ahhhh... back to the live drawings

I lament the fact that at one point I was drawing from the figure twice a week and now am down to twice a month.  Not good enough!  Not by a long shot.  Anyhoo, here are the gestures of Sara from last night.  They may be the best thing I did...

Lost edges and large shadows

Love so much about this.  Wish I had gotten to the face or just left her headless.

Next phase of the painting

Just one more base pass with the washes and I'll be able to start in on the fun stuff and drop the flag back and push the face.  This went from an oil portrait to an illustration pretty quickly.  I was thinking I wanted to do a Nicolai Fechin type painting but started feeling the pull of a James Bama look.  Now don't get me wrong, I'm only talking about the feel not the actual finish or technique 'cause that ain't 'bout to happen!  I also had to think about the audience that this piece is intended for and I think it'll have appeal.  That being said I'm kinda excited about where this and the other two pieces are headed.

Long pose from the last session

Looks like our model got pretty relaxed for this pose.

Progression of painting

  I took the previous sketch to a tight drawing

 then to a first pass of oil washes

and then to this, a second pass of oil wash.0

Comp study for upcoming painting

I need to get three pieces done and this is (for the moment) the first of them.  Old reference but I'm gonna try a different (for me) approach.  Hope to have fun with this.

Longer poses

With a small group we went for longer drawings.  Not sure it shows in this one but I had fun looking a bit closer at the work and taking a bit more time.