Self Portrait- Now in Technicolor!

I painted this self portrait in 1 hour before I went to work today. I was inspired by the words of my artist friend Danielle Gosselin who once remarked on the lack of bright colors in most of my paintings. I'm glad I took the advice, this was a lot of fun.

Acrylic on canvas panel. 11"x14".

Colors: Ultramarine Blue, Phthalo Green Yellow Shade, Azo Yellow Medium, Quinacridone Red, Titanium White

The Spillway, or Knife Fight II

Due to the unusually warm weather up here in the northeast, I traveled to a neighboring town with a good friend of mine for some outdoor painting. We took a dirt road to a lovely pond in a rather secluded area and set up (We apparently thwarted the intimate plans of several couples who drove up at different times and upon seeing us, quickly left).
As I was setting up my box easel at the small spillway at the edge of the pond I realized that I had forgotten to pack my brushes. Thankfully I brought my palette knife, which I used for the entirety of the painting. It was definitely an interesting challenge, especially figuring out the order of placing strokes to retain the proper edges. Here is the fruit of my labors:

Oil on panel.

Sargent oil sketch

Another quick Sargent mastercopy in oil. Colors: Ultramine Deep, Perm. Red Medium, Cadmium Yellow Pale, Titanium White.

My Progenitors

Ballpoint pen on paper.

Gouache Landscape

Practice from a random photo reference via the internet. Acrylic gouache on paper.

Portrait Sketch of Felicia

Another portrait I painted at the Palette & Chisel. Unfortunately I only have one shot of it in process.

 

The block in.

 

The final result. Oil on canvas panel.

Process: Portrait of Misha

The following are process shots from an oil portrait I painted at the Palette & Chisel in when I recently visited Chicago.

Time: 5 hrs. 

Colors: Titanium White, Yellow Ochre Pale, Permanent Red Medium, Terra Rosa, Alizarin Permanent, Ultramarine Blue Deep, Cerulean Blue, Transparent Oxide Red. 

 

Looking for the large pattern of light and dark to establish form. Not terribly concerned about color at this point, just value and color temperature.

I threw in the general color and value of the shirt. I decided to start locking down the nose/mouth area and work my way out from there, making careful comparisons as I go on.

I got rid of the white of the canvas with some thin washes and wiped out/'fogged the areas on the left and continued to work carefully, stroke by stroke from the right side of the face.

Restated the shoulders to better express the model's gesture.

I used a palette knife to apply paint to the back ground and to place the head against the background. This helped to prevent those edges from getting too sharp.

The final result.