Scenes from the end-of-the-term group critique/pizza party.


It was another productive term, with a few new but eager members. Too bad some students couldn't participate due to their class schedule conflict or late train schedule.

Cecylia, 16" x 13", oil on board

I scraped off previous week's less-than-satisfactory second painting of Rosemary and reused the board to paint Cecylia. It's a masonite board that I primed with gesso.

At the beginning of the session, Cecylia asked me whether she should pose without her colorful scarf she was wearing.
I told her to keep it on. Though I was very much attracted to the colorful pattern of her scarf, I had to be careful not to let it dominate her face or let the face be completely isolated from it. So I 'slipped in' some matching colors on her cheek, neck and hair.

I looked forward to painting Cecylia for the challenge of painting her interesting skin tone, and I am satisfied with the result. At the end of the session Cecylia said something like, "You captured the Puerto Rican look of me."

Half way through the session, Cecylia said she was very tired (she's been in school for her regular classes since 8 am and our painting session didn't end until 8:30 pm) but, for the most part, she managed to keep a rather intense gaze.

I took a few photos of her posing on the stage to post with the final painting as I usually do, but I accidentally deleted them before I downloaded them to my computer. Rats! (they always have a way of getting into my digital camera.)

Rosemary, 16" x 12", oil on linen
Collection of Mrs. Rosemary Herzberg

Rosemary is the better half of Tom Herzberg, known better for, as far as I am concerned, her fine strawberry rhubarb pie. Yum.

It was interesting to paint her with her hair draped over her forehead completely, even obscuring her eyes at times when she resumed the pose after the break. Though there were times when she pushed her hair back slightly, I decided to paint her with her blue eyes barely peeking out below her hair.

When Tom took a look at the finished painting the next day, he mentioned that it captured her sad-eyed look that she is often talked about. He said maybe we should find a way to paint her while she is smiling next time.

Paulina, 18" x 14", oil on linen

To paint Paulina, I used one of the pre-toned canvases similar to the one I used to paint Kristin. Aware of her fair and cool red skin tone from the class, I chose a canvas with deep green color pattern, intent to make her face stand out framed by her dark hair and the green background. But at some point I made some adjustments on the proportion of her head and had to paint into the background.

While trying to express her light skin tone, I think I overly smoothen the surface in some places, resulting in somewhat flat appearance.

Jon, 16" x 12", oil on linen

One of the fun things about painting Jon was to capture the vibrancy of his warm skin tone without being distracted by the darker tone of his face. His posing in bright blue shirt and in front of blue background intensified the warmth of his face further. But at the same time, I decided to vignette his shirt so that it won't draw too much attention to it or clash with his face above.

I generally don't like to use store-bought canvases. Instead, I prefer to either prime the canvas or board myself, or stretch a canvas of my choice. A few weeks ago I bought a Belgian linen canvas board from a store just to give it a try, and I decided to use it to paint Jon. It turned out that this particular brand was, though not heavily textured, too 'scratchy' on the surface. And I didn't care for it much.

Lisa, 19" x 13", oil on board

Lisa is an admissions representative at the Academy.

I used an off-size long masonite board that I primed with gesso. I wanted to see what kind of simple composition I could come up with in an elongated vertical format for a head study.

Painting Lisa with her deep tanned appearance, I had to be careful not to make her face too dark. Also, separating the warm redness along her cheek and on her nose from surrounding deep value of her face required a careful observation.

Because I kept the value on her face rather low, I decided not to do much on the white background other than the blue vertical that suggests the background drapery while complementing warm orange color on her face. I wanted the white of the board to play an active role in the composition as a strong contrast against the darker values on her.

Kristin, 18" x 14", oil on linen
Collection of Mrs. Kristin Mount

Kristin is a medical illustrator who teaches anatomy and digital illustration at the Academy.

In a head study, I generally include at least neck and shoulders (and I preach this to my students all the time),
but for some reason I decided not to paint them in painting Kristin.

I pre-toned the canvas a few days before in an abstract color pattern, so by the time she posed the surface was completely dry. I wanted the negative space of the painting to tie in with the general color of her hair and be left untouched as a finished painting.

At some point while painting, I realized that I painted her features, especially her eyes, in too sharp a focus. I thought about softening them, but I decided to leave them be to help suggest a sense of intelligence in her face.

Jesus, 14"x11", oil on canvas

Confronted with massive structure of Jesus' head, I thought it was most appropriate to start the painting by blocking-in the big planes of his head using a large brush.

Throughout painting, I noticed subtle grays and cool temperature on his face, including very blue highlights on his hair. I had to be careful not to mute the color too much and contradict the gentle light on his face with overly brilliant highlights on his hair.

At the beginning of the painting, I laid down very thin wash of color in the right corner of the canvas and let it run. The wash was so thin and I blocked-in the mass of his hair so quickly that it flowed into the shape of his head. It looked almost as though his head was being invaded and melted by some sort of living organism–a rather disturbing image. So I thought about covering it up with more solid background, but decided to just leave it be, for now anyways.

It was my turn to pose this week. During the first break, Marcie suggested she take some pictures of me posing.
So here is the proof that I paid my due–for the third time since we started the club 3 years ago.

First session of fall term.
In fall, we are meeting every Tuesday evening from 5:30 to 8:30. Though they can not participate in every session, 16 plus students, including 3 alumni and 2 freshmen students who never painted in oil before, signed up to paint.
It's now the 3rd year we have been painting late after school.

Tatiana, 18"x14", oil on linen

Tatiana has been eager to pose for the club during summer term but her turn had to be put off till fall because of her summer work schedule.

Tatiana's skin color was challenging and interesting to paint. There were much of deep yellow ochre-ish color that seemed to be blended with subtle shades of red. Her massive curly hair was also interesting to paint. I tried to emphasize the general pattern of the hair without making it a distracting element in the painting.

There were much more brilliant highlights on her forehead, cheek and the side of the nose. I downplayed them in favor of preserving the colors on her face.

Scenes from the end-of-the-term group critique/pizza party.

We had a few additional guests — some younger than others.

Marcie talking about her painting of Kristen.

Carol giving an advice on composition of Jennifer's painting.

As usual, there were some fun moments mixed with serious critique.

Al with the big smile I mentioned before.

Kristen with both sides of her head.

Marcie posed with her true hair this time.

At the end of the critique, OJ suggested we take a group picture. Too bad some of the participants couldn't come in for the critique, and others had to leave early.

Kristen, 14"x11", oil on board

Kristen is Peter Scott's wife, and the proud mother of twin boys.

For this painting, I used a masonite board I sized with rabbit-skin glue and primed with 3 coats of lead-white a few months ago.

When Kristen sat to pose in the beginning, she had her head tilted quite a bit to the left. I thought that was a natural pose she felt comfortable with and expected her to fall back to it even if we adjusted the pose. So I decided to just go with the pose, letting her fall back to her comfortable position after each break.
Maybe because she was too comfortable in the comfy chair, Kristen started showing signs of fatigue early on during the pose. While on a break, she got a Coke and a candy bar to get a jolt. It worked for a while but she continued to struggle.

Expecting there would be considerable movement in her pose throughout the session, I decided to treat this painting more as a spontaneous and "smart" painting than a portrait type head-study. I focused more on capturing her fleeting expression and the impression of her rather than the acute likeness of a still pose.
From the beginning, I painted in a loose manner without defining anything firmly until the later stages of the painting.
To go along with this approach, I kept most of the edges soft with the exception of the bridge of her nose against the dark value of the far eye.

It certainly was a challenge, but in the end this approach also helped to bring out a soft and gentle appearance in her face — according to Kristen, Peter complained about her having a hard look on her face with a frown in the previous session.

Jake, 14"x11", oil on linen

Jake volunteered to pose for the second time this term in place of Tatiana, who couldn't pose for us on her scheduled date due to a work schedule conflict. When he posed the first time in May, I wasn't able to participate, so it was an opportunity for me to catch up. Thanks, Jake!

In this painting, I wanted to pay particular attention to variation of the edges. I tried to carefully discern various edge qualities and avoid any unnecessarily hard edges. Painting a profile against a dark background, it was an interesting challenge to maintain a careful hierarchy of the edges.

In the end, I managed to keep the most of the edges soft and avoid a hard, chiseled appearance. More often than not, when I paint a profile, I tend to be quite drawn to the hard edges of the silhouette, which in itself isn't always a bad thing.

Also, to go along with an overall soft appearance, I downplayed, and even eliminated, a few very strong highlights on his temple, cheekbone and nose.


Maybe because of my care to keep the edges soft, in the painting Jake appears younger than he actually is, with a boyish look.

Tony, 18"x14", oil on linen

Tony is another oil painting major who graduated from the Academy in May. He hadn’t yet gotten to paint during the summer but came in for his turn to pose.

He looked quite different from the last time I saw him at the graduation ceremony. Generally he keeps himself neatly groomed, but after graduation he let his hair and beard grow, looking like a lumberjack or something. Actually, since he is an iron-worker on the side, I thought his rough appearance was an interesting fit for what he does at the construction site.


I pre-toned in a rough and random manner over a lead-white primed Belgian linen canvas with a mixture of transparent oxide red, viridian and cerulean blue just before I saw him come in to the classroom with an unexpected appearance. It turned out to be a appropriate tie-in to his look of the day.


To match with his look and the random pattern of the background, I let most of the brushstrokes stay where they lay without blending or smoothing them, especially on the light side of the head and the texture of his hair.

I saw a very warm red in the middle half of his face, and I think the cool blue specks of highlights on his hair balanced well against the overall warm temperature on his face.

Marcie, 18"x14", oil on linen
Collection of Mrs. Marcella Paddock

Marcie is an oil painting major who graduated from the Academy in May. She has been coming in to paint since last year. I painted Marcie on a Belgian linen that I sized with rabbit-skin glue and then primed with 3 coats of lead-white to give sufficient surface texture.


I must say that, for whatever the reason, I had a rather inauspicious beginning painting her; I can see it in the uneasy brush strokes shown in the first stage of the painting. It might have had something to do with her unusual appearance of having a mass of wildly red wig over her head.

Or maybe I was overwhelmed with many things going on in the pose that I found interesting and was eager to capture them all in a short time — red hair, an earring, a white scarf and the black blouse. But in the end, I was pleased to be able to turn things around and arrive at a satisfying result.


From the beginning of the pose, Marcie kept her lips tightly pulled to the corners of her mouth. I waited to see if she would loosen up later because I was afraid that it might end up giving her an angry expression in the painting. But she managed to keep them tight all throughout the pose.

So I just had to paint the way she looked while trying to avoid an unpleasant expression. I think I was able to do so, though she now has a bit of a determined or even feisty appearance.


Toward the end of the painting, I painted the green backdrop more intensely than it appeared in the set up in order to accentuate her red hair.


Tom Herzberg, seeing the painting the next day, asked me who the "girl" in the painting was. I guess he shared my opinion that Marcie looked in the painting as she might have looked a few years ago, when she was a younger girl.

Jacob, 14"x11" oil on board

Contrary to the case with Al the previous week, looking at Jacob, I saw a much more muted color arrangement in his face. I think it was in part because of his natural skin tone and partially due to the angle of the light falling on his face.
I took it further a bit in trying to organize a muted but clean color harmony.


At times I dislike overly brilliant and vibrant color schemes in figure and portrait paintings, preferring to explore the more "earthy" feel of the skin tone. The challenge is to capture the subtle and narrow color variations while keeping the grays clean and harmonious with the light.

Al, 20"x16", oil on board
Collection of Mr. Alan Luc

Al is Carol Luc's husband, himself a long-time veteran in the creative field as an art director.

From the very first time I met him a number of years ago, I thought Al's face, with his silvery hair, would be interesting to paint. So I've been asking Carol to pose him for us quite some time, but with his busy schedule, it wasn't until this summer that he could finally pose for the club.


I found the red skin tone in his face quite vibrant and lively, especially in contrast with his shiny hair. Looking back, for some reason, I treated the temperature on his face more warmly than it was. Maybe it was because of the cool blue background.


Al turned out looking serious in the painting, unlike his actual personality. I think it's a shame we couldn't paint him in a smile, because I have always thought that Al has a very warm smile that represents his very personable character.

Sara, 14"x11", oil on linen

Collection of Ms. Sara Altieri

Sara is an admissions representative at the Academy. She's been wishing to pose for the club for some time but couldn't do it during the fall or spring term because we had to hold our sessions late in the evening, which conflicted with her commuting schedule. She was one of those people who not only maintained a steady pose throughout the session but also enjoyed posing for the club. It always helps and puts us at ease when the model is not suffering but enjoys posing.

I pre-toned the mounted linen with a warm green mixture of viridian and yellow ocher a day before, so that by the time Sara arrived to pose, the canvas surface was dry with a nice neutral tone.

There was an interesting cool blue reflected light bouncing off her shirt collar onto her jaw. It gave a pleasant contrast against the subtle red just above on her cheek.

I also exaggerated the blue-purple highlights on her hair to compliment her blue eyes and tie in with her shirt color.

The way she wore her hair gave a rather high point to the crown of her head. I suspected the tall height of her head from my particular view might give an illusion of disproportionate head length. So instead of completely enclosing her head with full hair, I decided to just suggest the trajectory of the contour of her head and let it fade into the background.

First session of the summer term.

Generally the summer term at the Academy sees a smaller student body than fall or spring term.

This summer, it turned out that there was a smaller than usual number of students who enrolled for the summer term. With schedule conflicts with vacation, work and class, only 12 out of 28 members were able to sign up to participate during the summer. In fact, the 3 participating students in the first session, Jennifer, Jacob, and OJ, weren't even enrolled in the summer term. (Students who are not enrolled for class during the summer term, as well as the seniors who just graduated last week, are welcome to participate.)

John II, 14"x11", oil on board

I think this was the first time I ever saw John without some kind of hat on. Also, with his unkempt hair, he looked quite different from the look I am used to. It's always interesting to paint someone with an appearance that is different from their usual look.

Many aspects were different in this painting from the one I did of him almost 2 years ago.

Instead of the smooth linen canvas I used to paint him the last time, for this painting, I used a masonite board I primed with thick acrylic gesso. It led me to play with textural effects and bold brush strokes from the beginning of the painting rather than smooth and subtle transition of color and tone. I wanted the rough texture and prominent strokes to enhance the scruffy look he presented. Also, instead of the intense colors and brilliant light in the previous painting, I saw a much muted, but still harmonious, almost gray-blue light on his face.

Pictures from the end-of-the-semester group critique/pizza party.


Although we didn't have many members who participated (probably because of the late schedule), those who painted consistently almost every week produced some quality paintings.

Three guest models, Kim Northrip, Stu Rosenbloom, and Jaime O'Connor participated in the critique. Susan Walter couldn't join us; she had to be a soccer mom (literally), that evening.

We started with Tony's 8 paintings. He joined the club this semester and caught up quickly, producing some excellent paintings.

Jacob's turn to talk about his paintings.

John complimenting paintings by Jacob.
("Dude, those are some of your best paintings.")

We had some serious critics.

Kim made a funny comment about John's painting of Jaime, saying it showed her "wild-n'-leathery side." Maybe she knows something about Jaime that we don't.

Susan, 18"x14" oil on linen
Collection of Mrs. Susan Walter

Susan teaches marketing and business classes at the Academy. She came in to pose for the club for the second time on her day off. We appreciate that.

From the beginning, I decided to paint a profile, just because I haven't painted one for some time. Though I positioned myself for a profile view, a slight turn of her head from her torso added a feeling of depth and dimension.

Setting up the pose, she decided to tie her hair up, which isn't the typical appearance we are used to. I don't think I’d ever seen her with her hair up.

Susan has a rugged, clear-cut underlying structure of her head and features. I reminded myself throughout to be careful not to make the painting appear masculine.


I prepared the canvas tone ahead of the session with a random pattern and colors of cerulean, yellow ocher, and transparent oxide red, thinking I would make some interesting compositional pattern in the background. But it turned out to be too busy and distracting, so I decided to just paint over it with a simple dark blue-green background.
Oh, well.


The brilliant turquoise color of her sweater was a challenge to get. I painted her necklace in a similar color from memory after the session was over.

Kim, 14"x11", oil on linen
Collection of Ms. Kim Northrip

Kim teaches various art history classes and communication classes.

When Kim came to the classroom to pose, I pulled out a bag of hats that I use as props for my class. We had her try on number of different hats just for the fun of it; fez, cowboy hat, biker hat, beret, and even a construction worker's yellow hard hat ("Kim the builder?"). Kim seemed to like the beret for its artistic look. So beret it was. I thought it worked well with her black sweater to frame her fair skin tone.

Once the black beret was chosen, I changed the black drapery in the background to a lighter blue background.
The new background provided a gentle contrast to the black of the beret and sweater without competing with the stronger contrast by her white turtle neck.

Jaime, 20"x16" oil on linen
Collection of Ms. Jaime O'Connor

Jaime is chairperson of the humanities and sciences department at the Academy, in charge of the general education classes in the curriculum.


For her second painting session, Jaime brought with her a fine blue scarf she bought on her trip to England. She said it had a certain sentimental value for her. She said she was going with a "gypsy" look. Marcie said Jaime looked as if she was about to tell us our future. Now only if we had a crystal ball.


The scarf had an interesting decoration that ran along above her forehead. I wanted to paint it on the scarf but I ran out of time. I could have just suggested a decoration from memory but I decided not to.


Before Jaime arrived in the classroom, I was going to use a small canvas of 14"x11". But when I saw her don the scarf and let the long ends rest in front of her shoulders, I decided to use a larger canvas to accommodate the flow of the scarf.


Unlike with painting of Stu, I carried the drawing longer in this painting to establish the clear framework before I started working with colors. I find it nice to mix up different approaches at times.

I am not sure whether Jaime's eyes are as intensely blue as I painted them; I couldn't see them quite well. Regardless, I borrowed some blue from her scarf to exaggerate the intensity of her left eye and tie it in with the scarf.


It was fun to paint her earring with a sparkling highlight, though it seems that earrings and bracelets can be such a cliché in many paintings of women.

Amanda, 18"x14" oil on linen

Before the session, I loosely pre-toned the canvas with a mixture of viridian and venetian red, which I do not often use. I intended to keep the background tone untouched as a finished painting, so I laid down the paint carefully so as not to disturb the surface where it was to show the pre-tone.

It was so dark behind Amanda’s glasses that it looked as if she were wearing a sunglasses, giving a bit mysterious and expressionless appearance. While much of her hair and face were in the dark, her hair showed very interesting highlights that were almost iridescent.


From the beginning, I thought Amanda looked somewhere between bored and serious. About halfway through the session, she asked if she could listen to her iPod while hiding the earphone cord behind her back. She said the NPR news program that I had on in the classroom while we were painting was putting her to sleep. We said OK. Only after she started listening to a Korean boy band on her iPod (I didn't know there was such a thing as Korean boy band) did her expression soften.

Stu, 16"x12" oil on linen
Collection of Mr. Stu Rosenbloom

Stu is the director of admissions at the Academy, working hard to recruit talented and ambitious art students.

As he settled down in the chair to pose, Stu asked us whether we'd like him to remove his tie. I said that since we see him with his tie on all the time at school, he should keep it on.

I liked the color contrast between his ruddy complexion and his blue shirt, which threw an interesting reflected light under his chin and jaw. I think the way he held his head expresses an official presence he represents for the Academy, though I didn't get to finish his necktie.

Jennifer, 18"x14" oil on linen

I was very much looking forward to painting Jennifer because of her different ethnic skin color, which I could explore in the painting. After the painting was finished, a student said that the painting was not as cute as Jennifer. I agree with her.

But at the same time, I am pleased with the outcome of the painting, which shows a variety of colors that are subtly different from those of the Caucasian models that we are so used to.


The nice thing about a head-study painting as opposed to a commissioned portrait is that I am not obligated to produce a painting that is palatable to the sitter. I can enjoy my artistic license, whether it be color, expression or background.

I carefully kept intact the white background of the lead-white canvas to accentuate the contrast against Jennifer's dark hair, and to let the white stripes of her blouse blend into it.


Jennifer started dozing off noticeably during the last hour of the session. When she decided to text in an attempt to stay awake for the last half hour, we let her; although she looked down on and off at her phone, at least she stayed awake and kept her head relatively still for us to finish painting.

Pictures from club's group show, titled "About Face."

It was the coldest day of the year; the daytime high was only -2°F, with the wind chill much colder (the coldest day in Chicago in more than a decade, they said). It was surprising any guests showed up at all in such harsh weather.

Spiro trying to find out which cup Tom has hidden a quarter under.

Pictures from the first session of the spring term.

Unfortunately I wasn't able to paint Bryan because I had to work on final touch-ups for our first portrait show, scheduled to open the next day.

Now we have 26 students signed up for the club.

Having to hold our sessions from 5:30–8:30 continues to make it hard for the students to participate consistently, especially those who commute by train.

Pictures from the end-of-the-semester group critique/pizza.



Results of the hard work during the past semester.

Having Tom talk during the critique allowed me plenty of time to take pictures (and eat more pizza).

Several staff members dropped in to participate.


Some serious discussions went on during the session…

…and, of course, we had a lot of fun talking about our paintings.

Sarah, 18"x14" oil on linen

Sarah is one of the admissions representatives at the Academy who approached us to pose for the club.


What was curiously interesting was the way she kept her mouth slightly open throughout the session. I liked it because the expression in her mouth and eyes added something more to an otherwise simple head study, as if she is actively engaged in a conversation, with or without spoken words from her—an element of storytelling. At the same time, the way she “posed” her mouth could easily be interpreted as a mildly angry expression. As I look at the finished painting, I could read both sides of the story.


Her long, dark hair (so intensely dark it almost looked blue) provided a strong frame for her face as well as high contrast against her skin tone.

Lisette, 18"x14" oil on linen

Lisette teaches various communications classes at the Academy.

This was her second time posing for the club. As she had already experienced the difficulties of posing in the previous session (and this was a Friday evening after a long day's work), she became fatigued rather quickly midway through the session. Rather than keep asking her to hold her head straight, I decided to just paint her appearance the way I remembered it from the beginning of the session.


I think that approach might have sacrificed the exact likeness in the superficial sense of the painting. On the other hand, I was pleased to see the result, which showed a structurally solid appearance while capturing the essence of Lisette with subtle color variations on her face.

Alexis, 18"x14" oil on linen

Alexis is the career services coordinator at the Academy, working to help the students find employment.


A few days before the session, I asked her if she would like to bring any kind of simple prop for the session: hat, scarf, jewelry, etc. She brought a handsome blue scarf that she dyed herself. After seeing her put the blue scarf on her head, I hung a comparably intense red drapery for the background.


I started the painting with thin wash of abstract color pattern that would suggest the red background and balance against the blue in the foreground. It would also serve to "anchor" her head on the canvas. Unlike the painting of Ellen the previous week, I decided to keep the background to the minimum; I didn't alter or add much to the initial wash pattern. During the final few minutes of the session, I simply suggested the contour of her shoulders by carefully shaping the negative space created by the red background above and the white of the bare canvas.

Ellen, 18"x14" oil on linen

Ellen teaches various art history classes at the Academy.



What was both interesting and challenging in painting her was her prominent and clear-cut, bold features, especially her large eyes. I didn't want her features to overly dominate or give a harsh feel to the painting. But at the same time, I had to be careful not to soften her appearance too much.



I liked the way her hair flowed forward in front of her right shoulder while the other side disappeared behind her left shoulder, which added the sense of depth to the painting.



After the session was over, I added a pattern of background color from the red-violet drapery behind her.

Spiro II, 16"x16", Oil on linen

As Spiro sat to pose for the group, I asked him if he could pose like this:
but we thought he would have a hard time holding the pose, so we settled with a more conventional pose.

Unlike the last painting of him, this painting shows the less serious and more lively appearance of the Spiro that we know.

Tom II, 16"x12" oil on linen

Tom arrived in the classroom about 20 minutes late, with a half-eaten pizza still in his mouth. I was concerned that the shortened session would make it difficult for the students to finish the painting. Becoming frustrated by waiting for him, one student packed up her painting set and went home just before Tom took the pose.

We all agreed that any club member who is in his class should be excused for turning in their mid-term project late.


For this painting, I used a mixture of terra rosa and viridian to pre-tone the Belgian linen that I prepared with rabbit skin glue and three coats of lead-white ground.


My intention was to finish the painting with a vignette around his neck with a thin wash of color that would faintly suggest the extension of neck and shoulder. At the end of the session, Tom lingered about and kept asking me if I would paint his neck. I obliged. He sat back in the chair for two more minutes after the session so that I could finish blocking in his neck.


While the last painting of him had a bit of a serious look in the face, he looks pensive, even melancholy, in this painting. Also, he turned out to be looking younger and more trim, with a couple of pounds missing from his face. He didn't complain.

Natalie, 18"x14" oil on canvas

I started this painting with a watercolor-like wash of green, just enough to suggest the background color. Because of the massive and free-flowing hair that hid much of the contour of her head, I decided the painting was best approached with a mass block-in rather than a precise line drawing. So, first, I laid down the large shape of her dark hair, then I moved on with other large shapes of light and dark.

The painting seems to reflect her expression of awkwardness from posing for the first time in front of an attentive crowd of painters.

Tom Herzberg teaches illustration and watercolor classes, and sits on a Chair for the fine arts department.


I set the blue drapery before Tom arrived in the classroom. When I saw him walking into the classroom in his blue jean shirt, I thought about changing the drapery to a different color. But with the warm pre-tone of the canvas,
I thought it might be interesting to have the similar colors on the background and in his shirt. Also, I liked the accentuated contrast between the cool red on his face and the surrounding blue.


As soon as the pose was set, Tom tilted his head slightly to his right. In the beginning, I asked him to bring his head back to straight position, but he kept sliding back to the previous position. Soon I realized that it actually presented a more interesting look of engagement rather than a posed appearance. So I just painted the way his head was tilted.



The biggest challenge in painting Tom turned out to be, as I mildly expected, for the group not to be drawn into his constant chatter. (The man wouldn't shut up!)
We will have to do something about that next time he poses for the group. I don't know how, but I managed to bring out some degree of a serious appearance in the painting.

Tom, 20"x16" oil on linen

For the Fall term, I have decided, after reviewing a brief survey of the members, to hold our sessions on Wednesday evenings rather than Friday afternoons. This is because of the new General Education class schedule that now meets twice a week instead of once a week. Trying to schedule our session around the new robust Gen-Ed schedule was a challenge, but it worked out in the end, I think. With the exception of those who have a class on Wednesday evening, most of the students who wished to participate were able to set aside Wednesday evenings to continue our gathering, at least for now. This means, as the session ends at 8:30, students commuting by train have to dash to the train station to catch once-an-hour night train.


I pointed out to the students that once they graduate from the school and have to work 9 to 5 daily, the only time they will be able to keep up with their painting experience will be evenings and weekends. That has been the story for painters for decades, if not centuries, so they might as well get used to it sooner than later.




Despite the late evening schedule, 23 students signed up for the club, and 13 participated on the first evening to paint Will McGraw. On one hand, I would like to see as many students as they can come to paint, but on the other hand, the classroom can not accommodate more than 15 or so.

Will II, 16"x12" oil on canvas

I chose a smaller size canvas to paint Will because there were a couple of new members who had never painted in oil and needed help to get started.


We used a warm, orange-ish light that was carried over from this week's class set-up. It turned out to be a little too strong in close proximity. During the pose, Will kept his eyes wide open and sideways the whole time, making the whites of the eyes brightly lit. I should've kept them calm to avoid the deer-in-the headlights appearance.

Scenes from the end of the term group critique and pizza party.

3 guest models, Tony Thomas, Peter Scott, and Aron Gagliardo, joined the group for the critique and pizza...

... and to listen to Spiro make an argument.

Katie talks about her paintings.

OJ speaks about her painting of Lou Ann.

Joey's turn to make a point about her paintings…

…in front of the eager listeners.

Peter, 16"x12" oil on linen

There was a mild debate in the beginning of the session about whether Peter should pose with his glasses on or not.
Some students were hesitant and even afraid to paint the glasses. I decided that since we see Peter with his glasses on most of the time, we should paint him the way he generally appears everyday.


The strongest characteristics of Peter's face are the rugged and broad planes of the head. I feel I didn't emphasize them enough, at least to the degree that I felt about them, in this painting. I suspect that it had something to do with my having difficulty focusing because of many distractions that were going on, both internal and external.


Peter mentioned at the end of the session that he had a look of dignity in the painting. Well, though not intentional, it never hurts to flatter the sitter in portraiture.

Tony, 20"x16", oil on board

Tony just came back from his Summer trip to Europe, and while he was traveling, he let his hair grow long and wild;
an appearance that I am not familiar with. That presented a certain challenge in the beginning. It was as though, had I not known his "usual" appearance, I would've had an easier time interpreting solely what I saw. But having certain ideas about his face made me second-guess the progress of the painting by searching for superficial likenesses.

It wasn't until the second half of the session that I was able to compose myself and paint what I saw rather than what Tony looked like in my mind.

Kristin, 18"x14", oil on board

At the beginning of the session when I surveyed the pose, I was drawn to the strong diagonal line of Kristin's hair across the forehead. After establishing the hairline and the simple boundaries of the head, I moved on to colors without much of drawing. To go in tandem with the heavy texture and the brush strokes of the board I prepared and pre-toned, I began the painting by laying down generous chunks of various colors in a very direct manner, almost like putting together a mosaic. Only at the last stage, did I smooth the transitions of the planes of the head, being careful not to blend excessively.

Aron, 18"x14" oil on linen

Aron is an assistant registrar at the Academy who does much of his work behind the scenes.



Aware of the ruddy complexion in his face, I pre-toned a canvas with greenish blue to set his face off with strong color contrast.

I didn't plan to, but I painted from the shadow side of his face. The dominant shadow pattern, the frontal pose in a black shirt, the dark and slightly unkempt hair, and the mustache he's been sporting recently all combined to give the painting a bit of a sinister expression.

Lou Ann, 20"x16" oil on linen

Lou Ann, our guest model for this week, brought with her a couple of scarves to the session, one with multiple blue and red patterns, and the other a simple one of 2 blues. I chose the simpler one and asked her to do something with it on her hair instead of wearing it around her neck. She simply wrapped it around her hair and let the end of it hang in front of her right shoulder.


One thing that is hard to avoid noticing when looking at Lou Ann's face is the brilliant sparkle in her eyes, which I thought was aptly complimented by the bright blues of the scarf. I wanted to express the youthful liveliness of her face in the painting.


I thought the light blue of the scarf could be obtained with cerulean blue, but I didn't have a tube of cerulean blue with me. So I used a mix of cobalt blue and viridian instead to make do.

Ed II, 20"x16" oil on linen

Last time Ed posed, I painted his right side in a three-quarter view.
So I decided to paint him from his left side this time. When I found out that it would be a shorter-than-usual session, starting late and ending early, I chose a profile view. I could have added more to the painting after the session ended, but I decided just let it be as it is and give it a more sketchy appearance.

I found a pale violet cloth in the drapery cabinet, which we hardly used before, to use as a backdrop. I didn't like the way it appeared against the undertone of the canvas, so I didn't expand it much beyond Ed’s front contour. The painting turned out to look more youthful than his age. I am sure he didn't mind.

When the Spring term ended, I wanted to continue the painting sessions through the Summer if there would be enough participation by the students. To my pleasant surprise, 11 students signed up for it! So here we are, painting on!

The major challenge in my part turned out to be coordinating around everyone's class/work/vacation schedule, including mine. So, for the Summer, it will be Wednesday/Friday Painting Club. We will be painting each other on Wednesday mornings. I am lobbying to get the faculty and staff members to pose for us on Friday afternoons.

Steven, 18"x16", oil on linen

It is so nice to paint people with different skin colors, especially people with deep, dark skin, where there is so much color coming out of it that it can easily be overwhelming. The dark tone of Steven's skin and the cool lights on his face were such a delight to paint.
Overall, I like the outcome of this painting: it seems to reflect Steven's quiet and gentle demeanor while still showing the presence of mass of his head.

A few photos from the end of the semester group critique/pizza party

Every participant put up 1-4 paintings for the session.

The guest models, Carol Luc and Lindsay Harmon, also participated in the event. They collected paintings of their choice(of themselves) at the end of the session.

Tough to look pretty while eating in a photo.

Gabriela offering her opinion on one of the paintings.

Vinny concentrating on the pizza.

Lindsay II, 20"x16", oil on linen

Before the session, I suggested to Lindsay that this time I would like to pose her looking down as if she was reading a book; after all, she is a librarian. She obliged(“I am good at that,” said she).

I started off with her features and planned to spread out to the rest of the head, but I didn't like the way it was developing. So, without completing the features, I reverted back to my usual way of constructing the whole head.

Midway through the painting, I discovered that I had underestimated the size of her head, especially the crown of her head. I think that her having short hair tricked me into not giving enough mass for her head and hair.

At the last stage, I changed my mind and decided to paint in some green from the background to bring out the contour on the front of her head.

Rex 18"x16", oil on linen

We didn't have a session for the past two weeks; school was off for the Good Friday holiday 2 Fridays ago, and I cancelled the session last Friday so that the students could participate in the school-wide Spring Arts Festival.

I painted Rex a few weeks ago in my painting class alongside the students, in between instructions. I asked him to dress in a suit and a bow tie. A student contributed a top hat from her Halloween costume. Rex borrowed an umbrella (or a “brolly,” as my British colleague called it) from an instructor.

A week later, I painted Rex again in 2/3 of a full figure during the Academy's open house demo.

Carol 20"x16", oil on linen

Carol Luc, our second guest model from the faculty, teaches various design classes and heads the VisCom department.

Carol was very enthusiastic about posing for us and brought as props more than half a dozen hats from her hat collection from times past, mostly the ’50s and ’60s. We chose the blue-and-black beret for today's session and decided to pick another one for the next time she poses for us.

Similar to the last week, I didn't spend much time on the drawing part of the painting at the beginning. Besides, taking pictures and helping a couple of new members get situated during the session didn't leave much time for an elaborate drawing.

I liked the bright color on her face framed between the darks of her beret and sweater. The light lipstick she wore accentuated the sharp angle of her 'Cupid's bow' upper lip and tied in with the intense red background.

I painted the necklace, after the session was over, to suggest the transition between her neck and chest. The deep dark of her sweater could easily blur the boundary between her neck and torso.

Photos of the students and Sarah Kaiser, a Fundamentals class instructor, painting Carol.

Lindsay, 20"x16", oil on linen

Lindsay is a librarian at the Academy (to quote one instructor, "Lindsay the Librarian, the destroyer of evil and illiteracy"). She has graciously agreed to be an editor for the text of my blogs. Lindsay is the first guest model who was lured into our "pose twice, collect one painting" scheme.

As she sat to pose I realized, though I see her in the library frequently, that the most prominent feature of her face was her large and clear eyes. What was even more remarkable was the fact that she kept them wide open almost all throughout the session—she hardly blinked, so that during a break I told her that she could blink her eyes if they were tired.

Another thing was the bright red flushed across her face, especially on her cheek, which further accentuated the cool blue along her jaw line. It turned out that in the beginning of the session, my classroom was very warm for her (especially in her turtleneck sweater). Later, when the temperature subsided, she mentioned that she felt cooler and the intensely rosy color on her face was no more.

Initially, my drawing stage didn't go as well as I wanted. Instead of spending more time on drawing to bring it to my satisfaction before moving on to the painting stage, I decided to quickly move on to painting and solve the problems with colors and shapes.

I noticed her tendency to raise her chin very slightly after a while during the pose. I think that threw me off a bit and I ended up making her chin too long. I will fix that after the painting is completely dry, which I expect to take longer than usual, because, for this painting, I used the oil of cloves to slow the drying time.

I wanted to work out the interesting stripes of her turtleneck further, but time ran out. So I just added a brief suggestion of it in the end.

Matt, 18"x14", oil on linen

Contrary to Keith or Spiro, Matt presented with a much gentler transition in the planes of his head, which gave an appearance that probably disguises his actual age. Initially, I painted the shadow plane of his head too dark, with harsh contrast against the light side of his head.

I felt something wasn't quite right until the last stage of the painting, when I realized the mistake. So I re-painted the entire right half of his face in the final 25 minutes. It was a very obvious mistake that I missed.

To go along with the general appearance of his head—gentle contrast between the light and shadow—I painted this painting very thinly and, while being careful not to indiscriminately blend the colors, smoothed out most of the brush strokes with a sable brush once I decided that the right colors were in place.

We used the same red-and-gray background that was carried over from the class because I didn't want to disturb the folds of the drapery that students have been working on for the past 2 weeks. Next week, definitely something other than red will be used as a background color.

Will, 16"x12", oil on linen

I wanted to show Willﾕs slightly scruffy look without making him look old or rough. For some reason, at the beginning of painting, I had a hard time seeing the colors on his face. It might have been the light being too close to him or the angle at which I faced him. Looking at the finished painting, Vinnie commented that he looked like a Nascar fan, whatever he meant by that.

Anna, 20"x16", oil on linen

It was the second time Anna posed for the group, this time in place of Bradlee Navigato, who couldn't pose as scheduled.

After the initial block-in stage of painting her hair, I waited too long to return to work on it and ended up fussing around too much in a hurry during the last stage of the painting, and it shows.
I should have kept the background in a simple one-color setting rather than the rigid vertical break-up of the shape.