Pastel portrait painting of a man in profile

Pastel painting 11 inches x17 inches   $300

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We had a great pastel figure drawing session this afternoon. Our scheduled model didn’t show, but we were very lucky that Jack lives nearby and could run over to help us out.  We’ve all drawn him many times and you think we’d pine for someone new. But Jack is a great model and has such an interesting face. The more we paint his portrait, the better we are able to capture his unique look.

This pastel painting is one of my favorite portraits ever. I think I caught Jack’s likeness but I also like the painterly effect I was able to achieve.

Jack told me his friends all over the country check out my blog to see his portraits. Hi all!

Pastel Portrait of a man resting on a couch.

Pastel painting 9 inches x 5 inches     $80

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Felt bad that I had to miss my figure drawing class today so I thought I’d post a recent pastel painting that I did of my husband. I’ve captured him in his usual pose: watching TV from the couch. None of my family will pose for me anymore so I have to catch them when they are doing something else. I have hundreds of sketches of John in this position. I always joke that if I ever get famous, when I die the curators will look through my past work, and marvel at this reoccurring model. “This figure seems to have a deep and profound meaning in her work. Obviously he is a muse who she felt the need to recapture over and over in her paintings.” HA! Although he is immensely important to me, he also is the only free model who will stay still long enough!

Thanks for putting up with me, sweetie!

Pastel portrait of a man with cap.

Pastel painting 12 inches x17 inches   $300

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Its been a while since I’ve been able to attend my pastel figure drawing session. With the holidays and travel, I always ended up skipping it. It was great to get back in the groove this week. We are going to mount a portrait exhibition in late February at the Side Door Gallery at the Dexter Picture Frame Shop. Our fearless leader thought it might be a good idea for the artists to act as models for the next couple of weeks. Jim is a fine watercolor artist and was the first hardy soul to volunteer. We all loved his jaunty cap and serious expression.

Watercolor painting of a man reading a newspaper in a lounge chair by the pool.

Watercolor painting 5.5 inches x 5.5 inches       $80

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I captured this man at the pool, early in the morning, as he reviewed sporting events in the newspaper. He was a bit heavier than my usual models but made an interesting watercolor figure painting just the same!

Watercolor painting of an elderly man relaxing poolside.

Watercolor painting 6.5 inches x 6. 5 inches       $80

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This elderly man looked like he had spent a lot of time by the pool after putting in years of hard work at his career.  In this watercolor painting I wanted to catch his total relaxation and they way the sun created deep shadows on his body. Using Yupo paper is a great way to create vibrant, loose figure paintings that have a dynamic feel about them. The surface just doesn’t allow too much “fussing”.

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

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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…

Pastel portrait painting of a rugged western male.

Pastel painting 10 inches x 13 inches   $200

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Jack, one of our favorite models, is the subject of this recent pastel figure drawing. When he posed last week, he looked like a rugged old prospector from the 1800’s. He has a really interesting face, wise and full of experience. And he is just about as sweet as they come.

I am talking with a couple of art lovers about pastel commissions for gifts this holiday season. Let me know if you have a special idea for one of your loved ones or friends…

Pastel portrait of a man in profile

Pastel painting 9 inches x 13 inches   $200

Please contact me if you are interested in similar artwork.

Here’s another view of Jack from our portrait class. On this second pastel portrait, I really bumped up the color and contrast and laid the pastels on heavily. I should have called it “Red, White and Blue!” Amazing the different results you can get from the exact same pose.

Pastel painting portrait painting of an older man with mustache.

Pastel painting 11inches x 14 inches   $300

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We had a fantastic model at our pastel portrait class yesterday. He had such an interesting face with lots of character. A portrait painters dream! I decided to use only a rich, dark brown and avoid all the other scrumptious colors in my box. It gave me a chance to see light, shadows and volume without all of the confusing hues in the way. Sometimes you just need to get back to basics for a bit.

This morning when I went to retrieve a favorite pastel out of my plein air box, I discovered  the box was missing! ABSOLUTE PANIC. I can’t live without my traveling pastels. I realized that there was a chance I had left it at my drawing class. A quick phone call confirmed it and calmed me down…

Charcoal sketch of a young man thinking

Pastel painting 11 inches x 14 inches $100

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We are taking a short vacation “up north” over the holiday weekend so I thought I would post another one of the figure drawings I did at our last session. In this quick sketch I wanted to focus on light and shadow so I used only charcoal and white pastel. This pose kind of reminded me of Rodin’s “The Thinker”. There’s a large cast of it in front of the Detroit Institue of Arts.