Mike and All:
 

Thanks for letting me have my say and considering my position. :)

Alicia,

I am a babe magnet.

Mike,

I have no doubt! With your charm and wit, not to mention your talent and obvious good looks, you have them waiting in the aisle.

Life
 

Sargent worked from life, Eakins from photos. The method used is easy to tell from the end result. There's room for everyone. I prefer work done at least 1/2 from life. I want my work to look like life, not a photo. That's a personal call. We can all make those calls. Wouldn't it be boring if we were all the same?

More research on Eakins suggested
 

Tim, again, how can you oversimplify Eakins as a painter of photographs? Look into his influence on life classes at the Pennsylvania Academy of Fine Arts. Better yet, add to your research Thomas Eakins ed. by Darrel Sewell, Yale University Press. Go to page 54 and you will see a color oil sketch for "The Gross Clinic".

Eakins was an academic painter who struggled with the Pennsylvania Academy to allow life classes. I think you need to do more research on this important American painter. Yes, he used photography as a tool. But yes, he came from and continued a strongly academic painting history.

Images
 

I didn't get an image on that link. I know what I know and I'm telling ya, had you taken his camera away, he'd be out of work.

Helping students draw from life is not the same as making paintings. The difference is about edges in large part. Again the crooked eyes in half the Eakins portraits suggest not only a use of photos, but ill-use of photos.

Eakins Images
 

Try this for Eakins images:

[http://www.artrenewal.org/museum/e/E...mas/page1.html]

I work from photos sometimes and from life sometimes. I bet you can't tell the difference. On my web page there are two drawings that were done entirely from life, no photos taken, and the rest are done from photos. I bet you can't tell me which two were from life.

From Life?
 

Hi Linda,

Great idea! I admit I haven't the foggiest idea which two were entirely from life, but it's too tempting not to try to guess! Of the eighteen images I would guess No. 1, the landscape/architectural piece, and the un-numbered (self?) portrait that is your signature piece. I believe the odds of picking the correct two by chance are .0032679, or about one in 300. ;) :?

Well you have one right John. The self portrait was done from the mirror, but the other guess was wrong.

Number 11 was done from life. I just wanted to see if it made any difference. The only difference was that I had to guard the setup for several days until I finished it. I was a nervous wreck worrying that it would get disturbed and was constantly yelling "don't touch that" to everyone that passed through the room. I have difficulty even keeping a set up long enough to photograph it. In a busy household, "photos" are great. They allow me to draw small children, and to paint with north daylight at 10 PM.