Winning!

 

 I'm taking Sean Cheetham's Monday night at the Los Angeles Academy of Figurative Art.  I've learned so much already. We paint from a live model and we create a new painting each week. Painting is really about having an accurate drawing first.  Sean's method is amazing because it makes sense, and is organized.  He develops the images from dark to light values.  He first thinly tones the canvas, sketches in a thin outline of the person in front of him in thinned paint.  Sean first marks the top of the face, the chin, the sides of the face, then places the eyes, continuing with the nose and out from there.  After the face is thinly outlined in, Sean mixes the beginning of his mud-palette.  First he puts in the darkest darks and after that Sean moves on to the shadow-side flesh tones.  He mixes those from the darkest dark mixture (mud). Once the shadows are in, Sean moves on to using alizarin crimson in the eyelids, nose, lips, and ears then the background gets blocked in.  After adjust for cooler or warmer shadows and painting them in, Sean develops the halftones by adjusting the light mud color.  Highlights are last.  Whites of the eyes are not usually actually white.    I am working on my drawing skills more now and look forward to creating many paintings using this organized method.

 

20x26 oil on canvas panel

 



Look but Don't Touch

This was a fun painting I did in a similar style as one of my favorite painters from Spain.  Lots of hidden messages here.  I felt the banner was a bit Frieda Kahlo-ish.  There will be words in Spanish or French on the banner that will say something like "touch at your own risk", or "love is a battleground" - wait!  That's a song!  Possibly the title could be "my love is my weapon" - not a good message to put out in the Universe, so that one might not work (someone else's idea).  Maybe "proceed with caution" would be a good title.  Anyway, I'm going to put the constellation of pisces formation in the sky, in the background.  The butterflies are not yet painted in, as is the gun, or her face.  It was a practice painting and her body is a bit long, there's not alot of detail yet, but it's a work in progress.  Enjoy!  I think going forward I'll paint couples instead of females alone.  That's another Universe thing.  :)  In this case I used M. Graham water soluable oil paints and walnut oil.  Very nice.

 

24x30 Graham water soluable oil on gallery wrapped canvas

 



Sean Cheetham's Class at LAAFA

After coveting Sean Cheetham's work I finally have the opportunity to take his class at the Los Angeles Academy of Figurative Art (LAAFA).  Sean is organized, has a specific process, sees lines naturally where I have to hold up a ruler diagonally, and is just an amazing fluid painter of portraits.  I'm thrilled to take his class and really want to do well.  I need more time to paint and practice. This weekend I'm hunkering down and making practice time happen!  Here's Sean's demo from the first day of class and his pallette.