Concept for Minerva

Here is my favorite photo of Rose, posed as Minerva and the concept drawing I did based on this photo. I eliminated the easel in favor of a palette leaning against the sculpture of The Thinker, by Rodin. My original idea was for her to be standing beside the sculpture with her chisel and hammer in hand, chipping away at the sculpture. But, once I saw this pose, that idea was thrown out. I have slightly shaded the background objects to remind me later that Rose is the focus and the other objects must become a part of the dark background. I just love her wistful look. If you like this costume, you will be surprised to know it was just a large piece of blue cloth wrapped and safety pinned in strategic spots over a bedsheet shift I created for Persephone. I think I will add "Master Costumer" to my resume.

Finally, A Good Start

Alice sat for me again Monday. I tried twice to get going with the color. You can see that some of the original sketch is visible. Finally after painting and then wiping off all I had painted, I took Alice to lunch thinking that fresh eyes would see where I was going wrong. When we returned from lunch, I wiped off the whole mess again. I then realized that I was trying to paint like Michael Shane Neal and that just was not how my mind works. He is very fast and loose, laying in the planes of the face and sculpting the head rapidly and all the while carrying on a conversation with the model.

So I told Alice that we would try it my way. I don't talk alot while I work and I am slow and deliberate with my color mixing and strokes. This is the result of one hour at my own pace and my own style.

Personal Challenge

I am setting a personal challenge to paint 10 new head and sholder portraits from life during the next 30 days. Crazy you say? Maybe so, but I need to do more work from life.
Why10? Well, I figure that there are 31 days in May and 12 of those days I am tied up with life and other responsibilities. This leaves me 19 days at my studio in Little Washington. So, if I can round up 10 people willing to sit twice for 2 to three hours, I just may pull this off. Finding the models is the hard part. Everyone thinks it is great fun to be a model until they actually have to do it.

Am I afraid of failure? No. There is no shame in failure, just disgrace in not trying.
Stay tuned for photos and progress reports.