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.

Pictures from the end-of-the-semester group critique/pizza.



Results of the hard work during the past semester.

Having Tom talk during the critique allowed me plenty of time to take pictures (and eat more pizza).

Several staff members dropped in to participate.


Some serious discussions went on during the session…

…and, of course, we had a lot of fun talking about our paintings.

Sarah, 18"x14" oil on linen

Sarah is one of the admissions representatives at the Academy who approached us to pose for the club.


What was curiously interesting was the way she kept her mouth slightly open throughout the session. I liked it because the expression in her mouth and eyes added something more to an otherwise simple head study, as if she is actively engaged in a conversation, with or without spoken words from her—an element of storytelling. At the same time, the way she “posed” her mouth could easily be interpreted as a mildly angry expression. As I look at the finished painting, I could read both sides of the story.


Her long, dark hair (so intensely dark it almost looked blue) provided a strong frame for her face as well as high contrast against her skin tone.

Lisette, 18"x14" oil on linen

Lisette teaches various communications classes at the Academy.

This was her second time posing for the club. As she had already experienced the difficulties of posing in the previous session (and this was a Friday evening after a long day's work), she became fatigued rather quickly midway through the session. Rather than keep asking her to hold her head straight, I decided to just paint her appearance the way I remembered it from the beginning of the session.


I think that approach might have sacrificed the exact likeness in the superficial sense of the painting. On the other hand, I was pleased to see the result, which showed a structurally solid appearance while capturing the essence of Lisette with subtle color variations on her face.

Alexis, 18"x14" oil on linen

Alexis is the career services coordinator at the Academy, working to help the students find employment.


A few days before the session, I asked her if she would like to bring any kind of simple prop for the session: hat, scarf, jewelry, etc. She brought a handsome blue scarf that she dyed herself. After seeing her put the blue scarf on her head, I hung a comparably intense red drapery for the background.


I started the painting with thin wash of abstract color pattern that would suggest the red background and balance against the blue in the foreground. It would also serve to "anchor" her head on the canvas. Unlike the painting of Ellen the previous week, I decided to keep the background to the minimum; I didn't alter or add much to the initial wash pattern. During the final few minutes of the session, I simply suggested the contour of her shoulders by carefully shaping the negative space created by the red background above and the white of the bare canvas.

Ellen, 18"x14" oil on linen

Ellen teaches various art history classes at the Academy.



What was both interesting and challenging in painting her was her prominent and clear-cut, bold features, especially her large eyes. I didn't want her features to overly dominate or give a harsh feel to the painting. But at the same time, I had to be careful not to soften her appearance too much.



I liked the way her hair flowed forward in front of her right shoulder while the other side disappeared behind her left shoulder, which added the sense of depth to the painting.



After the session was over, I added a pattern of background color from the red-violet drapery behind her.

Spiro II, 16"x16", Oil on linen

As Spiro sat to pose for the group, I asked him if he could pose like this:
but we thought he would have a hard time holding the pose, so we settled with a more conventional pose.

Unlike the last painting of him, this painting shows the less serious and more lively appearance of the Spiro that we know.

Tom II, 16"x12" oil on linen

Tom arrived in the classroom about 20 minutes late, with a half-eaten pizza still in his mouth. I was concerned that the shortened session would make it difficult for the students to finish the painting. Becoming frustrated by waiting for him, one student packed up her painting set and went home just before Tom took the pose.

We all agreed that any club member who is in his class should be excused for turning in their mid-term project late.


For this painting, I used a mixture of terra rosa and viridian to pre-tone the Belgian linen that I prepared with rabbit skin glue and three coats of lead-white ground.


My intention was to finish the painting with a vignette around his neck with a thin wash of color that would faintly suggest the extension of neck and shoulder. At the end of the session, Tom lingered about and kept asking me if I would paint his neck. I obliged. He sat back in the chair for two more minutes after the session so that I could finish blocking in his neck.


While the last painting of him had a bit of a serious look in the face, he looks pensive, even melancholy, in this painting. Also, he turned out to be looking younger and more trim, with a couple of pounds missing from his face. He didn't complain.

Natalie, 18"x14" oil on canvas

I started this painting with a watercolor-like wash of green, just enough to suggest the background color. Because of the massive and free-flowing hair that hid much of the contour of her head, I decided the painting was best approached with a mass block-in rather than a precise line drawing. So, first, I laid down the large shape of her dark hair, then I moved on with other large shapes of light and dark.

The painting seems to reflect her expression of awkwardness from posing for the first time in front of an attentive crowd of painters.

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