Painting portraits from life

[Jean Kelly]

Tomorrow I start my first portrait from "life". These forum topics started at the perfect time; thank you Cynthia (and whomever else was involved)! This will also be my first oil, so I'll be jumping in with both feet. It's not a commission so if I fail miserably the world won't come to an end.

As for a philosophy, I strongly believe that drawing and painting from life is the only way to learn to "see". I will be taking photos but they will be for reference only, to help me find my mistakes. I'm fortunate in that my model is my next door neighbor. I wanted to paint a woman first (I've done a lot of men lately), and she is available to pose, and has a beautiful face. The most startling eyes I've ever seen, pale, pale, grey green with a dark ring.

I'm going to try to utilize all I've learned here and do things in some kind of logical order, sketches, color studies, etc. I can't wait to start and hope to be posting soon.

Jean