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.