Friday, April 10, 2009






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.

1 comment:

Shane said...

I think that it is a very interesting process artist go through to paint. I looked up and down at the painting like watching it being painted in reverse. I think it is very important for people to know how much work goes into art. Thanks