Portrait sketches from the Thurs Nite Sketch Group [TNSG] and elsewhere

  PORTRAITS - SKETCHES AND OTHERS

In our town, we have a Thursday nite workshop. It begins at 1830 h and runs until about 2000 h. We have a different amateur model, usually a townsperson, each week. The model has the same pose for the entire time. He/she sits for 20 min, then we break for 5 min. If the acrylic sketch is really bad, I take it home to paint over. If it looks really good, I offer it to the model. The ones below were "others."

I've been attending the workshop for about 4 y. The ptgs below are representative (in no chronological order) of the hundreds I've done. They are all 12 x 16 on cheap canvas panel and they were all painted in the 1-1/2 h time period.

A while back, I viewed a YouTube where an artist claimed that he could paint portraits using just three colors  - burnt sienna, burnt umber, cad red med - and white and either mars black or Payne's grey. So I've been working in this limited palette (except where the clothing needs some color). I've listed these paintings with LP

A Sep 2012 change to LP. I've replaced mars black or Payes's grey with Ultra Blue. UB + burnt umber makes a suitable dark for shadows.

BTW - TNSG is shorthand for Thursday Night Sketch Group. We meet at Dunedin FL Hale . We meet 0815-2000 with a local amateur model.

This is my wife, Jean

She posed at a CAG meeting where I demonstrated acrylic portrait painting. I couldn't finish it because of 40 min time constraint 

An aside: The differences between doing demos such as the one above, and the Thursday Nite Sketch Group

In Oct 2012, I did a demo at a local art group

The setting was not conducive for portraits

The air conditioning wasn't working very well

The model was drawn by lots

The first two models refused to pose

The third wasn't too happy to pose, either

The model and I were on a 2 ft stage

She was sitting on a 'kitchen' chair

I was standing about 10 ft from her and could not back up enough to get proper balance in my ptg

I wanted to use a red prepped canvas but decided that the BG would clash with her purple blouse, so went to a grey-green BG

This turned out to be a poor choice as well

There was no control of the lights,

 so no definitive shadows on her face

And it was hot, hot, hot and very humid

About 5 min into the pose I was sweating

I am right-eyed and left-handed

Because of the set-up and those viewing my effort, I needed to stand away from my easel - NOT MY STYLE

The model said that she would not pose for more than 30 min, meaning that I needed to work more rapidly than normal

I spent first 20 min blocking and explaining acrylic paint combinations, brushes, my approach, my palette 

About half-way through her second sitting, she got a cell phone call and held the phone to the ear that I was trying to paint

To recap...

Bad lighting

Bad set-up

Heat and humidity

Bad model

Insufficient time

ALL IN ALL, a disasterous effort

Conclusion? NO MORE DEMOS!

On Wet Canvas! website, there is a Weekend Drawing Event Thread - The sketch above is from 20 July 2012 foto 9 x 12 canvas paper, ~1 h painting time

The sketch below is from 10 Aug 2012 foto

9 x 12 canvas paper, ~2 h painting time

Back to Thurs nite sketch group [TNSG] efforts

* * *

Below painting is 27 Sep 2012

The one several pics below is earlier - same guy

He was a volunteer victim because the woman who was supposed to pose didn't!

Below, Pam LP

Tough pose -

resting chin on locked fingers,

elbows on knees

TNSG - 4 Oct 2012

Below, Pam posed again for TNSG

11 Oct 2012

Below, 18 Oct 2012

Hand may be too large but

that's what happens in

~80 min of painting with no paint-overs!

Below, 25 Oct 2012

Done on an initially white canvas,

chosen because of her peach blouse

and white-white hair

Mark below has posed for TNSG before

On 20 Sep 2012, he posed again and I painted him twice

I've been trying to push more into impressionism

Mark is a good candidate - the first ptg below

was done in one sitting, about 20 min, again LP

on a green-grey prepared BG

Because I still had time, I decided to

experiment with a second ptg on black BG

The experiment is in the YELLOW

It is Indian Yellow, a lighter version of

Naples Yellow or Yellow Ochre

It produces a strange orange when coupled

with Cad Red Med! ~20 min time

Above - Profile - 12 x 16 on canvas panel

Red prep BG - LP + Yellow

TNSG - 6 Sep 2012

Above - TNSG - 23 Aug 2012

12 x 16 on prepared background

Face in Deep Shadow

Raw Umber + Ultra Blue added to LP

Above - TNSG

12 x 16 with a prepared background - LP

[Sorry about the upper right glare!]

Another TNSG

6 Jul 2012 - LP except for her dress

[Supposed to be turquoise but wound up as a  mixture of phthalo green and "light blue," whatever that is]

Lady's head was tilted down

because she was reading

LP - TNSG

Recall I said that sometimes the sketch is really bad?

Well, above is an example - TNSG

On a scale of 1 to 10, this is -1

The model was a 15 yo granddaughter of one of the sketch artists. Young girls have very few facial features and as a result there is very little to "sculpt"

[Plus the fact that this was my first sketch in more than a month and I was rusty as all get-out!]

PS - This is now a Paint-Over

I don't know if I said it earlier but when I do a portrait sketch, I always paint the eyes last. Unfortunately, for this one I simply ran out of time - LP

This one worked for a very simple reason

The canvas board was prepped in black and the model was wearing black. I'm gonna put this one in the "I really like this one" area as well

TNSG - LP

The same dude as above, this time in a Moorish outfit

Finished it in two 20-min sittings. Not terribly fond of face-on portraits. Character is better built with 3/4 profiles. Could have used the same pose as above but thot it would be boring - Both given to the model

LP except for blue+yellow=green for his outfit

Above a local Doyenne ~ 90 yo

(I made her look 20 y younger)

TNSG - LP

Pushed her head up too high but was trying to emphasize the fringe - TNSG

Above excellent model but not a good foto

TNSG - LP

Aove is one of the largest portraits I've done - 16 x 20

It was a done as a challenge on an online website - 2008

Above and Below

A local woman - TNSG

The lady below has posed twice

Here's the latest - 9 Aug 2012 - LP

Below is the earlier one - ~2009 - LP

[Both are pretty good likenesses - Really!]

LP

 Above and below

Missus Rossi

Now in Assisted Living

Above - TNSG

Her husband used to paint with us

He called her 'Dutchess'



Above - TNSG

Don, one of our regular painters

Posed because the scheduled model didn't show

Above

A bear of a man - TNSG

He was scheduled to pose again but died suddenly

LP

LP

 LP

LP (plus grn for his shirt)

Above

Conrad, one of our regulars

He died in 2011 We miss him!

Above - TNSG

John Rossi, one of the founders

Died in 2012

The gal below is a local opera singer

now studying in Italy

The next few are from the on-line Wet Canvas!

Below

16 x 20 From Thurs Nite Sketch Group

with background added later

When we lived in Akron area decades ago, we rooted for the Cleveland Indians AA minor league baseball team, the Canton-Akron Indians. Jim Thome played there in 1990, along with the Alomars, Kenny Lofton, and Joey (later Albert) Belle. His major league manager moved him from third to first where he excelled as a left-handed home run hitter, at last count over 600. I painted him wearing a 1990s Cleveland Indians outfit with his then-number 25
This is ITSO the Late Leroy Neiman, 16 x 20 canvas panel

The ptgs below are from Wet Canvas Weekend Drawing Event [WDE]. They are usually on 9 x 12 canvas paper (sometimes painted on both sides)

[The one below is 12 x 16]

ITSO Caillebotte (French Impressionist)

Working in three primaries

The above is a close-up re-do of the painting below

Some pencil drawings

[I'd rather paint than draw, however, every once in a while...]

The painting below is obviously from the same photo as the sketch above

In the painting above, the lady was holding a puppy

I don't paint animals so I created a flower

Italian flower vendor

Again, the Acrylics Forum of Wet Canvas once had a challenge known as MAPS. We were to reproduce a masterwork in acrylics, then do our own version using the master's technique. This one was a copy of a famous French poster artist

9 x 12 on canvas paper 

Here's yet another challenge
To redo a famous painting in acrylics
This was to be in the Picasso Blue period. Supposedly the guitarist is either drunk or dead. Then to do a similar painting in the style of the artist (ITSO Picasso). Ergo, lady violinist below!

Another challenge was to do a self-portrait
First a copy of a Van Gogh self-portrait, then a self-portrait in that style. 12 x 16 canvas panels 
[Luv the green!]

Here's one of the earliest paintings I did when I first returned to painting after 25 y or more (dated 2002!)

It's not in acrylic but in heat-set oils, 12 x 16 on stretched canvas (really!).

BTW, I quickly gave up this medium. Het-set oils stayed forever wet until exposed to at least 250F (100+C). The bugs in the garage loved the always-wet paint, the canvases needed to be small enough to fit in our oven, my DW hated me cooking the canvas in the oven to set the paint, the stretchers cracked and warped and oozed sap, and the brushes were bitches to clean!

After a few attempts with the medium, I gave away more than $100 in Genesis paints.

Coal miners, painted from a newspaper photo