gestures

worked out why I'm enjoying these 'more than a face' portraits:  how shoulders, hands, stance etc create a gesture or mannerism that offers other ways into the character of the person painted.

 And yes, the hands and feet are meant to be bigger.  Something I've been messing around with at life drawing and seemed to be the right way to go with Lesley (tho still changing my mind about the clothing)

elastic time

painted two things today.  Each took a similar amount of time:  beginning the second of my 'mask' series, and working on tones and chroma in the Jim portrait. Fast, slow? Or just the nature of different stages of a piece.  Mmmm.

Lesley from Life and Pix

Wednesdays at 4ish I head to Gap Rd where the lovely Lesley has agreed to sit for me: I'm relishing the opportunity of painting mainly from life (with some prep work and other bits and pieces between sessions).
I played with a small head on board last week, then messed around at home with chino graph pencils, then turps, then oil pastels, then more turps, to, as it were, find my way around her head.  I want to have a full length sitting pose, so took a couple of shots before I left and worked out a sketch idea that I'll take with me this Wednesday and see where we go from there.  The equally lovely Stella Spaniel+ will, I think, become an integral part of the piece (she can't quite believe her luck of having her head scratched for a whole hour at a time . . .)

views

little bits of progress

working on lower part of face next (mouth and chin mainly)

moving along but still in portrait zone

Nearly there with young Bean . . . had to move the right hand ear, lips, chin and eye a bit. Still work to do on the eye and other things, but shape and tones are happening now.

 After the 'frames' series a little while ago, I'm  back with the idea of portraits that don't do what we might expect them to (reveal a character etc) but rather hide, obscure or otherwise frustrate the viewer's view.  Now masks . . . there's an angle:  expecting to put some of the following into the limelight sometime soon too . . . diver's helmet, WW2 flying goggles, Venetian half mask, balaclava . . .

edging

Decision time now with the rest (tho face not finished yet):  painting the arms will happen, but what to do with the clothing and background:  tidy up but keep it sketch sienna, paint in flat blocks of colour (cf russian icon style), work up clothing in a similar but looser way than face and put a vista background (from Anzac Hill) behind like with a bunch of Renaissance portraits.  O decisions decisions.  Nice to have so many.