Portrait of Max: background

I worked on the background. The wall behind Max is from a New Mexican Pueblo. It adobe and stucco. Rocks suspended in the adobe can be seen where the stucco has fallen away. I painted in the brightest colors that will appear in the rocks. I began to build in the color and values in the mortar and stucco. The next step will be to work on details in the rocks. The bright colors will be toned down and each rock will have veins, fissures, and texture. As with the figure these colors will show through successive layers.

There are different colors of mortar and stucco. Throughout the wall. It is not as uniform as it appears here. That will need to be adjusted. I will add color with glazes over the existing painting. The stucco is full of aggregate. I need to figure out how I will render the texture created by all the little bits of rock and sand.

Max: Next stage (close-up)

Here is a close-up of Max's face. There are still some drawing problems I need to sort out. Something is not right with the left side (our left) of the face. The cheek is flat. It doesn't have the roundness of the other side. Is it the drawing or the use of color? I will work on that soon.

Portrait of Max: Next Stage

The painting at this stage has the background colors blocked in. I have also started to paint the figure. I have used more saturated colors at this stage. These colors will show though successive stages. The final skin tone will be made up of both physically and visually mixed colors and will be less dark. The shirt has a monochromatic under painting. I will add a plaid pattern to the shirt at a later stage.

I like to work on the whole image at the same time as much as possible. A former teacher's mantra was "Draw as a Whole." I have never forgotten this and it works for me. The next stage will be to treat the background in the same way the figure has been treated. Before moving on to the next level of detail and color the entire panel will need to be covered with the same amount of paint and the imagery brought up to the same level. In this way the entire painting evolves rather than one section at a time.

Portrait of Max with more underpainting completed

In this image you can see that I have blocked in all of the colors. This covers the white of the panel and gives me a colored base to work upon.

I paint in thin layers. This allows the white of the panel to show through the paint layer creating a unique luminosity.

The next step will be to tone down the background with a umber glaze and to begin painting the figure in colors more true to life.

Portrait of Max

Here is the beginning of the underpainting for a portrait of Max. This is the next painting in my "Up Against the Wall" series.
The drawing is done freehand in charcoal directly on the gessoed panel. Once I had the drawing the way I wanted it I painted in the major lines of the composition. The background will be a ruined wall from a New Mexican pueblo. I started blocking in the color of the adobe and mortar of the wall. The next step will be to add more color to complete the underpainting.

Portrait of Wes is nearly done

The portrait of Wes is nearly done. It is at that point where I am not sure what else to do. I have decided to let it dry completely, varnish it, and then evaluate any further additions. This painting is done entirely in oils. It is on a wood panel. It is about 40 inches high.

Portrait of Frank Zappa

I painted this portrait of Frank Zappa for my father's Christmas present. It is about 10 inches by 8 inches. It was painted in acrylics and oils on illustration board. The background includes the set list for the Minneapolis Zappa Plays Zappa concert from October 20, 2006. Tickets to the show were my gift to Dad on his 60th birthday. It was a fantastic performance.

I started with a drawing, completed a monchromatic underpainting in acrylic and finished the painting in oils.