Reworking A Portrait (And a Bit of News)

First, For A Bit Of News:

After a few decades of listening to husband John talk about the virtues of Colorado and missing our sons who live there, I have finally given in.  We have bought some property in Boulder, and will be in the process of selling our Barrington home, knocking down the house on the new property, and building a new one.  I'm girding myself for the roller coaster that is to become my new life. 

This is truly a bittersweet move.  I will miss the life we have built here, and the wonderful friends that we've made.  My consolation is that we will stay in touch and visits will be made.  But first we have to build that house!

I hope that you'll stay with me and my blog.  I'll let you know how the move is going, and how I find my footing as an artist in a new community.  If I haven't said it lately, your support has meant the world to me.  Just knowing that people are reading what I have to say has been wonderful.  Thank you, and let's go on a new journey together!

And Now For Our Regular Program:

Cassidy, 9x12"

When I paint a portrait from life, I have limited time with the model.  In two to three hours, I try to capture the essence of the person, and having a set amount of time forces me to focus quickly on the story I want to tell.  More times than not, I'll never touch these studies again because I want the painting to remain a study.  And let's face it, I usually overwork things if I go back in with lots of time on my side.

This little painting is an exception.  The version above is the reworked version.  Here is the original after about 3 hours with the model.  See if you can tell what I reworked, and I'll explain what I did below.

The first thing that bothered me with my study was that she appeared to be scowling!  Nobody wants an angry painting.  I gave her a slight brow lift and turned up the corners of her mouth ever so slightly.  I zapped up the color on her mouth and gave her a fuller lower lip.  Better already.

Then I looked at color temperature.  The shadow under her chin was actually very warm, sort of a dark reddish brown.  If the shadow is that warm, the light areas of her face will be cooler, and I had painted them quite warm initially.  I glazed a layer of light blue over the warm yellowish areas to cool them down, and added light blue highlights.  

I looked at the transition between the shadowy area on her cheek and the light area and decided to add a flush of light red to the transition area.  Cheek color made her come alive.

And then I put my brushes down!  If I kept working, all the spontaneity would be lost.  I think this painting says what I wanted it to, and I'll call it quits now.

"Cassidy", A Portrait From Life

 "Cassidy", oil on linen,  9.5" x 15"

I've been away from the easel for a few weeks, and was feeling rusty when I went to my friend Bill's studio to paint Cassidy last night.  I decided to make things as simple as possible for myself, spending time on carefully drawing the underlying shapes and finding my darks and lights with a neutral color before adding any color.

I used Burnt Umber, thinned with a bit of mineral spirits to lay down the drawing and find my darks and lights.

Gradually, I built up the color in thin layers, using the initial drawing as my guide. Approaching the portrait in this measured step by step approach kept me on track and in control.  

Class Announcement Feb 16th

First, Here's What We've Been Up To:

Our ongoing class at the Barrington Cultural Arts Center Studio in the Ice House has covered a lot of ground this fall!  The last several classes focused on portraiture and figure painting.  Here are a few examples of the demos from these classes:

Painting the Features

Painting the Form of the Head

Abstracting the Head

Abstracting the Figure

Painting Hair

And Here's What's Next:

Our next set of classes will focus on brushwork and paint application.  Many students have told me that they would love to get back to basics and learn about which brushes to use for different effects, and how to use brushwork to make their paintings more interpretive.  This is my favorite subject!  I can't wait to dive into this new area.

If you'd like to join us, please send me an email to reserve a spot.  Our next class will be on February 16th at the Ice House Mall in Barrington, IL.  We start at 9:30am, and class continues until 3:30 to give everyone plenty of time for painting.  I'd love to see you there!

A Palette Knife Portrait

Oil on Gessoboard, 11x14"

Last Friday, I taught a class on portraiture, and I gave a demonstration on how to set up and draw the foundation of a portrait.  After the drawing was in and the shadow areas were mapped out, I wanted to show the class that finishing the portrait can be very interpretive and fun.  As long as we follow the drawing and shadow/light areas that have already been established, anything goes-- even paint applied thickly with a palette knife!

"Kelly", 9x12", oil on gessoed canvas

I could title this one "Youth and Idealism", since Kelly is leaving soon to study lions and elephants in their habitat in Africa.  I loved spending a few hours with someone so motivated to make the world a better place.

Kevin Bielfuss Workshop, Day 1

Oil Sketch of Christie, Ann Feldman 9x11"

How lucky am I?  A workshop with Jeff Watts in August, and now Kevin Bielfuss here at Mainstreet in Illinois!  These last few months have been a time of study, practice, and hopefully of growth for me.  

If you've seen Kevin's work before, you may have been struck by the the beautiful abstract quality of his paintings which are also based solidly on reality.  My goal in studying with Kevin was to learn how to make my paintings more interesting by "abstracting" my compositions.  In other words, I wanted to learn how to design my paintings with geometric forms, rather than just the subject of my painting.  The sketch I attempted above was done on the first day of the workshop, and I'm inching closer to my goal. I tried to break up the space behind the model into interesting abstracted shapes.

Kevin painted a demo for us on the first day (below).  He starts his paintings very loosely, using a paper drawing stump dipped in mineral spirits and raw sienna.  This gives him the ability to compose without going too dark too quickly.  He then switches to a tiny brush with raw sienna to nail down his drawing.   He then dips his brush into different colors (pink and blue) to give him a road map of his most recent strokes.

He spent a good deal of his time working on the head of the model in the painting.  Using a thicker flat brush, he moved quickly around the painting to fill in and connect the forms around the model.

I'll share more with you from the workshop in the next few days.  Thanks so much for visiting!

Charlie's Angels, 28x24"

You guessed it-- Dad's name is Charlie!  This is one of those projects I was sorry to see end.  I will miss their smiling faces in my studio.  The painting is home now in New York City.

Open Studio Session with Paula, 12x16"

Portrait season is back again at Mainstreet!  During the fall and winter months, we meet every two weeks to paint with models.  Last night, fellow artist Paula donned a scarf and sat for us.  I tried to stay mindful of not over blending my color and leaving the painting quite loose overall. I didn't want all those hours spent with Jeff Watts to go down the drain.

Figure Studies, Jeff Watts Workshop

On the second day of the workshop, we got down to the serious business of painting figures using burnt umber and white.  I learned something very important that day-- I tended to smooth things out on my figure studies, which made them boring!  Jeff suggested that I paint abstract shapes in different directions on the model to make them interesting to look at.

And here's a reason that figure studies are difficult.  You have to understand the anatomy underneath it all and build out from there.  Here is an example of how Jeff starts a figure study.

He plots the skeleton and major muscle structures before he begins to paint.  Taking the time to study anatomy is well worth the effort when painting figures and portraits.  He showed us an App that he uses called "Visible Body" which shows the skeleton and muscle groups from every layer and angle.  It even shows the muscles in motion.  I hope that I'll have the discipline to delve into this and stick with it!

Jeff Watts Workshop, Day 1

"Hemal", 12x16",  Ann Feldman

I'm just back from Encinitas, California, where I spent a week in a portrait/figurative workshop with Jeff Watts.  First of all, I'd like to say that being a serious student in Encinitas over Labor Day is nearly impossible.  Constant parades of surfers on their way to the beach and the sound of clinking Margarita glasses on neighboring decks were quite a distraction!   I decided to be good during the day and enjoy Encinitas in the evenings.  My mom and sister-in-law breezed through and enjoyed the good life with me, too.  A good balance, I think...

The first day, we watched Jeff demo a monochrome pick-out (below), then we tried our hand at it with a wonderful model/student named Hemal.  The drawing is laid down on a white panel and sprayed with fixative.  Washes of Burnt Umber are painted over the entire surface, and the darks are laid in with smaller brushes and the light areas are "picked out" with cotton swabs, cotton cloths, and paper towel.  

"Demo Head Study", 12x16", Jeff Watts

Don't let Jeff's painterly style fool you-- he works slowly and methodically throughout the painting process.  He constantly looks for anatomical abstractions and paints them in one by one, connecting them as he goes along.  Artist Note: He told us not to forget that edges and value are non-tolerant.  They must be rendered correctly.  Composition and color are where the creativity and fun happen.  

I'll be posting more from this very enlightening workshop.  Stay tuned!

Repose, 10x8" (Sold)

I am so lucky to be part of a studio where we have models come in and pose for us.  This model came in a few weeks ago for our portrait class.  I was busy painting from another model that day, but I took a few reference photos and painted her today.  I may decide to put more detail on this one, or I may just leave it loose and impressionistic as it is now.  Do you have an opinion?

This week's challenge on Daily Paintworks is to paint someone in repose.  I think I'll send this one in!

Vasanti, 12x16"

Hi Friends,
Several people have asked if I could show my painting process when painting from a model. This morning, I painted Vasanti at Mainstreet in a span of about 2 hours, and for once, I remembered to snap a few photos as I went along. I hope that you enjoy seeing how a portrait evolves!

Starting with a greenish-gray tone on my canvas, I use charcoal to make a horizontal mark for the top of the head and the bottom of the chin. I use the width of my hand to determine the size of the head on my canvas. I decided to make this one slightly smaller than life-sized, so the span of my hand will account for the entire head. Life-size would be just the chin to the hairline.

Using a measuring stick, I compare my model's head length to her width. In this case, her width is about 3/4 of her length. I drew vertical lines with my charcoal to show this relationship.

Next, I found the horizontal halfway mark on my box and drew a line through it. I found the halfway mark on my model and realized that the halfway mark went through the space between her eyebrows.

Using the halfway mark as my guide, I sketched in the major shadow shapes on her face.

Switching from charcoal to paint, I started to mass in my darkest values.

Once my darks have been established, I switch to my lighter skin tones.

Using the dark shadow areas as my guide, I can "see" where the dark irises belong.

I add detail to the features,

And swipe the color of her scarf across the canvas using a palette knife. I'm happy with the likeness of the portrait, and I like the bold color of the scarf. I hope that you enjoyed the journey with me!

Alex, 12x16"

Hello Friends: I had about 2 hours with Alex to paint his portrait the other day. Since I know that I'll only have a short time, I know that I won't have a complete, detailed portrait at the end, but I do like to have a few things achieved:

1. Do I have a decent likeness? The only way to get a painting to look like the sitter is to spend a lot of time in the beginning with the underlying drawing. I try to never rush the drawing. Careful, slow observation and measuring are so important. I'd rather have a well-drawn portrait with no color than a badly drawn portrait in beautiful hues.

2. Do I have a good sense of light and shadow? The excitement in a portrait often comes from the lighting on the subject. With Alex, I pushed the lit side of his face to contrast with the shadows under his cap. I also tried to remember that the black of his cap in the light will not be black so the light will show on it.

3. Do I like the painterly quality? At the end of my time with the model, I'll stand back to see if I can lose some edges or add some thick opaque paint to give the painting more interest. I went back into the lit side of his face to lay thick new color on top of what I had already established. I scumbled the paint a bit on his shoulders and added highlights on his nose and cap.

I love painting from the model because it forces me to be decisive and quick. This method of painting is a lot like perfecting a golf swing or playing the piano-- the more you do it, the more automatic it becomes. And the happier you'll feel!

Nichole on her Birthday 12x16"

Amy, 8x10"

I painted this very small portrait of Amy last night in Open Studio at Mainstreet. I've noticed that there has been some discussion on the web lately about the three color zones of the face, and it occurred to me that this painting might help to illustrate the concept. (Fine Arts Views)

The theory of the three zones is that the top third of the face will have a yellow orientation, the middle will be in the red zone, and the lowest third will be blue. If we think about the head as an egg shape in the light, then it stands to reason that the area closest to the light will be warmest, and therefore have a warm (perhaps yellowish) orientation. The middle of the face is fleshier and has more blood flowing under the surface, giving a reddish or pinkish color. Then, as the face turns away from the light in the lowest portion, the temperature often turns cooler, where you will find blue or greenish hues.

If you look at Amy above, you can see that her forehead and the top of her cheekbones have a warm yellowish hue, her cheeks are pinkish, and then her jaw area has cool blues and greens in the skin tone. This theory is very helpful when you are trying to vary the skin tones in a portrait, because it serves as a guide. Of course, rules are made to be broken, and only careful observation of the model will tell you what color to put where. But I hope this was a bit helpful!