Art Blog » October 2004

fifth day

We had the same model last night as last week. I’m very happy with the portrait I did of him in the long pose. I found his neck very interesting and focussed on that. Initially, I was too enthusiastic about creating really deep shadows in his face, but over time I was able to create some softer transitions. Note for next week: nostrils with magenta, not blue/black. One of my 5-minute studies is interesting. The final portrait is here and here is a close-up of his face.

day four

Last night I experimented with new paper. But more importantly, David dropped a casual comment that turned out to be extremely helpful and led me to be able to get the deep saturation I’d been craving. All of the other things I’ve done so far this semester have been so pale and washed-out. I’m pleased with the richness of color I got in the 60 minute pose piece I did last night. The paper though, gets a bad rating. I’ll have to continue the search.

watercolors continue

I had an enlightening experience in the third class. I warmed up on crappy sketch paper and then crappy watercolor paper. When it came time for our long pose, I brought out a piece of the cold-press paper that I used 3 years ago for my watercolor portraits. Unfortunately, it requires an entirely different technique; you can’t layer the paint the same on this paper as on the other paper because the paint sits on top of this paper and will just get murky if you add more than 2 or 3 layers to it. I got murkiness! But I’m excited to try different techniques on the different papers. See photos from the class –>

ketubah

I’ve been working on a papercut ketubah decoration for my friends Jenny and David. I finished doing the last few bits of cutting (incl. the cyclist) late last week and presented the finished ketubah to the two of them yesterday at their wedding.

Click here to see photos of the cutting progressing.

watercolor class

Day two of the watercolor class was slightly more successful than day one. I did a few short sketches that were passably human, and a 15 minute face that’s a decent start (tho’ it would need more work to be finished). The 40-minute pose is also a good start, though I got too over-enthusiastic about the face. I need to get some better paper.