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 of a young girl in profile.

Pastel painting 12 inches x 14 inches

Alea is a beautiful young girl who has posed for us a few times at our figure drawing sessions, sometimes with her mother and sometimes alone. She does a great job of holding the pose, especially for someone so young.  All the portrait artists in class adore her…

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 of young man in sun glasses at the shore.

Pastel painting 8 inches x 11 inches   SOLD

When we were “Up North” a while ago, I was able to coral my handsome young nephew for a figure drawing session on the beach. He sat so patiently, staring out at the crystal blue water, hardly moving a bit. Now that is my ideal of the perfect model for a pastel portrait!

Pastel portrait painting of a man in profile

Pastel painting 11 inches x17 inches   $300

Please contact me if you are interested in similar artwork.

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 painting of a young woman in profile

Pastel painting 10 inches x15 inches   $300

Please contact me if you are interested in similar artwork.

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

Please contact me if you are interested in similar artwork.

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 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.