Pastel portrait painting of a young woman

Pastel painting 11 inches x 17 inches

I’ve been so consumed with my show of pastel and watercolor paintings of Italy, I’ve been neglecting our figure drawing sessions. A couple of weeks ago, I finally got back in the groove. We had a beautiful model who really inspired me. In this pastel portrait I tried to capture a little of the magic she exuded. She seemed so calm on the outside but gave off an inner sparkle!

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

Pastel portrait painting of an African American woman

Pastel painting 12 inches x 17 inches

We were happy to have Marge as our model again at our figure drawing session on Monday. This is the third time I’ve painted her pastel portrait and I’ve loved it every time. She’s definitely one of my favorites. She has wonderful facial structure and lovely skin tones. I think this is the closest likeness I’ve captured of her.

I finally realized today that the way I create portraits is very much like creating a clay sculpture. I start with an almost skeletal sketch of the protruding and receding bone structure, cheeks, nose, chin, eye sockets, etc. Then I start adding skin and slowly build up the light areas that come forward. It was a bit of a revelation to me…

My other paintings of Marge are below.

Pastel portrait of an African American man with hat in profile.

Pastel painting 10 inches x 16 inches

If you have ever attended a figure drawing or portrait session in Ann Arbor, you have probably drawn George at some time or another. He has been a model for years in this area. He has a wonderful presence and facial structure and endless patience. I did this pastel portrait of him a couple of months ago in our nude drawing class. It was just a 20 minute sketch but I think I caught a little bit of his personality…

I am framing like crazy this week. My gallery in Harbor Springs, Michigan, Tvedten Fine Art, asked me to bring up 15 paintings when I visit this spring. I am so pleased that they have faith in my work and can’t wait to deliver a whole new batch of art to them!

And River Gallery in Chelsea, Michigan has honored me with an exhibit of my Italian paintings in November and December! I have been consistently working on a new body of pastel works which will be shown along side the plein air watercolors I painted at LaRomita School of Art in Umbria last year. I have not posted any of them because I want to keep them under wraps until the show opens…

Nothing like being busy!!!

Pastel portrait painting of an African American woman in three quarter view.

Pastel painting 11 inches x 16 inches

We were very happy to have Marge back as a model at our figure drawing sessions. She does such a great job and is a joy to paint. We always have a strong side light on our models to accentuate their features and to override the flat, flourescent lighting in our classroom. Sometimes when I am doing a pastel portrait I play up that strong highlight and other times I tone it down, depending on where the model is facing. Working with complimentary colors again…this time purples and golds…

Pastel portrait of an African American woman.

Pastel painting 11 inches x 14 inches

This pastel portrait was done at one of our Saturday nude figure drawing classes a while back. The beautiful model sat for two 20 minute sessions. My life has been so busy lately that I have completely missed these classes. They are soooo good for me and I really  NEED them. Plus I miss all of the talented artists that attend. When we get back from our winter travels, I will put them on the top of my “To Do” list!

Pastel portrait of an African American Woman

Pastel painting 11 inches x 16 inches

As much as I love the holidays, I have to admit I am happy to be back to my normal schedule. The studio is clean and  I’m back to attending my figure drawing sessions. Paint, paint, paint. Too much celebrating makes an artist lazy!

Marge, our model this week had never modeled before and is a Real Estate Agent in her real life. She has a wonderful, expressive face and made a great subject for a  pastel portrait. We’re hoping to have her back in the coming months! We are so thankful for the many people who are willing to sit for us.

Watercolor portrait painting painted from life of an african american male model.

Watercolor portrait of african american male painted on yupo paper.

2 Watercolor paintings   each 6 inches x 9 inches       $100

Please contact me if you are interested in similar artwork.

I decided to step outside my “pastel box” this weekend at our figure drawing session. I’d been getting pretty comfortable with my pastel portrait painting approach and I  wanted to force myself to work differently. I grabbed my watercolor painting bag and a bunch of yupo paper and just went with the flow. Luckily we had a great model (very handsome and built!). That is always inspiring….

I limited myself to only 3 colors: Ultramarine blue, alazarin crimson and yellow ochre. I find that I can mix almost any color I need with these 3 hues, and the result tends to be more “unified” than when I use a whole slew of colors…

Watercolor painting 5.5 inches x 8.5 inches $100 + shipping

Please contact me if you are interested in this artwork.

Ever since art school, figure drawing has been one of my favorite pastimes. There is nothing like challenging yourself to draw the human body from life. No one knows if the flowers or fields you paint are “true”, but it is VERY obvious when you don’t catch the correct attributes of a body.

I try to go to our weekly figure drawing class every Saturday for 3 hours of sketching. I usually use pastels but every once in a while I switch to watercolor. We only have 20 minutes for each pose, so it is doubly challenging to get it right with a liquid medium!