Pastel portrait of an older man.

Pastel painting 11 inches x 18 inches

I really don’t know how I feel about this figure drawing from one of our recent portrait sessions. I think it is a pretty decent physical likeness but it doesn’t seem to capture our model’s personality. He was not a stern or gruff man at all, and yet this pastel portrait gives that effect. I always try to capture both the external and internal spirit of a model, so I feel I may have been a bit off the mark on this one. Ahhhhh…..so much to learn….

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…