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.

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.