Van Ruijven

Some more portrait practice. This is a painting of Tom Wilkinson's character, Pieter Van Ruijven, from the movie Girl with the Pearl Earring. Wilkinson is quite the chameleon - in this movie, his look was great, very classical. The painting is mostly earth tones on Rix canvas; hardly using any mediums in the midtones and lights. The values are all over the place and the thickness of the paint was a little frustrating for me at times (not used to it). But I've wanted to try a painting in this style for a while and I'm glad I did.

detail

Costume Portraits in Oil

I just finished a Costume Portrait Painting class at Watts Atelier. The class was taught by Meadow Gist who is not only a fantastic painter but also a great teacher. She provided guidance throughout the term to help her students better understand what we're seeing to better interpret it on canvas. We had a total of three class sessions per model. I thought I would be able to finish each of my paintings within two class sessions, but I quickly learned that I underestimated the details that are required when working with a costumed live model, and I only finished one out of the three paintings within the allotted time (I work slow). The class was a lot of fun and look forward to getting back to the school next term.

Edwardian style wardrobe

Regency style wardrobe (unfinished)

Fantasy wardrobe (unfinished)

Here is the Fantasy Portrait progression. Because I wanted a tighter painting for this one, I used the grid method and a photo of our model. Class time was used mostly for referencing shadow and highlight colors.

Recent Drawings

"Morgan"

Pencil study after Jeff Watts

Bouguereau studies

Donato study

Angelo

I painted this using Painter IX. I was curious if I could carry over some of the traditional techniques that I have recently been studying over into the digital realm. The verdict: kind of.

Lots of layering using 'dry bristle' and 'palette knife' in the "Artist Oil' tool set. (and no... this is not Indiana Jones)

detail

untitled

Oil on canvas

 

detail 1

 detail 2

Scratchy Sketches

Haven't picked up a pencil in a while and it shows. I've been drawing with paint so much lately that I forgot how to gauge my own pressure with a graphite and charcoal pencil. (The dog drawing was done with pastel pencils. Not sure who to credit for this reference. I saw this as a painting online and drew it as a rough sketch... first time using pastel pencils.)

after de Martin

Yan Study 1

Yan Study 2

Watts Study

This is a study I did of Jeff Watts' 'Newsboy Cap'. I originally was just going to paint the eyes and nose as I have resolved to stick with a two-week interval program to simply study how other painters indicate various features, but I took this one a bit further. WN/Gamblin Oils on Claessens #13 (approx. 2 hrs.)

 'Newsboy Cap' - Jeff Watts Study

 

Detail