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.

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.

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.