Burlesketch Drawings

Hope that everyone had a wonderful Thanksgiving!
Here are some paintings and sketches that were done during my burlesketch sessions.
Enjoy!!

            This particular night we had an artist participating who wanted to do a painting of the pose.
Typically the poses are only 15 to 20 min long so we all had to sort of improvise and figure out ways to make the most of having only one 2 hour pose instead. I first did a quick sketch of the model so that I could get a feel for the pose.

                        After the initial sketch I then did a mixed media painting using whatever I had in my backpack. ( I didn't really have many painting tools in my backpack since I wasn't anticipating having to do a longer pose) This piece was done using pencil, ink, watercolor pencils, watercolors and colored pencils.

    The next week we were back to our 15-20 minute poses . I like working quickly though, it gives the piece a bit of urgency and also keeps the lines fluid.

A Portrait Drawing and a Painting of Spring

Well I had yet another unexpected day off today. (a result of our tourist season being over with here) I'm sad to not be earning as much money, but grateful for the time to work on my artwork.
Today I worked on a portrait that I have been commissioned to do of a woman's grandson. She just wanted a simple drawing.
I must confess, I haven't done a portrait like this in a very long time. ( or a basic pencil drawing for that matter! )  It felt sort of weird at first, but then ( just as with all of my art) I felt the momentum growing and the interest in the piece as well. I still have a little bit more defining to do, but I'm pretty happy with him at this point.

                                     Something about his eyes hints at the mischievous don't they?

Once I got this far with him, I took the time to work on my painting of Spring for my four seasons series. ( to see Summer, go here) I still have about 2 hours worth of work to do on her, but she's also at a point that I'm pretty happy with. I've been enjoying the challenge of painting flowers like this. Next will be Autumn, where the challenge will be painting leaves. Fun!

      This particular photo was taken with my phone, so I apologize for the crappy photo quality! 
Hoping to have time to write another blog post tomorrow. Until then, have a wonderful night!

Gurney on Sargent

One of my favorite modern day illustrators, James Gurney, recently had this blog post. I found it so interesting and inspiring that I wanted to share it with my followers as well. Enjoy!


John Singer Sargent traveled to America in 1890, he went painting with Frederick S. Pratt, an amateur painter and founding trustee of the Worcester Art Museum.


Luckily for us, Pratt wrote down what Sargent had to say about painting methods.

“Choose simple subjects, near objects at first. Do not try to make a pretty picture so much as to render truthful effects. Paint over the whole canvas with colors approximating the masses so as to obscure [sic--did he mean establish?] relations of tones while working—when finishing, ‘paint into paint’ when possible and in portraits, paint around the features in detail, using small brushes rarely.


“Always use a full brush and a larger one than necessary. Paint with long sweeps, avoiding spots and dots (‘little dabs’). Never think of other painter’s pictures or how some one else would treat a subject but follow your own choice of colors with exact fidelity to nature.”

This was quoted from the new book John Singer Sargent:Figures and Landscapes