Portrait on blue paper

This week in my figure painting class I decided to try something new. I had a sheet of blue paper (I think it was Strathmore), that I stretched on a sheet of masonite board. I then transferred my charcoal sketch from last week onto the paper. All this prep work was done before class. Once in class, the same model was there in the same pose, so I could use both her and my charcoal sketch for reference. I painted this with acrylics in about two hours, concentrating on trying to stay somewhat loose while getting some good, solid colors done. It was a fun thing to try, and I definitely want to try painting like this again. The final image measures approximately 13.5" x 19.5".

Recent Figure Painting Stuff

We've been doing a lot of portrait work in my figure painting class lately. The only thing is, with those long poses the models tend to fall asleep, which is why their eyes are closed in just about all of these.

Charcoal on newsprint.


Charcoal on newsprint.


Ink on watercolor paper.


Acrylic on illustration board.


Watercolor on watercolor paper.

More figure painting stuff

Here is some work from in class yesterday. The first is pencil on paper, about 9"x12". The second was a color study done with acrylic on an 11"x14" canvas panel. The plan is to eventually make a larger, more finished painting using these two studies as resources.

More figure painting stuff

Here are two pictures from last week's figure painting class. The newsprint study was done first (18" x 24"), and then I painted the watercolor version (11" x 14").

More figure painting

Here's a painting from the figure painting class that I'm taking (acrylic on 9" x 12" canvas board). I'm really enjoying this class. I've done a decent amount of figure drawing before, but not much within the past few years, and I've never done any figure painting with a live model. This class is going to be a really good experience, and hopefully it will help my painting skills become a bit faster as well. Like the value studies in the previous post, we were supposed to stick with a limited color palette and were to try to focus on values, not details.

Figure Drawing

Here are a few things from one of my classes earlier this week. The photos of the charcoal and newsprint drawings are a bit dim, but that's the best I could do for now.

Figure Drawing

I went to a figure drawing session the other day for the first time in probably about four years. I felt incredibly rusty but it felt good to be trying my hand at live figure drawing again. I really need to get out and do that more often.