Last night I painted in Franklin, TN and this is my study of Becka. The lighting was dramatic, shadowing her eyes. She has wonderful pouty lips which were fun to paint. I need to lighten up the background to make this a stronger painting. I was a little challenged because I had my canvas reversed and I was painting on an unprimed surface. Guess I was really in a hurry. Being the optimist that I am, I realized that this forced me to use more paint. I'll make sure I have my canvas on the primed side in the future though--much easier!

This is the same model painted previously. Her hair color was different.


I thought a little motivation was in order so I posted several of my head studies from the Monday night sessions. I really like it, I can look up and see years of head studies and hopefully some progression in the right direction.

More studies and I still have room on the other side for new ones!

Last Monday night we were delighted to paint Roxie. I've painted her many times in the past and she does such a good job. I do see Roxie's likeness in this study but there's something not quite right. . . maybe if I had three more hours I might figure it out! It did seem like I had lots and lots of time with the 3 hours when you compare to the 5,10,15. . .30 minute sketches last week. Oh well, practice, practice and practice more.

This is my Dad. I have decided to sketch him each time I visit him, if possible. I have a special sketch book just for him. He was a very good model tonight, I was able to capture him watching "funniest videos". This is about a 30 minute sketch, I wish now that I had just used charcoal but this is the first sketch of many. I think his nose is a little big and a few other errors but it does look like him (a little?).

I've been away for a few days, had to escape the cold and relax while visiting my dear friend Sandy. So I went to sunny Florida to hear the sound of the ocean waves gently hitting the lovely white beaches . . .

then returning to a winter storm watch with snow and ice brrrrrrrrr!

Erin was our lovely model for the last Monday night open model session that I attended a couple of weeks ago. My camera battery died so this pose is off a little from my painting but it's close.