Watercolor painting of a young woman in a bathing suit engrossed in a book.

Watercolor painting 4.5 inches x 7 inches       $80

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Nothing better than a good book at the beach! This woman was completely engrossed in her novel and never noticed me painting her. And she barely moved an inch the whole time. A perfect model for a  watercolor figure painting on a sunny lazy day.

Watercolor painting of an older woman relaxing at the pool

Watercolor painting 6 inches x 5 inches       $80

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We will be taking a trip down south soon and I thought I would post some of the  watercolor paintings I’ve done on previous trips. Although I spend a lot of time plein air painting at interesting landscape and architecture locations in Florida, I must admit that I also spend a fair amount of time lounging at the pool. I always feel guilty just relaxing (its part of my workaholic syndrome) so I bring my watercolors down with me and quickly paint unsuspecting victims. Its almost like figure drawing class!

Pastel portrait painting of a woman in a red beret

Pastel painting 10 inches x15 inches   $300

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One more pastel figure drawing from our session on Monday afternoon. I tried to incorporate what I learned in the workshop last weekend. I worked on seeing the warm and cool colors and creating a strong underlying structure. With the family “quilt” of watercolor paintings that I have been working on lately, I really feel buried in portraits. I am ready to move on to other projects for a while. I find it helpful to move back and forth between subjects. It keeps me looking closely and stops me from getting too complacent with a certain technique.

Pastel portrait painting of a young woman in profile

Pastel painting 10 inches x15 inches   $300

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This is my final portrait from the class I took with Vianna Szabo. Wouldn’t say it is an exact likeness but I think it is an interesting pastel figure drawing. Vianna encouraged us to use warm and cool colors and also showed us how to use a no-odor thinner to create a dynamic underpainting. I learned a lot from the class and now I will work toward incorporating her tips into my everyday painting.

Small pastel portrait painting of a young girl in profile

Pastel painting 4 inches x 6 inches   $80

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Our Pastel Portrait class this weekend with Vianna Szabo was wonderful! She started out with some basic but essential tips on how to draw the head using axis lines and went on to give mini lessons in drawing the eye, nose and mouth. She did an amazing pastel figure drawing demonstration using her beautiful daughter as a model. It was inspiring but also quite daunting! She has such an excellent eye for capturing form, light and color. Our first task was to create a small sketch of the model using our chosen color palette. We were not to work for a likeness, but more of a form and color guide for our larger portrait to come.

Pastel drawing of a nude woman leaning on a hoop.

Pastel painting 11 inches x 16 inches   $300

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Another pastel figure drawing from this week’s session. I love the process of creating pastel paintings of the human body. It is the absolutely best way to learn to accurately draw what you see, not what you think you know. You can fake a landscape painting or a floral painting, but if you get a drawing of a face or a figure wrong, it is immediately obvious. I have in no way mastered this process, but I look forward to years of perfecting my skills!

I am looking forward to taking a workshop this week with Vianno Szabo, an established portrait artist. A couple of my artist friends will be attending and we are sure to learn a lot!

Pastel portrait of an stately older woman.

Pastel painting 10 inches x 13 inches   $200

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Hot off the presses from yesterday’s pastel figure drawing class! Our sessions last about 3 hours with frequent breaks. Just long enough to keep me from completely overworking the sketch. I had missed a week when we were on vacation and was really anxious to get back to portraits. But every time I looked out the window and saw the perfect 65-degree autumn day, I wished I was outside doing pastel landscapes.

Ahhhhh….so many paintings….So little time….

This is my 200th blog posting! I can’t believe I’ve made that many paintings and stuck to it this long. I recommend it highly. It FORCES you to paint and, by default, you improve!

Pastel portrait painting of a woman

Pastel painting 10 inches x 13 inches   $200

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In our  pastel figure drawing class this week, we had a “newbie” model who did a great job. If you’ve never modeled before, you might think it is a glamourous task. Au contraire. Although I’m sure it is somewhat interesting, it’s also difficult, uncomfortable and boring! We are so thankful to have people who are willing to sit for us. Most of our family members have reached the point where they refuse to be our subjects and you can only draw your own portrait in the mirror so many times!

Pastel portrait of a blonde woman in black.

Pastel painting 11 inches x 17 inches   $300

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Last week our model Lynn, sat under a hot spot light for a good 2 hours and hardly blinked. She told us she was planning her next Girl Scout meeting! The light was coming from above and probably wasn’t the best for a pastel portrait, but it made an interesting challenge.

Pastel portrait drawing of a young nude woman

Pastel painting 11 inches x 15 inches   $300

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Another  pastel figure drawing of Sarah from a different viewpoint. I drew on a “repurposed” grey Mi Tiente paper. (In other words, I scrubbed out and old drawing and used the paper again!) These are quick sketches meant to capture the essence of the model in a short amount of time. They should be fresh and dynamic, not necessarily a perfect representation of every aspect of the subject. I decided to use only 3 values to represent the figure in this piece, so that I wouldn’t get too caught up in all the luscious colors in my pastel box!

Pastel drawing of a young woman in profile

Pastel painting 11 inches x 15 inches   $300

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Our figure drawing sessions have started up again and I am so excited. We took a break this summer because so many of us had vacations and other plans. 3 months doesn’t seem that long but I was PINING to get back to figure painting again! Sarah was a new model for me and she was wonderful. I could tell she had been a dancer because of the ballet-like positions she took. She had a wonderful “old fashioned” look about her, like the models of the late 19 century. I decided to do a pastel portrait to try and capture her delicate features.

Watercolor painting of a nude female

Watercolor painting 8.5 inches x 11 inches $100 + shipping

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In figure drawing class, we have about 20 minutes to capture the essence of the model. Drawing so quickly is difficult in pastel and charcoal, but is especially challenging in watercolor. Everything is fluid and the colors run into each other, rarely appearing the way you envisioned them. But sometimes that is a very good thing. I have a chance to step away from “overworking”, my favorite pastime, and create a looser, more dynamic image.