Expressions

I save photos that people post when they have interesting, difficult expressions on their faces, and eventually get around to drawing/painting them. This is one of our teachers for Let's Face It, Sabra Awlad Issa, who usually has a solemn, sort of deadpan expression, so when she posted this goofy face I knew I had to use it!

This is sort of a Deb Weiers production—I did the drawing first, in Uniball pen, and then washed it with two colors of Daler Rowney Acrylic inks, followed by a paint job with white gesso and watercolors, finishing up with white and gold pens for highlights and details on the glasses. I had fun.

"Sabra," 9x12 on 140-lb. coldpress.

Buddies

I did a little drawing and watercolor this morning, once again of my teacher and friend Emma Petitt, this time with Buddy, a dog she has fostered, going out of her way to find him the perfect home. The first placement didn't take, so Emma had him back to stay with her and her gang of dogs until the right adopter turned up, months later, never losing faith that Buddy would eventually land where he belongs. I wanted to capture the memory of her relationship with Buddy, because it was so sweet and loyal on both sides.

I loved the photo I used as a reference, although my drawing/painting doesn't quite capture the full wide side-eye gaze of Emma in the photo, so it's not quite as amusing. But I had fun and kept my hand in, and isn't that, if not the point, at least one of them?

Uniball pen and watercolors on 140-lb. coldpress, 9x12 (with a border).

Companion piece

Last week I painted Lynn Como's great-grandchild, Nerai. The reference photo included both her great-grandchildren, Nerai (two) and Evelyn (four) in it, but I wanted to paint large, and the biggest board I had was a 12x16, so I decided to just paint the little one. But after I finished it, I got to thinking that it would be fun to do a companion piece with Evelyn in it, reversing the colors (background and foreground) so they would go together but not be matchy-matchy. So yesterday I painted my board the light ultramarine color I used for Nerai's clothing, then did my pencil drawing, and today I painted Evelyn, changing her hat from the shocking pink in the photo to the peachy-pink color I used for the first painting's background, also drawing that color into the flower print of her dress, and using the same stencil for snow in the background to further unite them.

I was happier with the likeness I caught for Nerai than today's for Evelyn—try as I might, I couldn't quite get the eyes right, and hers are prettier—but over all, I was pretty happy with it. I think they would be fun to hang side by side in a floating frame.

"Snow Evelyn"—pencil, acrylics, and stencil on 12x12 thin birch board.

LFI 2024, Day One!

Starting a new year of portraits, with Kara Bullock Art School and the class Let's Face It 2024. This is year #3 for me with this class, and although I was MIA for about two-thirds of it this past year, it's still worth it to get 50 lessons for the year and be able to go back to them whenever I want.

Today's lesson was with Kara herself. I love the loose, painterly quality of her work, but have never been able to loosen up my hand and eye to quite that degree. But I'm going to call today's painting a win anyway, for several reasons. First of all, I did an underpainting and then did my sketch using a large paintbrush, instead of drawing out every last detail with a pencil, which is huge for me. And then I continued using one brush for almost the entire painting, although it wasn't quite as large as the one Kara used. My painting is much more blended than hers, and although I used most of her palette, I introduced a few colors to which I am partial (like Cobalt Violet and Titan Mars), and switched out her black for Payne's Gray, because I don't like the harshness of black. I also confess that I broke out a smaller brush to clean up a few edges, but not much!

Here's my sketch and underpainting in burnt umber fluid acrylic:

The model photo didn't have a name attached, so I'm going to call her "Tanya"—acrylics on 140-lb. coldpress watercolor paper, 9x12 inches.

Decisions

My FB friend Lynn Como published a photo of her two great-grandkids posing for a picture by sticking their tongues out, and it inspired me to make a painting in which that stuck-out tongue made sense. I initially painted the child against the plain/stark peachy-pink/orange background, and I really liked the rather surreal way the figure popped against that non-background, but then I thought, Oh! The tongue could be sticking out to catch a snowflake! and did a search of my stencils for something that could stand in for snow. It was a big decision to invade that pristine field with the stencil images, though. These are flowers, but they were stylized enough to work, I think. (Do you?) (I hope Lynn will forgive me "borrowing" her great-grandchild's image!)

This was a fun one to paint, and surprisingly didn't take a whole lot of time. I just laid in the base colors, and then advanced pretty quickly to details.  Admittedly, I could have done a better job if I had painstakingly mimicked the knitting of the sweater and cap, but I chose to merely suggest some form to it and spend my time, instead, on the wonderful little face. The colors are so pure in children, and the peach background perfectly reflected the rather hectic color in the cheeks, brightened from being outdoors in the cold.

I'm trying to decide what to call it: Snow Day? First Snow? Taste the Weather? Or should I just call it by name (Nerai)?

For right now..."Snow"—pencil, acrylics, and stencil, painted on a 12x16-inch thin birch board.

Another quickie

Who could resist painting somebody with the name Kelly Bonelli? Especially if she is wide-eyed, is giving a sill grin, and has pompoms on wires sticking out of her head?! I was afraid of overdoing the wideness of the eyes but actually ended up not quite capturing the true pop-eyed quality of them, but otherwise I think I caught her.

Another quick Uniball sketch and sloppy paint job. Just a little fun to keep me from spending the entire day on the sofa watching TV!

"Kelly Bonelli"—Uniball pen and Paul Jackson watercolors on Strathmore 140-lb. coldpress, 9x12 inches.

Quick selfie

My furnace isn't working. This isn't the disaster in Los Angeles that it would be in Michigan, but it still gets damn cold inside my poorly insulated little bungalow when temps drop. So I'm currently doing my best impression of the Madonna, having read somewhere that you lose a huge amount of body heat (possibly as much as 40%!) out of your head (presumably out your ears?) and that if you keep it covered/wrapped up, you will be warmer all over. I'm keeping small beach towels, afghans, and throws in all the rooms, and wrapping up my head and shoulders while working at my computer, or sitting up in bed reading, or lounging on the sofa. Since it's the Christmas season, and also since I haven't done a selfie in a while, I decided to capture bundled-up me in a quick ink and watercolor portrait.

"MEmadonna"—drawn with a Uniball pen and then watercolored (Paul Jackson signature paints) on 140-lb. Strathmore coldpress, 9x12 inches. Merry Freezing Christmas.