Vibe!

Today's lesson was with David Lobenberg, who has titled his style "California Vibe." It essentially consists of doing an underpainting of loose strokes in essentially primary colors (or variations on same), and then following what you have put down when laying in the more detailed shadows to delineate the face, and finishing up with the necessary detail. It is both loose and exacting, and takes something of an effort to mimic. His brush strokes are more spontaneous and chunky, rather than smooth and blendy like mine (which is part of the style), but I really enjoyed trying this out, and would love to do more of it.

One thing I learned from him (or let's say heard and observed but have not yet incorporated) is the importance of moving your brush in all different directions—not just in the obvious places, like when you're achieving the spiky hair, but also when laying down color into areas. Laying down a stroke, lifting the brush, and not giving in to the impulse to blend or "fix." It gives a spontaneity to the work that saves it from too much deliberate directionality, and keeps you from getting too smooth as well.

This guy's eyes kinda creeped me out—David left them purposely blank and all one color, but I tried to put in pupils where you could just barely see them in the shadow and glare from the sun. I messed up a bit when it came to the T-shirt he's wearing, which should have been left white on the right side—I got too enthusiastic in the beginning stages of the painting and couldn't lift it. But I'm mostly happy with this, and intrigued by the style. I'll probably try a few more of these.

"Spikey"—Pencil and Paul Jackson watercolors on Fluid 140-lb. coldpress watercolor paper, about 8.5x11 inches.