Two from one evening.
 

The holidays are finally over at the Scottsdale School and I made it in to the portrait session. This is Sara; she works the desk.

I had a large piece of canvas taped to a board, not sure if I was going to be up for a whole painting. This is about 20" x 16" and just a scrub of burnt umber, sketched in andI hit the likeness in the first pose. I refined it for the next two and figured it would not improve at this point.

Second half of the evening
 

I dug up a second canvas and did this, but I did not have time to refine in the second hour and a half.

It is very wet and shining, so the background looks a lot more broken up than it is.

I was pretty happy with the evening as a whole for getting my muscles warm.

Wow Debra, these look great! I really appreciate the looseness of stroke and yet you nail the features very nicely. :)

Glad to see you posting again
 

I've missed seeing your work. Please keep on, you inspire me to do more life work.

Jean

Debra,

I always love looking at your work from life. I love to work from life also - but have only drawn from life. This painting has such a nice limited palette that really is working. I agree that stopping was a good idea - I can almost "feel" her sitting in the chair - a complement for sure!

I can't post my recent drawings here due to the fact that they are all nudes. Oh well....

Thank you all.
 

I have had comments on the two of them and I found myself giggling.

The general concensus had to do with the second one being "heavy" in feel. I will tell you for sure that the boredom of the model weighed her down by the end of the three hours as did the sink in the pose.

It is the thrill of life painting to try to anticipate the consistencies of the pose. I used to freak out if an ear disappeared or an angle was wrong from pose to pose.

As open studio is not a democracy, we are bound by the skill of the model. She was a rank novice but did enjoy the experience even though it was apparent that, with a full 15 minutes left in the session, she was NOT going to do ONE more 20 minute pose...THE END.

I very much enjoyed the contrast of the technique. I find if I work too hard on the likeness in the beginning I will find myself frustrated or disappointed by the end of the pose. If I go for masses and form, then refine as I go, I can keep a rather interesting piece all the way, no matter how much it really ends up looking like the model.