Elizabeth: The Golden Age Lots of love in this one. Elizabeth as a teenager, accused of treason by a then dying Queen of England. Great shot, fantastic rim light. I really modeled this one and slowed down. Ron Velasco has been inspiring me to be more selective about color choice and take more time on these shots. Even tho he has never hardly said a word, I watch him in class and he really takes his time to fill in those shadow shapes first. I've picked up a bad habit of rushing art because of all the deadlined projects I work on and it has been a battle for me to slow down a little bit. But I am trying.

Elizabeth: The Golden Age So many shots, so very little time...This is one of my favorite scenes in this movie. Sir Walter Raleigh walks in on the Queen and they are alone and she is frantic over having to execute Mary, The Queen of Scots after finding out Mary was plotting to have Elizabeth killed. Says Walter R: "Since when were you ever afraid?" To which Elizabeth, very honestly says, while looking down, "I am always afraid." I think it is these moments of honesty in her character which makes her so human, while appearing so invincible to her people, that make her so entertaining to watch. I spent time on this one and could have continued for another week, but I want to move on. This was done in segments of time.

Tomb Raider

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Finis~I put some red in the nose to warm up the flesh a little. This one turned out really nice. 9"x4 1/2", acrylic on Bristol paper. This one was such a departure from the mood of the previous shots from Elizabeth: The Golden Age, it took me a while to adjust but I do have more shots I would like to paint from this darkly shot film.

Up and Coming: Tomb Raider I snuck in those guest colors, Aliz Crimson and Light blue Violet, albeit just a tiny bit. The candles were white in the screen shot, but I made painted them in a cooler range. This piece has been really tough. I don't normally try for a direct likeness and have missed that gamin, adorable look on Angelina's face. Oh well..This really has nice movement and the original is stunning. The hardest part is to keep the painting fresh, not get too noodley on the details. Keep it loose, keep it simple. Oh, and I tried this fancy, shmancy paper I found in the Disney Consumer Products drawing room, "Strathmore 500 Bristol" it says stamped on it, because yours truly remembered to bring everything but the substrate to paint on (Friday) in drawing class. It's smooth pedigreed surface almost threw me into a loop after painting on the rough cheaper surface of the water color tablet for my Elizabeth: The Golden Age series...enjoy! Will post this later when finished!

Elizabeth: The Golden Age I actually painted this one before the portrait of the Queen. Same colors, believe it or not. I painted the background first, then all the black silohuettes of the men, massed them, then painted in the faces.

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??

These were done for Bob Kato's class at Disney Consumer Products yesterday. The top two were five minutes, yes, five minutes, so the challenge was trying to capture the gesture and basic silohuette in that time. The bottom right two were the last ones~10 minutes a figure and a little more time to breathe. Check out the last one~this time i used a Burnt Umber for the ground, and in the figure, some Hooker's green, Cad red light, yellow ochre with the dominate base of Ivory black and Titanium white. I managed to get a step of gradations of values in warms and cools, a method taught by Sean Cheetham, a few months ago. This is the direction I am heading and this figure is the most successful. The warm and cool relationships and the brushwork is finally coming together! I did not get the model's name, he is half vietnamese and causcausian, does stunts with fire, looks 21, but is 38! He gave us everything, outstanding silohuettes, acting, intensity, amazing physique and had a great sense of humor!

Yeah, it's been a while. Had a slew of freelance, exhausted. Still playing in Black and White, having a ball. Poses are about 10 minutes long on board, acrylic.

Redraw after redraw and finally a clean line. Ready for a background in the shadows and some lighting.

Most of these were 5 mins and 10. This one was 5 mins, acrylic on board

S'more figure. The black and whites were done yesterday; the model was Adair. Some color figure done a few weeks ago of the amazing Stacy Walker. What presence on stage! And a small portrait of the charismatic Mr. Quantae Love; I will get to some really nice ones of you in the future, Mr. Quantae! You are simply one of the best figure models in the industry! And a big thanks for Mr. Ron V for guiding me in all this.

These have been done in a figure drawing class and Bob Kato's class at Disney Consumer Products. And yes, they were painted the back of a crescent board~I hate waste..They were about 5-10 minute poses in acrylic. I am still having trouble with my warms and cools so that is why I will be working in black and white for awhile. I am in a large learning curve with both digital techniques and traditional and infact, feel like the girl in Matrix when she plugs into a program to learn to fly helicopters; I come home wiped and overwhelmed almost everyday!

Ron at work told me to try to turn the figure with just black and white. These are 5 to 10 minute poses, acrylic on board. Our model had a great silohuette and the poses had lots of attitude. She was a great inspiration in the spirit of The Matrix character.

This one was actually done before the last post. 30 minute demo for my dad who wants to learn to paint people. Acrylic in sketchbook; water color paper.

I was giving my dad a demo on how I start a portrait. 15 minutes, acrylic on water paper.

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.

I've been so busy these days. I have been trying to work on my own projects but inbetween being a mom and wife I just have no personal time. I did these at work during lunch. They are 5 to 10 minutes each on newsprint. It's a great switch from the vector stuff that I am doing; very freeing.