portrait of a Gentleman is by Bernini's rival, Alessandro Algardi. I doodled it on vellum paper, which I've come to dislike, as it tends to pick up the blacks fairly quickly, leaving little room for error. And there sure are a lot of them in that drawing.

My second sketch - of Bernini's lover Costanza Bornarelli - I feel is more successful. Instead of using vellum, I worked on this drawing in my Fabriano sketchbook. Its paper matches well with the Conte pencils I've been using as of late.

Sherman

Two-to-five minute quick sketches, and a two-hour long pose. Goofy story about our model: when he asked for a copy of the photograph I took of my instructor's demo, I said sure, and asked who should I address my e-mail to. He replied "Sherman." I chuckled and said, "Strange, my name is Sherwin." Then he said, "Oh, people call me that all the time", to which I replied, "it's funny, people call me you all the time."

I guess our names are relatively easy to mix up.

Sarah

Five-minute quick sketches and a two-hour long pose. I'm still debating whether or not the cast shadow under her nose helps or hurts the drawing... I'm leaning towards the latter.

Waves

One-and-a-half hours. Jeff Watts helped me add some visual oomph to my study, by adding spray, splashes of puddles and waterfalls on the rocks, and a multitude of colors in the troughs of the waves. It's really cool how adding a little bit of controlled chaos will make your paintings that much more exciting.

Cary Grant

Three-and-a-half hours. “Everyone wants to be Cary Grant. Even I want to be Cary Grant.”

Alma

Three-and-a-half hours. On Wednesday, I had one of those rough nights that make you question whether or not you really know what the hell you're doing. I'm pretty embarassed about the progress (or rather lack thereof) I made during week six of my long pose portrait painting class, so I'm a bit reluctant to post the results of that session. However, I did find a silver lining out of such a frustrating experience. I learned a better process to apply towards my paintings done at workshops. That is, after I establish the initial lay-in, I mix as many colors that I can see on the model on my palette before I apply even a single stroke of paint on the canvas. Forcing myself to pre-mix helps to organize and streamline the act of completing a painting and as a result it ends up being a much less stressful and more efficient use of my time.

Looking at my painting of Alma, I can see some of the lessons I learned from doing my Chen Shu-fen study also found their way in. It's pretty cool to see how different approaches and experiments in one medium can help you refine your skills in another.

Audrey Hepburn

Four hours. “I never thought I'd land in pictures with a face like mine.”

Studying Chen Shufen, Final

Three hours, and done. I adjusted the levels to add more warmth to the face and rendered out the hair as best I could. Not bad for a first attempt, I'd say. In total, I think I worked about a half day on this piece.

I'll definitely revisit this style in the future, but for now I'd like to try something new to keep me challenged.

Studying Chen Shufen, Part 4

Four hours. I'm almost done with this one - just need to finish rendering out the hair. I'll leave it for now and post a bigger final in the morning. It's good to step away from your piece periodically so you come at it with a fresh pair of eyes when you return.

I fixed pretty much everything from the last iteration. I'm learning so much from this study - edge control, glazing, indication, rendering, color balancing, quick fixes via the transform and move tools, etc.

I can't believe I'm even able to approximate the look of Chen Shu-fen and Common's work. About a year ago I told myself I would try hard to get to this level, but I didn't think it'd be so soon. It sure is a big step up from my first foray into digital nine months ago. Yikes. It's painful to look at your old work sometimes.