Stacy Weitz Minch

Copy drawing after a portrait study by Michelangelo. I like how he downplayed the shadows and focused on the form of the features. I was trying to be a little more careful about the direction of my lines, attempting to follow the form like he does (though he was using a softer black chalk, so there's definitely a different feel). Such a beautiful drawing.

4x6", oil on linen mounted to hardboard Quick sketch of a wild rose I clipped from a bush in our backyard. I've started keeping a cigar box loaded with paint in the freezer at all times. It's so much easier to find a few minutes to paint when setup is taken out of the equation.

Here's a painting I started as a quick sketch last week, and ended up working on for a few days in a row. Oddly enough, the part of the painting I feel like I'm struggling with most is the background. I'm letting it dry now, and I'm going to give it another go to see if I can't salvage it. 

I was pretty happy with how the likeness developed on this one (is it just me or are bearded men always easier to draw?). I'm also loving the focus on form in this class. We talked quite a bit about form light and highlight and how those things are related (or not so much related). Form is an area that I need some definite guidance, so I'm really glad I'm taking this class.

I had a pretty good block-in for this drawing, and it feels like it just got worse the more I worked on it. Maybe I need to use charcoal for portraits--it seems like I want to go darker than what pencil can handle. Or maybe I need to get better at handling the values without going dark with the graphite. I don't know. I'm just not very happy with this one (though, like I said, the placement of the features and the proportions were pretty decent from the first 20 minutes).

Horrible photo quality here, but this is my current cast project in progress. It feels like I'm getting close to the finish, but I need to address the entire drawing, paying special attention to turning the form and giving it a "sculptural" quality. So more specific information as to how the forms turn away/toward the light. The shapes/impression are there. I've heard some people say that they love finishing--it's the funnest part for them. For me, it's the most grueling. I think I see more impressionistically, so finishing is just really difficult and tedious. Starting's the fun part for me.

First night of structure portrait class tonight and it was something of a disaster. I haven't really drawn a portrait from this angle before, and it was throwing me off--my proportions were all over the place. I've been introduced to a new method of measuring where you mentally impose a grid on your subject's face, and then measure within that grid (which I'm trying to wrap my mind around). Harold Speed talks about physically making a grid with cardboard and string to help you find proportions. Maybe that's what I need to do? At any rate, this is only a two-week pose, so I think I may draw a little grid around the photo of this model and see if I can't do a little fixing before class next week. What a mess :P