Portrait Group!!

    Arthur

I'm pretty psyched.  After doing a painting demo at a neighboring art association, I was invited to join a portrait group down in Massachusetts.  It meets once a week, the fee is very nominal, and we all take turns providing, or being, the model.  There are some fine, and experienced painters in the group, and I am really excited about this opportunity to practice this skill. It's an area I am very inexperienced in, and it simply takes lots of work, and effort, and TIME to see improvement.  

Today was my first time there, and I thought I should start out with a monochrome study, to make myself see values and structure. Remember, "values do the work, but color gets the credit".  I was so tempted to work in color - there was some really nice color temperature contrasts going on, but I stuck to my guns and worked in

monochrome. 

Today's model was Arthur, the husband of one of the ladies. He was really quite pleasant, in spite of the somber expression I somehow managed to capture.  There's about 2 hours of painting time in there.

I'll post these exercises whenever I go down to the class.  It's an exercise in humility as much as anything, because I have so much to learn.. but maybe it will be a nice yardstick of progress. I can only hope!

What will be really great is if I can look back at these 6 months from now and say, "Oh my gosh, those were AWFUL!" 

practice practice practice!