Courtney
 

I haven't posted anything in a while so I thought I would share one of my "life" paintings. I've been doing these for about 6 months now and I must say I have learned quite a bit from them. My own personal requirements are that I draw with a brush and that I complete the painting in 3 hours. I thought I might show you some of the earlier developing stages.

final

Mike,

These are great to see. I like the way you draw with the brush.

Thanks for sharing these progressions, they are very useful to study.

Garth

She's lovely Mike! So much in such a short time.

Jean

Three hours? Man that's great! Beautiful work.

Holly

Wow, Mike, these are terrific. So nice of you to show this progression. They remind me of John Howard Sanden's demos in his book, "Portrait Painting from Life in 29 Steps."

Mike,

Great job on this. If you could venture a guess, at what point in time within the three hours were you satisfied with the drawing and began to apply paint in earnest?

Wonderful work, Mike! :thumbsup:

Mike, this is wonderful! I really like the freshness and charm of this well drawn piece.

The way to make it more "finished", should you decide to do this, is to wait until the paint is dry and go over and "tighten" some more in another life session. Have you ever done this with a head painted from life? I think you would really enjoy doing this.

Thanks for posting this lovely piece Mike. I am about to start painting again after a several year hiatus devoted to pastels. I have (lucky me) a model for the summer, so I plan to do a study and a more formal finished piece. This post will be very helpful and referred to often.

What colors did you use for the skin tones? It looks like you painted her in daylight, is that correct? Do you paint sight-size (the canvas next to her face) or relative size?

Thanks,