Applying Lessons to Portraits II

March 28, 2022mayhewjnm 3 Comments

One of my major painting goals for 2022 is to paint from life as much as possible.

After my enjoyable sessions at the live portrait group in Pennsylvania, where I simplified the process by using only the Zorn palette (yellow ochre, cadmium red, ivory black and titanium white) plus transparent red oxide, I decided to concentrate on using the Zorn palette for more portrait practice this year.

I returned to photos that I took in Nov 2019, when I asked family members to sit for me for an hour at a time during the week of my birthday and I painted 11 x 14 portrait sketches using water-mixable oils:

Now, in 2022, I’ve repainted from these photographs using a 3-step process:

Charcoal drawing
Oil color study
Finished oil portrait

1. Charcoal Drawing

Charcoal study from photo above, 6 x 8 ins

2. Oil Color Study

Oil Study painted from photo above, 6 x 8 ins

3. Finished Portrait

Portrait, 9 x 12 ins, oil on canvas board

Applying Lessons to Portraits I

March 9, 2022March 24, 2022mayhewjnm 1 Comment

I decided to apply the lessons I’d learned from the live portrait group to some work at home.

Sadly, I did not have a live model anymore (working on ideas to find some!), but I revisited the time when I did have live models sit for me, during my birthday week of 2019 (one of my birthday wishes).

This is the one hour painting (water mixable oils on green-toned 11 x 14 canvas), and the photo I took at the end of that sitting.

I started the 2022 session with a charcoal drawing from the photo above, 6 x 8 ins.

Then I painted two studies using the Zorn palette, plus Transparent Red Oxide. 6×8 ins each, oil on canvas

I used all that information and practice to paint this final portrait.
9 x 12 ins, oil on canvas board.
I was pleased to see some progress over the last two years!

Eye studies

July 14, 2021July 14, 2021mayhewjnm Leave a comment

At the suggestion of my teacher, Kari Rajkumar, http://www.karirajkumar.com, I painted these eye studies. I used free use images from http://www.unsplash.com

They are both oil paintings, 4 x 6 ins. The green eye is lit from below, the blue eye from the front. It was a thoroughly enjoyable exercise!

I have always found eyes fascinating. How can living tissue form a transparent optical material? The process of perceiving color and value and transforming that into a readable, meaningful image has seemed wonderful to me. How can cells fmake an adjustable focus lens? These were some of the reasons that led me to pursue a training and qualification in Optometry. (The others were the Ah-ha moment when I first put on glasses to correct my short-sightedness at age nine, and the benefit I received from contact lenses as a teenager).

Now I am appreciating eyes from a different viewpoint!