Grumpy old lady
 

Well, it was long past time to do some painting from life, but the only person I could get to sit was this crabby lady. I'll give her credit - she hardly spoke at all and I got her for peanuts. I should probably put her in critiques, but it was just a quick exercise and I won't be fussing with it any more. It has been pointed out to me that I have commissions waiting...

Hope you like her! Janet

Peanuts and Artists
 

Well, I like her a lot! Well, I'd have to guess...let's see...she eats peanuts and she hardly spoke. Now, can she paint, too? Then why is she grumpy? :thumbsup:

Thanks for looking, Carol. I think she's just grumpy at me. I started to paint her with an enigmatic knowing half-smile, but when it turned into a smirk I wiped it off her face. She's been eating peanuts at me ever since. Good heavens it's hard to find good help. Thanks again, Janet.

Grumpy? I think your love for the person has lifted her spirits on the painting! I like the flow of greens and oranges on the face, notwithstanding the contrasts both colors can make!
:thumbsup:

Hi Marcus. Yeah, green is definitely my colour, the rosy cheeks and nose I inherited. What I'd give for an alabaster complexion... :bewildere

I think she looks pretty good, Janet. If this is what you look like when you're grumpy, you must look great smiling! Very nice values and colors, by the way. I think you should keep painting from life; I can already see an amazing difference and your innate talent is emerging in an awesome way.

Alex

Hi Janet, I think you have done a great job here and your model is a real keeper. ;) Working from life will improve one's brushwork, sharpen drawing skills, and help form a definite opinion about style. I see all this happening in your work which keeps getting better and better. It takes a lot of guts to post a self portrait from life and I admire you so much for doing this.

Alex and Linda: you guys are just way too nice. Imagine saying something wonderful about the paintING, the paintER and the paintED all in the space of a couple of short sentences. Pretty awesome!
Painting from life really is another species, isn't it? I had an inkling of it when I took a photo of a still life set-up to continue painting from while not at home. I honestly didn't feel I could do it, that the photo and the reality were just too far apart. And this was just inanimate objects. I guess now I'll have to start paying people to spend time with me.
As far as "guts" are concerned, not really. Anyway, it was the first couple of postings that took guts.
Thanks, all.
Janet

Oh, I really like this. I love the colors and the skin tones. It's very fresh. Great job!

Thanks Kim! I like the colours too, even though there are drawing problems all over. Thanks for looking in. Janet

Great job Janet!

I missed this one.

I like this one so much better than the ones you have done from photos. It has life and energy and it's own personal style. Don't worry about the mistakes. Just do lots of them ( self portraits-not mistakes). David Leffel does at least one of himself every year. According to one gallery owner I talked to in Carmel California, it is an honor for a gallery to be granted the right to sell that year's portrait. I have my own opinion on that particular subject.

It is so much better to work extensively from life, even if it is a still life of peanuts, before launching into a portrait career.

Two books I would recommend are "The Practice and Science of Drawing" and Oil Painting Techniques and Materials", both by Harold Speed and published by Dover Editions, available at www.amazon.com.

Too many aspiring portrait artist begin their careers copying photographs and assume once their copy is close to the photograph, they are a skilled portrait artist. Nothing could be further from the truth.

Oh Sharon, thanks so much for your encouragement and unfailing good advice. I have come to so many realizations over the last year and a half about this painting stuff. I am drawing a little bit from life (it's hard to find agreeable models and I do get tired of myself!) and I am painting quite a lot of still lifes and landscapes. I would never dream of taking a photo of the still lifes and painting from it, that would be so difficult... And the landscapes, although they are from photos, I still find myself hiking back to the locations at the same time of day to look at it again and again, as the photos all lie, lie, lie.

So the still lives and landscapes have taught me a lot about painting portraits. And the copying of a photo: the trees have to be tree-ish and that can only come from me; the pears have to be pear-ish and that can only come from me. Yep, the old grouch is learning!

Janet,

I have seen your landscapes on other sites. They are beautiful.

I have to admit that I am a really dreadful lanscape painter, haven't a clue.

Sweet of you to say, Sharon. And odd for me to hear... I painted my first landscape last spring and much to my surprise I seem to do an okay job. Maybe you should give it another shot - you could surprise yourself the way I surprised me. And the research process is like a holiday at a 4 star resort: shlepping around field and forest, blissed-out on nature with a happy dog in tow (or a good horse underneath). A positive lifestyle choice IMHO :) :) :)