3hr. Portraits at my Studio
 

Each Monday evening I have models sit for me. The maximum time I allow myself to work (including model break's) is 3 hours. No preliminary drawing. Draw with the brush. I am attempting to capture just the important information. I feel this has helped me substantially with my finished pieces.

I like these a lot Mike! Very well defined planes and the likeness is good! :)

Thank you Michael.

I still feel I need to aquire the discipline of being more decisive. I would like for my brush strokes to be larger and show more confidence. That will come with time I know. Work, work, work!

The mosy difficult part for me, believe it or not, is that I am thinking way too much about how the model is feeling. I feel myself being rushed, wanting not to "inconvenience" them by consuming their time. Odd distraction I know.

I typically work on an untoned canvas but I decided on the canvas in the middle to try a toned canvas (cerulean blue & raw umber). The picture here shows the drawing stage. I will post the completed painting when finished.

2.25 hrs painting progress

I can relate to this feeling of inconveniencing too, Mike. When it's one on one instead of a group, that pops up. Plus I don't know about anyone else, but I feel shy when I have to look into the eyes to get the visual info needed.

These are excellent!

3 Hr Demo
 

I did this as a demo for a group recently.

Very nice, Mike. I've heard of other, more well known portrait artists that have attempted to demonstrate such portraits and have not been able to pull it off as well as you.

I also agree that such work will strengthen your work overall.

Good work.

Great job.

Thanks Claudemir & John.

Thank you!
 

Mike, these ALL are such wonderful, strong paintings. Each one captures personality AND are accurate likenesses. Posting these paintings for us to see is a real gift. You inspire me.

Carol,
You are too kind. Thank You. If I inspire anyone it's because I have been inspired by so many here. For years I have worked at this and have shifted my efforts in "high gear" over the past year. I study paintings of other atrists "daily" (old and new), visit the museum frequently , taking pictures, making notes and painting from life weekly. I am doing alot of "studies" these days; paintings of just the eyes, nose, mouth and hands to try to see the simplicity of the features rather than the complexity of them. That's what I am trying to accomplish in these that I am posting.

Thanks again!

Dear Mike,

I can only echo what has already been said - you are doing such strong, sculptural work - great color and solid design.

I love seeing these.

Thank you Chris. Your comments are an encouragement to me.

Mike,

I was really taken by what you had begun and I wanted to try my hand at it. Unfortunately I do not have a good studio space for a model so I thought I would try a photograph.

There is a gentleman who wants his and his wife's portrait done but he can not convince her. She is uncomfortable with posing.

During the process I asked if he had a nice photograph of her suggesting it might be possible to use her photograph as a reference and then use him for the other and to play around with this type of approach.

He gave me a photo and I decided to give myself 3 hours to see what I could do. I have his permission to post this.

Here is my first effort. I like what I accomplished. I will try one from life at an open studio downtown soon.