Portrait demo in San Angelo

 

I wasn't prepare doing a portrait demo in San Angelo. It was cold and windy, but many demo artists were brave and painting in the cold wind. I decided to take it easy. I stayed indoors and did this portrait. The light was not ideal for a portrait, but it was interesting. I did a monochrome so I was able to concentrate on drawing and value only without worrying I might not have enough time to finish. My hand was rusty, but the result was not bad.

"Chinese Eyes"

The Novel Coronavirus has devastated my home country, and been threatening the whole world. So far my mother is doing fine in Beijing. Besides the inconvenience of going out, she is all right. I don't know what to do. So I painted this.

"Head Study 020919"

Today's head study is relatively more challenge, I can not play the light and shadow game on this one, and the perspective is not easy either.  I am happy that the model has strong features on her nose and mouth. I am rather weak in painting the nose and mouth area, I have got a chance today to practice. The entire process of today's painting was a struggle, but result was not too bad. Man! I wish I can do head studies everyday.

"Head Study 020819"

I have done a few "head studies" after I got back home. I did not show all of them. They are kind of boring, and full of problems. This is what I did today. It is relatively good. The nose has some minor issues, and I did not have time to do the ear. I will say I have reached the mediocre level of portrait painting. The face looks close to normal human being now. At this moment, I won't say there is much of art in my head studies, because I still concentrate only on how to copy the face accurately, I have not give much of thought about design and composition. I just try to avoid anatomic, proportional, and perspective mistakes. That is all.

"Head Study 011919"

Obviously, I did not do a good job on my yesterday's painting, but I went to Whole Food and found myself a bowl of Chicken Noodle soup. It was delicious. I went to live painting again this morning. It happen to be the same model. I did better I think.

"Head Study 011819"

Today, I have really experienced how a starving artist feels. Due to a bad toothache, I hardly ate anything for a few days. I felt very hungry today. I wanted to go today's noon to 3:00 live painting, but I better find a bowl of soup (that is only thing I can eat) before I start to paint. I left a little early and stopped by 3 places: a Burger King, a HEB (grocery store), and a Jersey Mike's Subs. Man! nobody offers a bowl of soup. I was starving and arrived at the painting place late. I did all right. The painting has some problems. I finished this painting with some warm water and a tablet of ibuprofen.

"Head Study 011419"

My obsession of portrait painting keeps on going. I went to life painting again yesterday. We had the same model, with whom I did "Head Study 010719" a week ago. I can see I am getting better noticeably (Don't you agree). I am much faster now, and start to have a procedure on how to paint accurate head studies. I don't want emphasize "loose" or "painterly" effects on this kind of studies. Portrait painting is totally different ball game relative to still life and landscape paintings. I also want to stay in this monochromatic scheme for a while until I really get anatomy of human face nailed.

"Head Study 011219"

Gush! I am obsessed with portrait painting now. I painted this one this morning. I am working on two things in my head studies: solidity of the head form and anatomy of facial structure. I have done three head studies this week and have seen progresses. I hope I can have more time on this path. Wish me luck please.

"Head Study 011119"

I think I have got Alzheimer's now. I went to life painting again this afternoon. I thought I got everything I need, but when I arrived at painting location, I found I forgot to bring the brushes I like, I did not have a palette knife. I have not a container to hold mineral spirit. I even forgot to bring the tripod that hold my easel. (Well, after the painting session, I found my tripod was in my car, but I have absolutely no memory that I had brought it). I had to borrow a palette knife and managed to finish. The painting turns out all right.

"Head Study 010719"

I went to portrait painting yesterday. This was my very first painting of 2019. Rusty hand with rusty colors.

"Demo at Lindale 2018 4" --- Sold

My true love in art is painting portrait and figures. All of my still life learning has been aimed toward to paint human well. I was teaching a workshop at Lindale Texas last month, and I did this demo at the last day of the workshop. We had a great model Megan. It was so wonderful painting this study.

"Demo at Hinckley 2017 3"

My Hinckley workshop was arranged uniquely. First day still life, second day landscape, and third day portrait. This is my portrait demo. These a few years, I have not concentrated on developing my portrait skills. However, painting human is my true love. I hope someday I can have time working on anatomy systematically. I am confident I can be a good figurative painter, but I much across my own learning curve.

“Head Study 081217"

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Since I am in the portrait mode, I will do more studies to see if I can improve a little. I did this one the day after I did the previous head study, but at different location. I documented what I have done with this two paintings, and figured out what I should present on the portrait day of my forthcoming workshop. I plan to stay with monochrome a while for my head studies.

"Head Study 081117"

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Coming back from Pennsylvania. I had about two weeks at home before my next workshop trip. Since the next workshop I need to demonstrate how I paint portrait, I needed to warm up and prepare a little. I have not painted human face from quite a long time. So I did this study. I used only transparent oxide red and naples yellow light. The monochrome approach allowed me to concentrate on the forms and features of the face. I was kind of happy for the turn out of this painting.

"Head Study at Putney"

After my workshop ended, I painted with the Putney painters on the Saturday, Oct 29. It was a portrait painting day. We had a great model Scott. I have not painted portrait for a long time. As a matter of fact this is only my 2nd head study I did in 2016. I felt really rusty.

Unfortunately, I did not see Richard Schmid that day, but I was so happy seeing Nancy Guzik, Carol Arnold, Kathy Anderson, Stephanie Birdsall, Mark Boedges, Rosemary Ladd, John Smith, and quite a few other artists. I was so enjoyed Putney. What a legendary place it is.

“Head Study 052715"

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I did this head study last night. I felt happy about it. It is 4th head study of the year. The progress is noticeable. I paid attention to the solidity of the head. I can't wait to paint my next one next week.

This week,  I have been working in my garage since my studio is not large enough. I am working on 4 large painting simultaneously. I have the feeling that I am a real full time painter now. Of course, I have been working full time for my art about four years now, but I have not had this kind of concentration before. Somehow I feel this kind ideal working condition will end soon. I really treasure this luxury.

"Head Study 052115"

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I am having a great time these a few days. You can see I am painting everything: plein air, still life, and portrait. I am investigating and learning like a sponge. This is the thing I really want to do. I don't care much about establish a name and making a lot of money. What I really care to do is painting itself. I want to paint well.

I went to portrait painting last night. Our model had a long day and felt very tired. She hardly could keep her eyes open. So I concentrated on her nose and mouth. I used only raw umber and white for this painting. I don't worry about color. To accurately present her facial features was my objective.

"Head Study 051415"

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Coming back from Ann Arbor, I finally feel I can relax for a relatively long period of time. My next workshop teaching will be in middle of June. So I can stay at home for more than a month. What a luxury I am having. I can paint and study in my own pace.

I went to live painting yesterday. Having not paint human faces for a quite a long time, (this is my 2nd head study of the year) I feel really rusty. Not long from now, I need to involve portray painting into my workshop teaching. So I really need to do more this kind of studies to improve my portrait skills.

"Head Study 020415"

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Life is a roll of toilet paper. When it close to the end, it goes really fast. I don't know why I become so inefficient nowadays. Coming back from San Miguel for about a week now, but I have not got any chance to paint. I have been so busy all the time, but busy for what, I have no idea. Our life has been invaded by so many junks. I look at my roll of toilet paper. It gets thiner and thiner everyday. I feel anxious every time when I go to the bathroom.

This study was done right before I went to Mexico. I really need to work on my portrait and figures. I have some workshops this year, I need to teach portrait painting. If I don't practice, I don't think I can do a good job.

"Demo at Whidbey Island 2014 4" --- Sold

My workshop at Whidbey Island was 4-day. Upon on the request, I did this portrait demo from live on the last day. I have not painted portraits for a while. I was a little nervous at the beginning, but the result turned out OK. Everybody has enjoyed this demo.