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.

A return back to digital. Gonna step away from the traditional and catch up with the digital. Been so freakin' busy these days, hard to find time to work on anything personal. The ugly/beautiful and savage LePardine. This is the underpainting for now. I may change the lips since they are looking a little Botoxy. And I'll probably come back and soften her face so she looks less harsh and starved...Have a Great Turkey Day, everyone!

I will be out of town this weekend so I probably won't get time to paint. I am also taking instruction from master portrait painter, Sean Keecham and so must wipe my slate clean of all methods I use in order to paint and adopt his. In order to step forward I will take steps backward and start at the very beginning~only dealing with shadow and shadow colors and transitional midtones..

Sometimes I "doodle" at work and here are some sketches to keep the hand loose...

From Titanic. Okay~this is not one of my favorite movies and I have a lot of problems with it. From the cartoon like characters, sappy dialogue and a downer of a plot, it did have some positives. The costumes are incredible as well as the special effects. One of the problems I noticed was that as I was speeding thru the shots, there were very little variation of camera angles, colors or mood. Because of this, even with the sound turned off, the movie did not elicit much emotion from me or engage me to care much about the characters.

From a pic off my husband's FB. I wish I knew who took the photo which inspired this painting because it is beautiful and I did not do it justice. If I knew the name of the photographer I could give them credit and a kudos for having a terrific eye. I actually did this last Saturday but am just getting around to posting it.

Limited Color Palette
Ron at work suggested that I try a limited palette. This was done at work during lunch break.

Hardly anytime to paint this weekend! :(

A little overworked. Speed painting 101, because now I have to make lunch and run kids to the dentist...will try to finish the other painting...