Friday Painting

2011-12-21T23:44:00.031-06:00

This year, we got to hold our annual show at the old Utrecht Art Supply storefront in downstairs of the building.
The space has been vacant since they moved away in February. Usually we'd have our show in the Academy's gallery. But this year, due to a schedule conflict, we weren't able to hold our show there. So I searched around for a number of outside venues that might be willing to host our show, but to no avail. As a last effort, I thought I'd ask the building's leasing director if they would let us use the Utrecht space for our show…for free!

Some things that went through in my head just before I went upstairs to her office: "She'd think I am crazy, and may have the building security escort me out of her office" "She's gonna laugh at me so hard she'd have a hernia." "Heck, what do I have to lose?…nothing but my face." "You never know until you ask."

Fortunately, she responded very well to my reasoning and actually liked the idea of having the storefront filled with paintings on the wall and lit up to showcase to the potential renters (including the Academy).

So here it is. Our 4th annual show saved.
I am so glad for the students of the club and the Academy.

About Face IV Opening Reception; December 15, 2011

Poster design by Aron Gagliardo

Until now, looking only from the outside after Utrecht moved out, I didn't realize the space was this large; we ended up not using the rear area.

Final touch-up

3 days to prepare the space, get 80 paintings ready and hang them! (while continuing with daily classes during the week before the finals week) Whew!!

Long window-front along Van Buren St.

View from the mezzanine where Utrecht manager's office used to be.

The space is so large and the ceiling so high, we could've played football in here!

Adam Nowak wall

Lucas Bianch & Tom Urioste wall

Roberto Almanza wall

Jacob Sanders wall

Jacob couldn't make it to the show, driving back late from his trip to New York.

Jacob Sanders wall

James Wisdom wall

Alex Velazquez wall

John Zylstra wall

Marcie Paddock column

Don Yang column

Don Yang column
Needed a heavy equipment to change a light bulb high up.

Don Yang column

The door opened at 5 pm.

Digging in!

Adam: "Chris, I am this much bigger than you are."
Chris : "No way!"

Rich Kryczka charming the ladies.

Adam Nowak

Lucas Bianchi

Thomas Urioste III

Roberto Almanza

Alex Velazquez (Tom Herzberg stood his ground)

John Zylstra

Marcie Paddock

Marcie turned my camera on me.

Mark Cunningham and the painting by Marcie Paddock

Sherine Azzam and the painting by Jacob Sanders.

Conrad Javier and the painting by Jacob Sanders.

Adam Nowak and the painting by me.

Danny Rico and the painting by Jacob Sanders.

Conrad Javier and the painting by me

Rich Kryczka still trying to figure our his iPhone.

Closing time (Michigan Ave.)

Closing time (Van Buren St.)

The night before

Lucas on squeegee duty

How many art students does it take to…

Adam Nowak

Thomas Urioste III

James Wisdom and Tina Qi

Alex Velazquez

Good job, guys!
So glad for you and proud of you!

At the last minute I thought having a guestbook would be nice, and sent a student to find a simple booklet from office supply. Apparently, Jen Thomas got a word of it and graciously put together a handsome hand-bound book for us!

2011-12-21T22:53:00.019-06:00

End of the term Critique; Fall 2011

None of our 3 guest models were able to attend the critique; Dr.'s appointment, cold, and a schedule conflict.

Jacob Sanders

James Wisdom

Alex Velazquez

Katie Lavin

Adam Nowak

Oscar has a comment on Adam's painting.

Hanna, a freshman new member (who painted in oil for the first time) did her paintings on unmounted canvases and rolled them up, needing some assistance displaying her paintings.

John Zylstra

Conrad Javier

Erin Little

Tom Urioste III, a new member waiting to be painted in the next semester.

Lucas Bianchi

Oscar Joyo, another freshman new member.

2011-12-21T22:32:00.005-06:00

Oscar Joyo, 16" x 12", oil on canvas

Oscar is a freshman student who's been coming to the Open Studio and portrait painting sessions to get to know how to paint in oil. Being aware of Oscar's general head proportion,
I chose a 16"x12" canvas instead of 12"x12" that I have often used lately.

There were a couple of unique difficulties in painting Oscar. First, the old canvas panel on which I taped the canvas was warped forward (and it seemed as though it was bowing further and further as the time progressed) and reflecting a disturbing sheen on the surface as I lay down more wet paint on it, making it difficult to see the colors.

Secondly, once he settled down with a comfortable tilt of his head, Oscar slowly but severely started sliding to his right.
He was sinking like the Titanic! (Later Oscar said, "At one moment, I couldn't see, and that was when I realized that's because I was falling asleep.") Because of this, I had to be careful to line up his features in a consistent orientation with his tilt.

It's always such a delight to paint such an array of colors shown on a deep, dark-skinned face, punctuated with cool blues and purples. Against his dark skin, the brightness of his left eye was so prominent that I couldn't resist accentuating it.

2011-12-21T22:29:00.004-06:00

Erin Little, 12" x 12", oil on linen

Erin is an oil painting major and another newcomer to the club. More new members mean more new faces to paint. Good deal!

My plan was to frame Erin's fair skin tone with the darks of her hair and the dark green background for a chiaroscuro effect. I didn't particularly plan for it, but the canvas being an extra-fine texture linen, I occasionally used a fine sable brush, which I don't use often.

2011-12-21T22:26:00.004-06:00

Tony Thomas, 12" x 12", oil on linen

I couldn't get to the session until almost an hour into it because of a lengthy department meeting where we discussed that often instructors have to spend too much time outside of painting/drawing/sculpting/teaching due to other administrative duties--such as meetings. I was very anxious to come out of the meeting and paint, so when I finally joined the club late, I was a bit frustrated and unsettled.

Considering this, I was surprised to have come up with a painting that I am satisfied with. Though this painting doesn't have much flair or a complex color scheme, what I like about it is that it simply conveys the gesture and sense of presence that I associate with Tony. It's a look that I often see when he is sitting in a chair in the faculty lounge listening to others.
No fancy colors, no photographic details. It simply is him.

2011-12-21T22:20:00.004-06:00

Mark Cunningham, 16" x 12", oil on linen

Mark teaches Art History class at the Academy.

This is his second posing for the club. This time, we planned to add some props to him. Mark brought a few props of his own; a fake eyeglasses, a fez, and a scarf etc. We tried them all and decided to go with a simple red scarf.

In the first painting of Mark, I didn't do much with the background. In this painting, I altered the dark red curtain background to echo the intensity of his red scarf. Also, unlike the first painting, I didn't smooth out the brushstrokes much. In part because of this, while this painting doesn't have the likeness I captured in the first painting, it shows a stronger sense of character. He somewhat looks like a lumberjack or
a rugged ranch-hand.

2011-12-21T22:17:00.005-06:00

Adam Nowak III, 12" x 12", oil on panel

Adam had already taken his turn and posed twice, but this time he (and another member) were scheduled to pose again as a kind of "penalty" for not following instructions and signing up for the club in time. Kind of like paying a fine for returning a book late to the library or registering late for the classes at the Academy, I told the club. So here he is again, posing for the third time even though he hasn't been a member since the very beginning of the club.

A few days before, I came across a 1/4"-thick 12"x12" square board at the Utrecht store and bought a half dozen of them. I gave a couple to Adam, telling him to prepare and paint on them. As for me, I laid down three coats of shellac to seal the surface and to give it a warm undertone.

Painting Adam on this board, I wanted to retain the warm tone of the panel as a clean background in the finished painting. This meant I had little margin of error in constructing his head in order to keep the background undisturbed. So in the beginning, I carefully laid down the boundaries of his hair, beard and the far side of his glasses frame and started painting from inside out, being particularly cautious in the front of his face.

Though Adam struggled stay awake after a late night of partying with Conrad, I managed to capture him looking very alert.

2011-12-21T22:12:00.005-06:00

Gaby Zilinskaite , 16" x 12", oil on linen

Gaby is Academy's administrative Assistant who is also the first face to greet at the front desk with a smile.

Gaby usually keeps her long hair tied up but she let it down low for posing. So I decided to use a 16"x12" canvas instead of 12"x12" to include the length of her hair as a part of composition.

Seeing much light-green in her blond hair, I intensified the red background for stronger contrast. Gaby held her pose well and steady while maintaining a gentle tilt of her head throughout, which added an interesting gestural expression.

2011-12-18T22:34:00.005-06:00

Jenny Rodziewicz, 12" x 12", oil on canvas

Jenny is another newcomer to the club this semester.

While posing, Jenny kept her lips slightly parted throughout the session, adding an interesting expression. I had to be careful not to make the teeth too bright while just suggesting a hint of them under her lips.

Though she sat quietly and peacefully while posing,
the finished painting has a bold and even a bit sassy look. Having an inverted triangular background with very textured brushstrokes added to this expression.

This painting reminds me of the commercial illustration paintings of glamorous models in the '60s.

2011-12-18T22:19:00.007-06:00

First session of the Fall 2011 semester.

A rather small group gathered to paint a new member, Lucas.

Lucas Bianchi, 12" x 12", oil on canvas

Lucas is a new member of the club who's also been coming to the Open Studio Session, wanting to learn how to paint in oil.

From the beginning, Lucas maintained an intense gaze while keeping his chin firmly pulled in and looking intensely up toward the ceiling far ahead. I was afraid he would not be able to maintain the pose throughout the session, but overall he came back to more or less the same pose after each break. I think it was the first time we had anyone with that kind of obvious upward gaze while posing. I thought to myself, "It is going to be interesting. Let's see what kind of expression I can bring to the painting here."

At the end of the painting, Lucas asked me when I'd finish his hat. I just smiled at him without answering. I felt that if I finished the hat, it could easily look more like a portrait, and I didn't want that from this painting. Also, if I did, then I would probably have felt obligated to do something more to the background. So I just left it half blank. I think the unfinished hat worked out better with the vignette of his shirt.

2011-12-18T20:32:00.008-06:00

End of the term critique; Summer 2011

James Wisdom

Guest models:
Joel Pace couldn't join us due to his travel to Pittsburgh.
Jen Thomas took some time off her class to participate.
Marcia Thomas brought her "agent", Tony Thomas.

Joshua Kulacz

Joe Dodd

Katie Lavin, a new member

Daniel Morris; last time before he transferred.

James commenting on Daniel's paintings.

Alex Velazquez

Jacob Sanders

Adam Nowak

2011-12-18T14:16:00.002-06:00

Jen Thomas, 16" x 12", oil on linen

Jen teaches graphic design and illustration classes as well as typography class.

This is her second time posing and this time she brought a scarf with her. We tried a few different ways of her wearing it and we decided to have her wear it on her head.

The yellow and greens on the scarf gave me an idea of her being out it the woods. But I didn't want to create too much of an elaborate background. Instead, I just wanted to create a hint of her being outdoors. So I added a few loose strokes of greens and light-browns over the initial sketch lines, completely ignoring the black drapery behind her.

2011-12-18T13:48:00.004-06:00

Kristin Mount, 12" x 12", oil on linen

Kristin is a medical illustrator who teaches Anatomy and Digital Illustration.

She had already posed twice as a guest model, but this time she posed as a member of the club, planning to be on the other side of the easel with us often.

Continuing with the square format and the exaggerated color schemes of the previous weeks, I cut the 12"x12" linen and decided to load up some intense colors in this painting. Sometimes I like to have fun of pushing the boundaries of the colors I see and give myself a challenge of interpreting them in a way that will be harmonious while still convincingly capturing the personality of the sitter. Sometimes it works; sometimes I struggle to draw some valuable lessons from it.

Overall, I think the color scheme worked out in this painting. It was the treatment of edges that I should have been more careful about. I think I was having so much fun and got carried away in giving her a bit of a wilder hairstyle than she actually has.

2011-12-18T13:44:00.004-06:00

Jacob Sanders, 12" x 12", oil on linen

Jacob is one of the recent graduates who continue to come to the sessions to keep up with their painting experiences.

After the first half-hour, I was concerned about whether
I might have cropped the top of his head too much,
not calculating the tape portion that would be pulled off in the end. But it turned out to be all right.

Painting Jacob, I dragged my brush lightly as I applied colors on the rather pronounced texture of the linen canvas.
It resulted in some very tiny bare canvas surfaces showing through on his face, which I find interesting.

He turned out to look very intense and serious in this painting, unlike his actual demeanor, which is more quiet and laid-back.

2011-12-18T13:39:00.004-06:00

Katie Lavin, 12" x 12", oil on linen

At first I thought about painting Katie in profile, viewing her from the extreme right side. But I thought that against the dark background on her right side, the painting might turn out too harsh. So I moved a little the left to make it a bit off-profile, where the tip of her nose would barely break the contour of her right cheek.

I wanted to create a mood that would be lively and bright but also gentle and calm. To accentuate her fair and warm skin color I took advantage of the light green background. But I decided to alter it somewhat to give a feeling of the outdoors, as if she was in a deep but bright forest.

Painting her large earring was fun to do. I just had to be careful not to let it overtake her.

2011-12-18T13:31:00.004-06:00

Marcia Thomas, 16" x 12", oil on linen

Marcia is Academy's registrar who's been with the Academy many years. She is also Tony's better half.

This was her second time posing for the club. In the first session, she posed without her glasses. Because I recognize her more with her glasses on in the first painting I think I focused more with capturing a likeness that I could recognize.

This time, she kept her glasses on but also wore her winter hat. Wearing the hat gave her a quite different look that I wasn't familiar with. I think that freed me from being drawn into going after her likeness in this painting. Along with that, I decided to ignore the actual flat drapery behind her and make up a color pattern that would enhance the colors on her face. Also unlike the first painting, I "pushed" the colors a bit (mostly bright purples and blues) to add more lively feel to the painting.

2011-12-18T13:24:00.005-06:00

Adam Nowak II, 12" x 12", oil on linen

In this second painting of Adam, I tried to create a mosaic of color pieces without polishing or blending them much. I wanted to show distinctive shapes of color notes in the finished painting.

As for the color scheme, I strengthened the green and red background colors to harmonize with the greens on his beard and the reds on his face.

2011-12-04T15:01:00.004-06:00

Conrad Javier, 12" x 12", oil on linen

To paint Conrad, I decided to paint on a rather small size square canvas. I painted on a square format before, but I think this is the smallest size I painted on in the club.

At the beginning of the session, Conrad said he intentionally wore a bright orange-colored shirt to make it difficult for us. To go along with his challenge, I decided to make this painting expressive with brushstrokes, and colorful with exaggerated colors while completely ignoring the actual background color.
I also used the palette knife to smear his shirt colors at the beginning of the painting to set the stage for the ensuing color notes.

2011-12-04T14:53:00.004-06:00

Joel Pace, 20"x16", oil on linen

Joel was the first of the three guest models for the summer.
During his long tenure at the Academy, Joel has been wearing many different hats at the Academy; currently a chairperson of the Foundations Department.

Joel was very unique in posing for us in that, while others were alert at the beginning of the posing and slowly slumped as they became fatigued, Joel struggled very hard to stay awake in the first hour of the session and became very alert since. I think it threw us off a bit in the beginning.
Earlier in the day I saw him in a light green t-shirt so I set the background with a dark red/purple drapery for contrast.

A few days later when Joel came to my classroom to see the finished painting, he commented that the painting looked somewhat like her mother. I joked to him that I paint the DNA of a person not just the superficial likeness.

2011-12-04T14:49:00.003-06:00

Rachel Stukenberg, 16" x 12", oil on canvas

This is Rachel's second time posing for the club.
When she posed the first time, she volunteered to pose for us just for the fun of posing. This time, she planned to not only pose but also start coming in to the session regularly as a painting member.

Rachel brought with her a 1920s style hat and a red shawl as a prop. We also decorated the right side of her hat with a carnation that was a part of floral arrangement at the graduation ceremony the day before.

Unlike the first painting, which looked a bit melancholy and older, in this painting, she turned out to be looking confident and a bit younger than she actually is.

2011-12-04T14:44:00.008-06:00

First session of the Summer 2011 semester.

Always good to have new members.

Joe Dodd, 18" x 14", oil on canvas

Joe usually wears a hat, one kind or another.
When we were setting the pose, he asked us whether he should keep his hat on or not. I suggested that he should pose with his hat on since that's the appearance of Joe that we were used to. But some said he should pose without it because we have never painted anyone who was bald.
So Joe sans hat it was.

2011-10-30T15:15:00.025-05:00

End of the semester group critique and pizza party:
Spring 2011

Many paintings, diverse characters and styles.

We began with James.

James invited his father for an experience and to show his progress. Hope he wasn't nervous talking about his paintings in front of him.

Alex Velazquez; In this term, Alex painted a number of small studies. With the name like his, he'd better produce some excellent paintings.

Nicolas Martinez

Marcie commenting on one of Nicolas's paintings.

Though he started out a bit nervous, Nicolas's soon relaxed and brought some laughters to the group…

…Including to Sherine, one of our guest models for the semester. Joyce couldn't participate due to her travel schedule.

Jacob Sanders

Rachel talking about Jacob's paintings.

Dana making some funny comments about Jacob's paintings.

Rachel Stukenberg; Rachel posed for the group in the previous semester without painting with us.
This semester she started participating in the session as well.

Matt Clymore

Jacob commenting on Matt's paintings.

Dana Olson

Marcie's turn, before she had to make an early exit to run some errands.

Next to the last, Adam's turn

2011-10-15T12:45:00.011-05:00

Joyce, 18"x14"", oil on linen

Joyce is an Academy's Administrative Assistant who's been working 'behind the scene' for many years overseeing many administrative responsibilities. Also, she is the person who arranges for us our end-of-semester pizzas and refreshments.

She's been a bit shy about posing for us when I invited her to pose for us for some time. But finally, with the encouragement of other staff members who have posed, she decided to sit for a session.

When I surveyed her pose in the beginning of the session,
I noticed much green in her blond hair so I decided to put a red drapery for contrast. I also wanted to create a graceful flow of movement with her long hair. Looking back, I should have painted the top and back of her hair darker and softened the contrast against the background.

2011-10-02T20:50:00.012-05:00

Sherine, 20"x16", oil on linen

Sherine teaches various communications classes.

Sherine was scheduled to pose for us on February 2,
but the infamous Blizzard of 2011 shut down the school
(and the much of the city) and we had to cancel the session. So here she is, rescheduled nearly a month later.

As a guest model, she offered us a fun challenge with her unique skin color of Egyptian ethnicity. Painting Sherine,
for whatever reason, I decided to start off by completely finishing her left eye–the focal point–and then worked my way around it.

After the session, as I was moving my easel back away from the model stand, the painting fell off from the easel, scraped against the edge of my palette and landed on the floor face down. I quickly picked it up and inspected the damage, but the damage wasn't as bad as I feared. I think it had to do with the fact that I painted it rather thinly. But still I had to stay behind after the session and make some repairs from memory.

2011-10-02T20:48:00.005-05:00

Theresa, 16"x12", oil on canvas

Seeing the strong tonal contrast between Theresa's face and her hair, I wanted to do a simple head study where the light skin tone of her face is framed by the dark mass of her hair and the brown background. Her deep black hair, under the cool light, gave out some interesting cool blue.

2011-10-02T20:46:00.005-05:00

Dana, 18"x12", oil on board

For this session, I had to cut short my painting time to about an hour to take care of some errands. So from the beginning
I decided to paint Dana as more or less a quick sketch.

2011-10-02T20:43:00.003-05:00

Nicolas, 20" x 16", oil on canvas

Nicolas seemed to be quite nervous in the beginning of the pose and we sensed he was getting uncomfortable very soon. So I tried to finish the painting quickly without polishing details. I laid down a lot of choppy paint strokes and left them as they were more or less. In the end, I was able to finish the painting with the sense of alertness he carried in the beginning of the pose before he quickly sank deep into the chair.

2011-10-02T20:38:00.006-05:00

Chloe, 18" x 14", oil on canvas

Chloe volunteered to pose for the club even though she doesn't paint with us. She brought with her a light pink scarf and we decided to have her wrap it around her neck. I kept the background dark and black as it was in order to contrast the high key of her hair and the scarf. I didn't pay much attention to her earrings which often got hidden under her scarf and hair so I ended up paining them at the final seconds of the session.

For some reason many of us, including myself, struggled painting Chloe. Chloe offered to pose for the club again someday. Maybe we will do better next time.

2011-02-01T08:06:00.002-06:00

Tony, 20" x 16", oil on canvas

Tony brought with him a couple of hats and a patterned scarf as props. I chose his light-brimmed hat and the scarf for their pattern and contrast. 

To paint Tony, I kept my palette limited to 3 intense transparent primaries: ultramarine blue, permanent rose, and indian yellow deep. Painting with a limited palette helps me explore the chosen colors to their deepest potential; I find it a very creative “brain teaser.”  

I started off with a general background pattern using thin washes; I wanted to establish a strong design that would also suggest depth and distance behind him in the final painting. After that, I painted him more or less “freestyle,” without any layout of drawing.

2011-01-25T19:52:00.007-06:00

First session of the Spring 2011 semester.
With the new class schedule firmly set since Fall 2010, it is going to be "Wednesday" Painting Club from now on.

2011-01-25T19:44:00.004-06:00

Matt, 18" x 14", oil on canvas

Painting Matt, I wanted to express the appearance of his seasoned character instead of clean superficial likeness. For that purpose I kept my brushstrokes rather short and a bit choppy.

At the very beginning of painting, I put down the edge on his right orbit just below the eyebrow as the hardest and adjusted other edges accordingly as the painting progressed.

Trying to keep the pose still, Matt's firm gaze seemed to magnify the intensity of his blue eyes. So I further accentuated them against the ruddy cheek below.

2011-01-17T22:28:00.005-06:00

End of the semester group critique and pizza party.

Because many paintings were already hanging in the gallery as part of our annual show, we decided to hold our critique session there.

Tony Jurkash

Josh Kulacz

James Wisdom

Matthew Clymore

Keith Zeller

Marcie Paddock

Adam Nowak

When it was my turn, Marcie had gotten hold of the camera to take pictures.

2011-01-05T23:32:00.004-06:00

Scenes from the third annual exhibit, About Face III.

2010-12-07T08:06:00.003-06:00

Kirstin, 16" x 12", oil on linen

Kirstin is an administrative assistant at the Academy.
In addition to her other official duties, she always greets all the staff and visitors with smile at the front desk as they come to school.

For her second posing she wore a handsome hat with interesting pattern on it, which made her look nothing like the way we know her as we see her everyday. Now that she was posing with a completely different appearance, it was a kind of a relief and opportunity not to have to worry about capturing her likeness. So I decided to focus on the varying colors on her face and have fun with them with much exaggeration.

Looking back, I should have surrounded her with some dark colors to set her off the background. I might still do that later.

2010-12-07T08:04:00.002-06:00

Jeff, 20" x 16", oil on linen

Jeff, Kristin Mount’s husband, posed as our guest model. He came to the classroom with their two children who peeked on and off while their dad was painted.

As Jeff sat down to pose, he looked very serious and intense with alert eyes and a deep gaze, which is completely contrary to his personable and easygoing personality that I know in him. I had to be careful to avoid making him look too serious or even angry.

I thought about brushing in the gray from the background drapery, but his green shirt seemed to bring out the ruddiness of his complexion well against the white of the canvas, so I decided to do without it.

2010-12-07T07:59:00.004-06:00

Ashton, 20" x 16", oil on linen

Ashton is a high-school admissions representative at the Academy, posing as a guest model for the second time. An illustrator himself, he offered to bring a few interesting hats for the session, including an old Chicago Bears leather headgear and an Aussie hat from his prop chest.

My plan for the painting was to take advantage of the connecting dark patterns to frame the light and warmth of his face. Without drawing any lines, I painted with a large brush moving from one shape of dark to another, starting with his hat, the shadow underneath, his neck and side, and then the shirt, before tackling the subtleties of colors on the front of his face.

He turned out to look like a rough ranch hand with an intense yet calm, even melancholy expression.

2010-11-02T20:49:00.003-05:00

Rachel, 18" x 16", oil on linen

Rachel volunteered to pose for the club in the place of a member who couldn't pose as scheduled.

To paint Rachel, I chose a linen that had a medium-rough texture because I wanted to paint her with less smoothing of the painting surface. I wanted to leave brush strokes alone as they were laid with minimum manipulation on the canvas surface to give more spontaneous and expressive quality.

From the beginning of the pose I noticed Rachel would slowly tilt her head to the left. I thought that slight angle would give a subtle but interesting expression. Instead of asking her to straighten her head after each break, I just let her slowly settle her head back to her comfortable position and tried to capture the expression.

At some point during painting, it occurred to me that the way we operate with our "models" is sort of like a Ponzi scheme; as we get more new participants and the guest models, those of us who have been participating from the beginning of the club don't have to pose anymore but just keep on painting.

2010-11-02T20:35:00.004-05:00

Dustin, 18" x 14", oil on linen

Before the session, Dustin “warned” us that he had chosen a very bright orange sweater to wear for the session. He said he was hoping to get some good color reflection onto his skin.

I didn't decide on painting the sweater until almost half way through; I was a bit hesitant about the prospect of the intense orange overwhelming the colors on his face. But if I were to include it in the painting, I knew I'd better lay some down before it was too late, so I decided to make it a part of the painting.

I used vermilion for his sweater color—a color that I don't use often. The vermilion from the tube was so similar to the sweater color that I hardly had to mix any color. On one hand, this made me almost feel like I was cheating and on the other hand, not having to mix the color myself took away the fun. Once I painted the sweater, I brushed in some warm color on his face to balance the colors.

‎Seventeen students came to today's session, the most participants ever since we started the club 3 years ago (we ran out of easels and had to put together an extra one to accommodate them). I was glad to see that so many students are willing to stay late to paint after a long day of school
–even though that meant I didn't get to go home until 8 o'clock, after everyone was done cleaning.

2010-10-29T17:11:00.005-05:00

First session of the semester
It’s always good to see new and more participants.
With the new class schedule, holding our session from 4 to 7 instead of during later hours helped encourage more participation.

James, 18" x 16", oil on linen

James was the first model of the semester.
As usual, during the first session of the semester, with a few newcomers to help get started, I had a reduced time to paint. So I decided to paint James without much consideration for the background; just a simple and clean head study. Besides, I thought clean white background would work well against James' ruddy complexion

2010-09-06T22:22:00.008-05:00

End-of-the-term group critique for Summer 2010

Once again, we were pleasantly surprised by how many paintings we did during the summer–and some good quality ones as well.

We started off with Joshua Gomez talking about his painting of Madelynn…

followed by Marcie Paddock.

Jacob Sanders

Listening to Jacob

Nate Tuttle

Kristina Knowski

Adam Nowak

Daniel Morris

Listening to OJ

Like last summer, OJ suggested we take a group picture at the end of the Critique. Our guest models, Stacey Lemp and Madelynn Dickerson were too shy to pose with us.

2010-09-06T13:34:00.003-05:00

Jake II, 16" x 12", oil on linen

Jacob volunteered (for the second time) to pose in the place of a scheduled model who couldn't pose.
Short of time, coming to the session late from a meeting, my initial plan was to do a simple monochromatic oil wash painting using transparent oxide red and a little mix of viridian. But just before I was about to wipe out strong lights with Turp, I changed my mind and decided to do some "play with color" and finish it with a look of a vignette illustration.

2010-09-06T13:29:00.002-05:00

Nate, 20" x 12", oil on linen

To paint Nate, I cut a leftover square linen canvas in half and taped it on a board.
Though the actual background wasn't an intense red, I used the combination of cadmium red and terra rosa to paint it because they were about to become dry on my palette and would be wasted unless I use it in a day or two.
My original intention was to paint Nate in a rather loose fashion to go along with the background strokes, but at some point I've gotten carried away and ended up sharply defining his features and the hat.

2010-09-06T13:21:00.006-05:00

Daniel ("Big Danny"), 16" x 12", oil on linen

I used 3-color limited palette of ivory black, burnt sienna and yellow ocher to paint Daniel. It's always fun to explore the varying colors in a dark-skinned person. Also, in this painting, I wanted to convey the sense of Daniel’s presence and weight (not literally, although he is a big person). For that, I should've used a larger canvas.

2010-09-06T13:16:00.005-05:00

Faith, 17" x 20", oil on linen

While waiting for Faith to arrive, I splattered a very thin (too thin, it turned out) mixture of cadmium red and blue black.
I didn't have many specific ideas about this. I just did it.
Her dark hair and the highlights from her make-up presented a striking contrast, but the painting itself shows her somewhat moody appearance.

2010-09-06T13:12:00.001-05:00

Kim, 18" x 14", oil on linen

I used a lead white-primed linen canvas to paint Kim. Though the background was very dark, I decided to use the stark white of the canvas as the background of the painting.
Instead of making her head look emerging from the darkness, loosing the shadow side of her head to the background,
I wanted a clean-cut appearance of her head against the simple white.
For some reason, there wasn't a single highlight or reflected light on her glasses. I could've put in one or two specks of it to show the effect of glass, but I decided to paint the way it appeared.

2010-09-06T13:08:00.001-05:00

Greg, 14" x 11", oil on linen

Painting Greg, I wasn't sure what kind of approach I would take in the beginning. I considered a careful drawing oriented painting--perhaps an oil wash technique. In the end, I just let it flow and be more of a simple limited palette study with ivory black, terra rosa and yellow ocher.

2010-09-06T13:05:00.007-05:00

Gabriela, 20" x 16", oil on canvas

To paint Gabriela, I reused a canvas on which I had painted a model at an Academy open house the previous Saturday.
The dull pink tone of the canvas was the result of the wiped-out painting. A couple of unique things from the beginning: First, a rich color on her face that ranged from light brown to ocher to muted green. Second, her massive hair with much color and shine. (As I surveyed the pose at the beginning of the session, I commented, "That's a lot of hair, Gabriela.")  I wanted to keep her hair simple and not have it dominate the painting, but in the end I couldn't resist the temptation to lay in some cool highlights on the curls.

2010-09-05T21:01:00.003-05:00

Madelynn, 16" x 12", oil on linen

Madelynn teaches English and art history classes at the Academy. She expressed her interest to pose for the club through Jaime, so I asked her and she gladly agreed to pose for us.

Her painting is one of those that started with "messy" beginning but slowly took its shape in the end.
From my position, there wasn't much shadow on her face except the one under her chin. So I decided to focus on the subtle color variations in the light on her face, slightly exaggerating cool blues and light purples. I think that harmonized well with the color of her eyes and her blouse.
I think I caught the expression of her eyes when she was more alert, which gave the painting a bit serious appearance.

2010-09-05T20:47:00.005-05:00

Stacey, 16" x 16", oil on linen

Stacey is the Academy's Career Services Coordinator.
Painting Stacey, I used a square linen canvas I bought on sale some time ago. I chose to paint her in profile to offset the square dimensions of the canvas.
At the beginning of the painting, I started off the painting by laying down some spots of green background and cadmium red scarf as well as high key of her blond hair to let the strong colors work together in my vision.

2010-08-09T00:12:00.006-05:00

Scenes from the first session of Summer 2010 term.
This summer, we meet on Wednesdays from 2:30 to 5:30.
The first model; a guest model, Madelynn Dickerson from the Humanities and Science Department.

2010-08-08T23:42:00.011-05:00

End-of-the-term group critique/pizza party for Spring 2010.

Quite a few paintings were produced during the Spring term.

The Kennedys digging in.

Gabriela Mejia went first

Such an attentive audience.
A few painters were absent or had to leave early.

Jacob Sanders' turn

Tracee Badway

Mat Barber Kennedy commenting on Tracee's painting.
Mat brought along his artistic son, Sam for the experience.

James Wisdom

Listening to James

Chase McNicholas

Marcie Paddock

Kristina Knowski, a somewhat reluctant speaker.

Marcie pointing out something on Kristina's painting.

OJ (Sophia Rapata)

Adam Nowak went last before I finished my talk.

2010-04-12T17:40:00.003-05:00

Mat, 18" x 14", oil on linen

Mat Barber Kennedy teaches watercolor classes at the Academy.

When I set up the model schedule and gave our guest models their preferred date of posing, Mat chose to pose on the last 2 days of the spring term to allow the students to get plenty of practice time before his turn came up. So here he is, posing for the club on his day off. We appreciate that.

Mat turned out to be quite a demanding model, inquiring about possibly using a black drapery for the background
(I have a feeling that he didn't like the red drapery I put up behind him to match the color of his tie) and keeping his head tilted to his left throughout the pose (maybe he considers the right side of his head better looking). And he was very fashion-conscious as a model, insisting on a certain way he had to wear his hat, and that only the right collar of his white shirt had to be flipped up. For his second turn posing in the subsequent week, he even brought his own playlist of music for all of us to listen to. We obliged, as long as it helped him relax and stay still posing. And indeed he kept his pose very well, even while he was talking.

With all this going on, I wanted to make this painting more about storytelling than a portrait or even a head study. I wanted to stir a sense of curiosity about his character, gesture and expression.

At the end of the session, we all agreed that he was the most chatty model we ever painted, even more than Tom Herzberg.

2010-04-11T22:20:00.004-05:00

Sarah, 18" x 14", oil on linen

Sarah teaches the Fundamentals of Art class at the Academy.

Sarah asked whether she should pose with her glasses off to help students paint her. I told the students that we should paint her the way she generally looks, with her glasses on. Besides, it would be a good opportunity to paint the effect of glasses.

In this painting, I wanted to paint a "quiet" appearance with an uncomplicated flow of color composition surrounded by a large negative space.

2010-04-11T21:37:00.008-05:00

"…you start with what you know, but writing [painting] is a process of discovery…writing [painting] is an act of discovery. You start with a character and you learn about the character by writing [painting] about that character. And you wind up in places you never thought you were gonna go when you started out.…that's the whole reason for writing [painting]; it's for discovery. You do not know what you yourself think until you put it into words [paint].

—Garrison Keillor

Adam, 14" x 11", oil on linen

Adam is another freshman student who's been coming to open painting session and the painting club to get a head start on oil painting.

At the beginning of the session, I didn't have any idea (or didn't set any particular ideas) as to how to paint this painting. All I knew was that I didn't want to paint it the usual way. I just wanted to paint a little differently.

Noticing cool red on his face, I decided to push the temperature further with cool reds and purples.
Later I followed it with exaggerated green for his mustache and blue highlights on his hair.

I told Adam that he looks, in my painting, as though he had a few too many drinks on St. Patrick's Day.

2010-04-11T21:31:00.003-05:00

Chase, 18" x 14", oil on canvas

Onto a stark white canvas, I randomly scrubbed in a wet mixture of transparent oxide red and viridian with a large brush to selectively tone the canvas.

I wanted to approach this painting with more drawing and tone than color, and give it a more illustrative look with an emphasis on design.

2010-04-11T19:51:00.005-05:00

Tracee, 16" x 12", oil on linen

Tracee is a fine arts graduate who's been coming to the club since last winter, after she got a word about us from Marcie.

Tracee is a fine arts graduate who's been coming to the club since last winter, after she got a word about us from Marcie.

Painting Tracee, I wanted to express a sense of confidence and vibrancy that we know in her personality. For that purpose, I painted the drapery, using a large brush, with intense cadmium red rather than the muted red drapery set in the background.

Also, I painted the brilliant small highlights as they appeared; in her eye, lower eyelid, bridge of the nose and lower lip.

Also, I painted the brilliant small highlights as they appeared; in her eye, lower eyelid, bridge of the nose and lower lip.

2010-04-11T19:44:00.004-05:00

Roberto, 16" x 16", oil on linen

Roberto is a freshman student who's been coming to open painting session to learn how to paint in oil.

To paint Roberto, I used a square linen canvas that I found on sale on a store clearance table (only about $5 for 16" x 16"!). I painted something else on it previously, but I scraped it off before it dried and left it toned for a second chance.

Also, I used a limited palette of ivory, black, yellow ochre and terra rosa, with the exception of the ultramarine blue that I used to paint Roberto's shirt.

Though Roberto isn't a very big person, I wanted to convey a quiet sense of weight he carries in his general demeanor.

2010-04-11T19:16:00.005-05:00

Meagan, 18" x 14", oil on linen

Meagan is a high-school representative at the Academy.

Generally, I don't begin my painting by finishing off features of the head. Rather, in the beginning I like to focus on the structure of the head. I enjoy the tactile feeling of painting as if I am molding a head out of clay with my bare hands.

But sometimes I like to mix things up in the way I paint. So, in the case of Meagan, with her big eyes receiving strong direct light, I decided to finish off the eyes first and work my way out to other features and focus on the shapes of color.

Amazingly, Meagan kept her eyes wide open all throughout the pose, hardly blinking at all.

2010-04-06T14:20:00.006-05:00

At the very onset of the session, I splashed and scrubbed in some yellow and red-purple to key-in Anahita's skin color.

Anahita, 18" x 14", oil on linen

Anahita teaches web design and multimedia classes.

Like most of the guest models we've invited, Anahita was hesitant to pose for the club when I first asked her to.
I had asked her to pose for us a number of times without success, but I think Marcie's gentle nudge last fall finally convinced her that it is worthwhile, so here she is.

When we were deciding the background drapery, noticing her red-purple drapery, I chose an intensely yellow drapery we had hardly used before. I wanted a problem-solving opportunity of working with an intense background, as well as two complementary colors.

I positioned myself so that I could frame her face with the two opposing colors of yellow and purple in the front of her face and the dark of her hair in the back.

One of the challenges of having such an intense background is not to let it dominate the main subject--Anahita. Toward the end of the painting, I lightly brushed in some intense colors on her face so that her face wouldn't lose out to the intensity of the background.

2010-03-20T16:07:00.004-05:00

Kristina Knowski, 14"x11", oil on linen

I haven't painted a frontal view for some time, so I decided to paint Kristina facing straight on.

For some reason, in the beginning of the session, I saw much greenish-grey on Kristina's nose, where in most cases there would be mostly reds of differing temperature and intensity.

I went with what I saw and laid down thin washes of muted green across her nose in the beginning.

As time passed, I noticed her face started taking on more usual redness on her nose and cheek. I think it had to do with my classroom being noticeably warm lately, which a building engineer corrected a few days later.

It's a plain and simple straight view painting with an uncomplicated background and shows a certain look of nervousness of hers, which I’ve noticed when she talks to teachers, including myself. I think it comes from her cautious personality and sense of respect.

2010-03-20T15:17:00.002-05:00

First session of Spring 2010 term.
We will continue to meet on Tuesdays from 5:30 to 8:30.
Almost 30 students signed up for the club. Our 2nd annual show on display in the gallery probably attracted more students, new and old. I am glad to see high interest in oil painting among students, some of them painting in oil for the first time.

2010-02-10T08:03:00.010-06:00

Pictures from our second annual exhibit, About Face II.
It was the warmest day since Christmas. Quite a contrast from last year when it was the coldest day of the winter.

A large crowd came in early to see the fruits of our labor.

Marcie's clan and friends. She wore her red wig to match the look in her painting.

Tom chillin'.

2009-12-14T20:53:00.006-06:00

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.

2009-12-08T16:57:00.008-06:00

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 camera.)

2009-12-08T16:53:00.005-06:00

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.

2009-12-08T16:25:00.003-06:00

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.

2009-12-07T17:00:00.002-06:00

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.

2009-12-07T16:00:00.001-06:00

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.

2009-12-07T15:37:00.008-06:00

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.

2009-11-13T15:37:00.004-06:00

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.

2009-10-04T22:56:00.005-05:00

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.

2009-10-04T13:15:00.006-05:00

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.

2009-08-17T08:17:00.005-05:00

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.

2009-08-11T15:54:00.012-05:00

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.

2009-08-11T15:38:00.012-05:00

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.

2009-08-11T15:17:00.010-05:00

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.

2009-08-11T15:01:00.017-05:00

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.

2009-08-11T14:56:00.009-05:00

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.

2009-08-11T14:35:00.020-05:00

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.

2009-08-11T14:33:00.020-05:00

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.

2009-08-11T08:00:00.036-05:00

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.

2009-04-18T19:38:00.014-05:00

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.

2009-04-10T19:38:00.019-05:00

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.

2009-04-10T19:15:00.012-05:00

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.