Pastel painitng of an artist at his easel.

Pastel painting 19 inches x 24 inches

Every once in a while, the model at our figure drawing session strikes a pose that I don’t want to draw. At our last class, the model folded herself into a little, compact ball, and I had a rear view. I’m sure better artists than I could have made it work, but from that view, she just looked like a potato to me. So I looked across the room and decide to paint a pastel portrait of a dedicated fellow artist, slaving away at his easel. I don’t think he had a clue that I was sketching him, and not the model. We only had 20 minutes, so it was a quick impression.

This artwork was created with
Paper: Canson Mi-Tients Sepia Paper
Medium: Rembrandt Pastels and Sennelier Pastels

Pastel portrait painting of a young nude model laying on a blanket.

Pastel painting 19 inches x 23 inches

This is another 20-minute sketch from our figure drawing session last weekend. There are parts of this pastel portrait that I really like, and other areas that definitely need some work. But that’s part of the value of doing quick drawings from life. You don’t become TOO invested in them, and, with constant practice, you slowly learn to see and draw the human form with more assurance. And when you can draw a realistic body, you can draw just about anything! At least that is what I keep telling myself….

This artwork was created with
Paper: Canson Mi-Tients Sepia Paper
Medium: Rembrandt Pastels and Sennelier Pastels

Pastel portrait of a young model.

Pastel painting 11 inches x 18 inches

Well, I kept my New Year’s resolution to start attending my nude figure drawing sessions again. I managed to pull my bottom out of bed on Saturday morning and show up for class. We had a wonderful model who I really connected with artistically. This class tends to have all short poses: 2-minute warm-ups, then 10-minute sketches, and finally the “long” poses of 20 minutes. You have to work fast, no time for in-depth pondering. Just paint what you see, and do it quickly. The colors on this pastel portrait are very strong, but I felt they really captured her vibrant, intense personna.

I reused a piece of Canson Mi-Tients paper with an old portrait on it that I wasn’t in love with. (If you look closely, you can see the ghost of  man on the left side.) One of my new goals is to discard pieces that I am not totally proud of. And since art supplies are so expensive, I love the idea of recycling them and creating new art!

This artwork was created with
Paper: Canson Mi-Tients Felt Grey Paper
Medium: Rembrandt Pastels and Sennelier Pastels

Pastel portrait painting of a young woman.

Pastel painting 12 inches x 18 inches

I know I am finally back in “art” mode when I regularly attend my portrait drawing sessions. Going every Monday (especially now that I am not working at my ad agency) gives a structure to my art time. I vow that I am going to start going every Saturday morning to my nude figure drawing class as well. Even though most of my gallery work is focused more on landscapes, there is soooo much to learn from drawing the human figure and trying to capture a good likeness of a person. There simply is no faking it. You have to DRAW WHAT YOU SEE, not WHAT YOU KNOW. It really forces you to use your vision and art skills at the highest possible level.

I was lucky to get an interesting profile view of the model for this pastel portrait. It made me realize that almost all of my previous attempts had been “straight on”. Time to mix it up!

This artwork was created with
Paper: Canson Mi-Tients Burgundy Paper
Medium: Rembrandt Pastels and Sennelier Pastels

Pastel portrait painting of a young mother and her son at the ocean.

Pastel painting 10 inches x 13 inches   SOLD

My collector has given his wife this portrait painting for Christmas, so I can finally post it without spoiling the surprise! He called me on Christmas day to tell me how much she liked it…and how she cried when she opened the package. What a joy to make someone happy by making the art I love to make. Another part of my life that I am very thankful for.

I hope you all have a wonderful new year!

This artwork was created with:
Paper: Kitty Wallis White Pastel Paper
Medium: Rembrandt Pastels and Sennelier Pastels

Watercolor portrait of a young woman with a pink rose in her hair

Watercolor portrait of a young woman with a pink rose in her hair.

Watercolor portrait paintings   12 inches x 18 inches   and 11 x 17 inches

I was looking forward to our portrait painting class this week, but feeling that I wanted to shake it up a bit. I almost always work in pastel, a medium where I feel very comfortable and reasonably sure that I can capture a likeness. I wanted to push myself a bit and do something different. I decided to pull out the watercolors (all packed nicely in my new carrying case!) To really ramp it up, I decided to work on Yupo paper, a plastic substrate that doesn’t absorb the paint, but allows it to pool on the surface. I worked on two watercolor portraits at the same time so one could dry while I painted on the other. I wasn’t trying to capture an exact likeness. I just wanted to play with the medium. Its fun to loosen up every once in a while!

This artwork was created with:
Paper: Yupo
Medium: Da Vinci Watercolors

Pastel portrait painting of a bearded man with hat.

Pastel painting 11 inches x 16 inches

Ken was a new figure drawing model for me and I just loved his leather hat and coat. Top it off with his greying beard and he reminded all of us attending class of a Civil War general. I’m not an artist who loves to do pastel portraits of people in fancy costumes, but this model’s attire seemed to compliment his rugged features perfectly. Really fun to paint!

This artwork was created with
Paper: Canson Mi-Tients Burgundy Paper
Medium: Rembrandt Pastels and Sennelier Pastels

Pastel portrait painting of a man with a white beard.

Pastel painting 12 inches x 18 inches

Tom was our subject again a few weeks ago at our figure drawing session. I’ve painted him 3 times in the last year, and I thought I’d show you all 3 pastel portraits in one post. I chose to work in black and white this time, for a change. Its kind of interesting to compare them. I think his beard is growing a bit longer…

The top artwork was created with:
Paper: Canson Mi-Tients Steel Gray Paper
Medium: Black and White Rembrandt Pastels

Pastel portrait painting of a young woman reading.

Pastel painting   9 inches x 12 inches

Loosen up! I wanted to do a quick figure painting, a sketch really, playing around with color and expressive strokes. Every once in a while it helps to play with your medium, in this case pastel, and get away from your usual approach. I liked the diagonal composition and using complimentary colors, red and green, which make the piece really zing! I’m not sure that my daughter Manda would recognize herself, but I wasn’t really looking to create and exact pastel portrait. Just having fun!

I’m currently working on a pastel portrait of mother and child for one of my art clients. This one will be a much tighter rendition. I’ll post it soon…

This artwork was created with:
Paper: Leaf Green Dark Art Spectrum Pastel Paper
Medium: Rembrandt Pastels and Sennelier Pastels

Pastel portrait painting of a young woman from the waist up.

Pastel painting 11 inches x 17 inches

Unfortunately, I didn’t catch the name of our figure drawing model a couple of weeks ago. But she was so professional and had mentioned that she had done quite a bit of modeling throughout the county, so I titled this pastel portrait Pro!

This artwork was created with
Paper: Canson Mi-Tients Burgundy Paper
Medium: Rembrandt Pastels and Sennelier Pastels