Back to Basics

Focusing in on a model's back, paying attention to muscles, bone, volume, light, shadow...

Acrylic on canvas, 16x20

Brown-eyed Girl

This painting is hot off the presses and is going to be in The Soundry's member show (opening this weekend). The model had deep brown eyes and I tried to paint her playfully as Van Morrison's lyrics ran through my head.

acrylic on canvas, 16x20

back to charcoal

i am going to mix it up some more with different media. i am in an acrylic rut. i feel like i need to do some more drawing. so here is a charcoal piece i did last night. there are some pastel highlights.

two for one

at a recent session, we started with quick, 5-minute gesture drawings, and then a series of 30-minute poses. in this painting, one of the gesture drawings became the background - the shoulders and chest that you can see. on top of that i painted the model in her longer pose. i kind of like the outcome.

lights and darks

a simple study of lights and darks. it was interesting to see light showing up in places i did not expect - such as beneath her breasts.

acrylic on canvas, 16x20

working fast

the following 3 paint "sketches" were done in one evening using the same model. each piece took about 30-40 minutes. my goal was to complete 3 pieces having different looks and using different techniques. i am a pretty slow painter, so i used this method to get out of my comfort zone and to stretch myself a bit.

each is acrylic on canvas, 16x20.

working with the background

i am still working with the process of preparing a random background one week, and then seeing how to work a live model into it the following week. this is the latest example. i had no idea what pose the model was going to hold, but when he sat down as he did, i immediately saw how the curve of his back fit into an existing curvy swirl in the background. the shape his legs made matched other swirls.

 

(acrylic on canvas, 16x20)