From now on, my blog posts will be published on http://www.marymayhewfineart.com
Please join me there if you’d like to follow what I’m working on!
If I can figure out how to import my previous blog posts to the new site, they may appear there sometime in the future. For now, the WordPress site is still open, but I will not be adding to it.
I have been doing these studies to work on drawing & value accuracy.
They are shown in the order that I painted them, left to right, top to bottom.
Numbers 1, 5, 6, 8, and 10 are copies of Masterpaintings; the others are painted from photographs, either mine, or from http://www.Unsplash.com
Most of them are in oil paint; # 8 &9 are in gouache.
This has been very instructive and helpful. I like seeing the progress through them. I know that I’ve become more accurate in my drawing, as I can do a check using the Procreate app on my ipad; I overlay my drawing at a reduced opacity on the masterpainting or photo, and can see how they line up (or don’t!). I’m making fewer adjustments for the later paintings.
This painting was awarded Third Place in Oil Painting at the River City Art Association Annual Juried Show in August.
12 x 16, oil paint on linen panel.
Our Plein Air group from the Fall of 2024 decided to go indoors for Nov-April, and practice drawing or painting people from life. In the absence of a paid model (we’d still like one!), we have been taking turns to portray each other.
We sit for each other for 35 minutes each, thus my sketches above were done in 35 minutes. We usually achieve 3 models in our 2.5 hour time. It’s a great opportunity to experiment; I’ve tried different surfaces, different ground colors, different paint color combinations, and different application methods.
I moved from brush to palette knife, mainly because the knife is quicker and cleaner. It works OK for getting down the basic values and colors, but I prefer the brushes overall.
We started the first couple of weeks with an immobile, silent model, but it was so quiet that we all felt sleepy! We decided to have the model free to talk, and move slightly—it became much more interesting and enjoyable for all of us!
From April onwards we have been alternating indoor work like this and plein air work around the town. I appreciate having a group of artist who show up to paint and draw together.
This continued to be an informative and valuable course. I found the instruction and the feedback to be excellent.
Week 4 was some work on 2 value heads:
Then some work on Eyes in week 5:
After learning to see and construct the head and facial structure we moved on to drawing the shapes in two values, still using basic shapes, no features yet.
At a local Life Drawing lesson in the Spring the instructor had materials from LoveLifeDrawing.com.
I was impressed with the straight-forward breakdown of difficult concepts (how to draw a live figure), so I looked at the website and worked on the ‘Fresh Eyes Challenge’.
This Fall, I saw LoveLifeDrawing was offering a new Portrait Course. This fit with my goals, so I joined the ‘study group’. This costs a monthly fee that pays for all courses as long as you are a member. The teacher is called Kenzo and he’s in the UK.
It was a great course! The subject was broken down into manageable steps, and the site has lots of opportunity for sharing your work and progress, plus an excellent system for receiving video feedback once a week. The course was on live Zoom calls, with real-time questions encouraged.
Two or three times a month there is a live ‘Co-drawing’ session for 90 minutes each time. We all draw 5 minute and 15 minute poses/portraits and then can hold up our work for immediate feedback.
This painting was recently awarded People’s Choice Award at our RCAA member Show in Marshall, IL, at the Gaslight Art Colony. The Show is over, but this painting is still on display there until the end of December.
It’s the first time I’ve received a People’s Choice Award, and I’m delighted!
This painting was awarded First Place in Oil Painting at the Wabash Valley Art Guild Spring Show in May 2024.
I took the photo 3 weeks after she had been bitten in the face by a dog, in which she lost part of her lower lip and now had a significant scar down her chin. She was five at the time, and has been a real trooper about the ordeal.
I think the painting was my own therapy, to celebrate her continued beauty and character even after such an unpleasant event.
This was from a screenshot I took of myself, while waiting during a video call. I liked the colors, and the different-than-usual head position.
marymayhewart 