Vegas Mattelson workshop portrait

[Janel Maples]

OK Patty and Enzie, here it is.

My portrait from Marvin's two week Vegas portrait workshop.
I call it........." Sleeping beauty. " (My model was on allergy medication and had a hard time keeping her eyes open.)

I hope I do this right. This is the first attempt at posting an image from my mac instead of PC.

A few words about my portrait. If you like her ear.......I don't want to hear about it. I was so excited with myself after having to continually move everything on my own(her eyes, her mouth, her nose, her hair, her shoulders, the side of her face, her chin, did I leave anything out? OH yes, her ear. The LAST day as Marvin squatted in my position (because I am nearly a foot shorter than he is) I said to him, "Something doesn't look right about her ear" He looked at me over his very spotty glasses and said "That's because it is in the wrong spot."

I fought my last day with trying to move her ear and he came to my painting and in two, yes two, swipes of two paint brushes in different values, carved out her ear and handed me the brush and said "What did you learn in the shower?"

In a nutshell what he was trying to tell me is that I forgot what I was painting. I was trying to paint an ear, and he is trying to teach me to paint shapes. Shapes that look like ears, and eyes, and a nose, etc...

What does this have to do with me in the shower? Don't ask. It is a long story.

Anyway.....here it is. I hope.

Thanks for looking.

[Enzie Shahmiri]

Janel, you are way too harsh on yourself. Everyone should know that Janel was running around like crazy to assure that every participant and especially Marvin, had the utmost enviroment to work in.

Indeed the model was dozing off for the most part or was trying to keep herself awake by fidgeting around. It is amazing how wonderful you were able to capture her eyes under those conditions. No one will argue that painting the likeness of someone whose head constantly moves is an easy task.

You have a lot of wonderful things going on in this portrait. Is it your best work, probably not, but neither is mine. A workshop setting's purpose is to teach and I can see by this painting that you have learned a great deal, just like the rest of us. Thanks for sharing it-it brings back great memories, like the napkin trick!

[Molly Sherrick Phifer]

Sorry, couldn't resist.

Janel, this is gorgeous! I love the luminosity of her gray-blue eyes in particular. The skin tones a beautiful, of course. It sounds like it was quite an experience, too. I'm trying to decide if I'm too polite to beg you for the story about the shower.

[Janel Maples]

Her right (our left) ear right?

Thanks for the compliment, I'll take it.

Seriously, thank you for saying what you did. Her eyes, and Enzie will recall this, have a very good story to tell about Marvin as a teacher.

I was confussed. I was trying very hard to apply (what hit me in the shower one morning) I have to look at everything on the face as a separate shape on a ball. I have to pay attention to how the light hits that shape and what happens as the form turns away from the light. I have to try and replicate this with paint by choosing the proper value so as to keep that shape it in its proper place on that ball.

Anyway, I was confused because I thought of the eye as a ball, within a ball (follow me?) and I couldn't understand why the lower right side of her iris was lighter than the
upper left. If this was a sculpture and I had a ball within a ball the opposite would be true. So I asked Marvin to explain this. He did more than explain it, he modeled it. Out of my kneaded eraser he made an eye ball, complete with pupil, iris, ball and lid and showed the whole class the anatomy of the eye. The iris is concave behind the lens (I did not know this) therefore it catches the light on the opposite side of where you would think. Ah ha, now I know.

Just one of the many ways his logical approach to painting makes so much sense to me. I bet this is more information than you wanted to know, but I found it extremely valuable.

Enzie--

You liked that napkin trick didn't you? It is one of my favorites. : ) My husband calls it my bartender veneer when that side of my personality comes out to play. But what, no comment on your lap dance? OH, sorry, that was PATTY.

[Brenda Ellis]

Janel,
I'm beginning to understand better what you all find so great about those workshops!
And, thank you for the lesson on the eye. I didn't know that about the iris either.