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.