Elizabeth: The Golden Age
A visit back to the screen shots. I went for a bigger format, 8" by 5" roughly, on a thick watercolor sketchbook. I found while I do really enjoy painting the screen shots and have really missed doing them, I needed a bigger surface so that I can concentrate on turning the form with warms and cools. I brought the pallette down to 7 colors: black, white, Hooker's Green, Cad red light, yellow ochre, Magnesium Blue and I will sneak in a few "guest" colors from time to time if I get a screen shot that needs a specific color.
This film was beautifully shot; Kate Blanchette just glows like alabaster in this one, partly because of the natural light and partly because of the white paint she wears. There are some shots in which she moves in and out of natural sun light~breath taking~so expect some of the same shots painted but with different lighting. I will post more when I get some time.

Some head studies done at Disney Consumer Products, most of them at 5 minutes. The drawings were done at the Los Angeles County Museum of Art, which is now expensive...$15 admission fee, $9 to park and it opens up at 12 noon! And they guard the exhibits like Nazis...they would not allow me to bring out my mini kit of acrylics that I premixed in ANTICIPATION to use. Only pencil. Not the best place to study..any suggestions to study dynamic light on figure where I can crack open the acrylics? Anyone??

A bit overworked~
but finished. A couple of days before X-mas, my daughter passes me strept throat. I'm just now finishing up with my last dose of antibiotics which makes my hands shake and puts me in a fog and really messes with my decision making when painting. (I also get cranky) It is hard to paint this way, since usually I know exactly how I'm going to paint a picture; what I wish to say and how to do it. It's like I've jumped into another's head and have no idea on how to start. In 48 hours I will be myself again.

I moved the left eye up and made it smaller, but in the process, lost the sparkle of the original eye. The unevenness was driving me crazy; so now it is more correct but not as interesting...oh well..most times that happens..

I flew home from the Bay Area yesterday and had a decision to make. I only had room in my suitcase to either: pack my clothes or pack my paints. I left my clothes with my Mother In Law. Hubby and daughter stayed and man oh man, is it peaceful. I really look forward to this once in a year solitude!

Working on: 'bout 80% done. Hafta rework the eye on the left and make the chin much smaller and clean up the silohuette. One hour, acrylic on canvas paper.

Pet

I'm doing this for a friend who says that her friend's dog died. She was poisoned by someone. Her friend was going to go to an animal portrait artist who charged a lot of money, but I said let me do it. Pro Bono. It has been such a wet day that the paints (acrlylic) took their time in drying so I ended up painting wet on wet, which is something I don't normally do. I suppose that's how it feels to paint with oils and the underpainting looked like a wet oil.

I used to paint a lot of animals in miniature back in the day and then, it was the most striking work I did. (This is not a miniature.) Since then, I got married, had a child, and the ol eyesight is not what it used to be. Back then I really had no real responsibilities and was not interrupted every five minutes and I think I had had more sleep and a steadier hand. But at this age, I must admit, I make better decisions when creating and am more calm and relaxed and deliberate. Age does has its advantages. I will post this again when I am finished.

Painting in Process:

Much better on this one. More to go, loving those purples and oranges again...

Threw away my black, my earth colors and went for the primaries and secondaries. This one is a little bigger than the rest, about 8.5 x 6' acrylic on canvas paper. This was a lion bronze, a part of a bigger sculpt at the Huntington Gardens.

Having a love affair with thalo blue, diox purple and cad red light and magenta and violets.

I have been taking a lot of thumbnail pics from my phone and using them to practice with color mixing in acrylic on canvas paper. I was trying to do a small painting a day, but there is no way I can find time to do this.

Got rid of black and earth colors from my palette for now.

Acrylic painting on canvas in progress. Underpainting. Taken from my cell phone.

Scant offerings: This was done last night in Santa Clarita. Not the best I've done, but the model did not show up and Olga graciously stepped in to model.

These were all done at Disney in Bob Kato's class on Fridays. I have never painted the model from life with acrylic before and I had not done a class in nearly 7 years. About 20-25 minutes each.

Color key exercises. The more purplish one was second (one on the right)and I used a better quality brush. It was a small bright that did everything. I've been told by a couple of really good illustrators that it did not matter if they used an expensive brush or a "throw away". But here's the difference; right painting is definitely more exciting than the other. A better quality brush does perform much better at least for me.

I just finished an on site freelance job for Disney Consumer Products and while I was there took advantage of Bob Kato's class on Fridays. These were 5 minute color sketches.

Emma
Worked on this this weekend. Good painting, would have been nicer if it looked like Emma! I really struggled with this one-I am much more comfortable painting sharp shadows and sunlight. Tommorrow at work I will soften the eyebrow and the cheek rolling into the jaw.

Emma is Corinne's younger sister.

WORKING ON:

Been so busy. I literally painted this in my head before starting. Already knew how I would organize the brushstrokes. This is one of my first attempts of painting a male and boy are they more fun than the painting the girls. Lots of character, facial planes, etc. I probably won't do much more to this: I like the roughness and being able to see the brushstrokes.

2nd portrait of Corrine. I've made better decisions using the filberts and brights and am getting better at organizing my brushstrokes.

Corrine as Ann Boleyn

About a month ago, I was asked to help put together an Ann Boleyn costume for Corrine. It was quite a challenge, because I had only 48 hours to do so, running to Joann's Fabrics, finding whatever was available, doing research online. It's a good thing I had seen The Other Boleyn sister last year. But as I was putting on the final brushstrokes for her face, I realized I had painted not Corrine, but her Mom, one of my dearest friends, Lisa, the way she looked nearly 20 + years ago when we were in college.

Painted at work during my lunch break. I used my filberts and brights. I have been studying a great painting book that my boss, Joel, let me photocopy to read. It's called Painting the Head in Oil, by John Howard Sanden and it's old so I'm assuming it's out of print. It emphasizes painting deliberately, not wasting the brushstroke.

These were done awhile back-and badly done at that. I've actually held off posting these turkeys for embarrassment. Oh well...