Drawing practice

Drawing sessions at Hipbone: facial expressions and hands so far. Here's one from each.

Prego

Mila is looking rather Gauguin-ish here. Why do they call it "olive skin"? Wouldn't that be kind of green? I guess it sounds more romantic than lovely "yellow ochre"!!! I need to change the color of the draped fabric behind her... how did I end up with that sickly putty color? Oh yeah... I forgot my paints the night I started this. After four and a half sessions at the Falcon, I spent another 2-3 on her here in my studio. Several more to go to finish. I always end up being torn about these nudes... should I really spend my time finishing? Who wants to hang a nude up in their house anyway? So many other paintings I'd like to move on to.... and maybe I will. This may be it for Mila.

Jadene

Jadene is a dancer and wore a stupendous outfit. I don't know where Janet comes up with these models, but she sure can fine 'em. I've spent more time on this since the one-evening session. I had a good start, and felt I should continue. It's looking too tight now though... I'll probably blop out her face and do that over. And that crab claw hand in the foreground could be improved upon!! Ya think? I guess this is about 80% done.

Last session at the MAC

This was the last session in Aimee's class. I'd missed most of them because of jury duty, and wondered if I'd remember how to paint, it had been five weeks without so much as picking up a brush. Everyone else had already put in a whole session on this model. So I worked very hastily, and surprisingly, it didn't turn out badly at all!

Catching up....

I have been working, contrary to what my blog might indicate! Most are not quite finished, but this one is! Meet my brother's dog, Lenny. Aowwuuuuuuuu!

Vivian

While I'm on jury duty for a whole month! there won't be much painting going on chez moi, so for now I thought I'd post an older work that lurks around in the corner of the studio. Is she finished? I never could decide, so I'm resurrecting her to deliberate and figure out what exactly is bugging me about this one still. The blouse is flat, and the arms aren't finished. Does it matter?

For the record, last time I worked on her was November 2009.

Willing to Be Stupid

I love this rule in Daniel Coyle's upcoming book; per his blog (link is over there on the right, The Talent Code):

• Rule: Be Willing to Be Stupid

Being willing to endure the emotional burn of failure is a prerequisite for improvement, since without it we are cut off from the wellspring of our progress: reaching, failing, and learning from our mistakes. As baseball Hall of Famer Lou Brock said, “Show me a guy who is afraid to look bad, and I’ll show you a guy I can beat every time.”

OK then, according to that, my workshop experience was a grand success!!