Mike-

I knew catchlights in eyes would come up pretty fast.

Daniel Greene tells of painting $5.00 portraits as a teenager on the beach boardwalk in Florida, and when he'd drop in the catchlights, anyone watching would invariably go "Oooooooooh..."

Reflected light
 

What a fun topic Tom! I love to paint reflected light. I love how that thin slice of color, and it doesn't matter what color, just makes the features pop. I have to stop myself from adding it too early in a painting, and have a tendency to make them too light. And, like Beth, I enjoy painting the tip of the nose.

Renee Price

Lips
 

Eyelashes and lips actually,

I guess like all little girls, I like to put the lipstick on. Really, just painting the lips is the icing on the cake for me. Lip shapes are invariably so subtle and unique and make all the difference. We all know what Sargent said....

The eyelashes, what little of them we're allowed to apply and still keep a respectable woman respectable, are my next favorite part of a painting. The tendency to overdo, of course is my problem.

Miss you Tom!!

The eyes have it.
 

The eyes are nit pickers heaven. So much going on in such a small space. I especially like the area between the eye and the eye brow.

Old, wrinkled faces with expressive eyes!

I love faces with wrinkles, since the more wrinkled a face is, the more it seems to tell a story of a lifetime. The shift of the wrikles (laugh lines at the corner of the eyes, or frown lines at the brow) are all an indication of the individual's persona and the environment they have lived in.

The eyes are the gateway to the person's soul, just giving me another clue about who the individual really is. Each gaze is different and tells volumes.

I don't know what it is. One would say that working on wrinkles can be rather tedious, but time stands still as I develop this love affair with very old strangers. There is this connection, which I just don't get painting any other subject matter.

If you like to know what I mean look at "Old Man" or "The Tibetan Lady" on my site http://members.cox.net/artenzie

My favorites change all the time. Right now it's big bellies. Loving the big pregnant one I am doing. I remember painting a nude in college who was pregnant. She had a tattoo on her hip that had stretched up onto her belly. She was very overweight also. All that flesh was fun to paint. I do enjoy the hair as well. It's the fastest, most immediataly satisfying part for me.

Interesting all.

What about fabrics, accessories, environment? Ingres obviously had a thing for satin.

I love to paint chair cushions. Don't know why. Something about the way they form when someone sits in them, the welting and construction etc. It's a purely arbitrary and personal thrill.

I also had a nice interlude with a string of pearls a few weeks ago.

Go figure.

Tom, I'll be having an interlude with a string of pearls soon. Do you have any tips?

Sure, Michele--

Don't overmodel them. Sometimes they have more luster if you let the brush do the work, and don't overblend. See Sargent. Keep them loose and goosey and you'll have more fun; turn them into an anal rendering exercise and you'll have hand cramps and feel like it's a season in purgatory. Less is more.

You can basically knock in the whole pearl with a medium gray, contour slightly with a reflected light near the bottom that has a cast of the local color they're resting on, and finish with a dab of off white for the highlight. Don't over-contrast values within them. And don't forget some hint of adjacent cast shadow to ground them.

See, I told you it's a Guilty Pleasure.

Thanks, Tom! Sounds like fun -- now I'm looking forward to doing them.