Everything Is Still Grim

Pandemic Portrait No. 11

9" x 12" charcoal and ink on paper

Prints in various sizes available here.

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NYC Pandemic Portrait

NYC Reluctant Quarantine No. 2

9" x 12" acrylic on paper

Prints in various sizes available here.

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NYC Pandemic Portrait

 

Pandemic Portrait No. 10

9" x 12" charcoal and ink on paper

Prints in various sizes available here.

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NYC Pandemic Portrait

Pandemic Portrait No. 9

9" x 12" charcoal and ink on paper

Prints in various sizes available here.

 

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Pandemic Portrait Series

 

Pandemic Portrait No. 8

9" x 12" charcoal on paper

Prints available in various sizes here.

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Pandemic Portrait Series

Pandemic Portrait No. 7

9" x 12" charcoal on paper

Prints in various sizes available here.

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Pandemic Portrait Series

Pandemic Portrait No. 6

9" x 12" charcoal on paper

Prints in various sizes available here.

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Pandemic Portrait Series

Pandemic Portrait No. 3

9" x 12" Charcoal and ink on paper

Prints in multiple sizes available here.

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Pandemic Portrait Series

Pandemic Portrait No. 3

9" x 12" Charcoal on Paper

Prints in multiple sizes available here.

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If she took your photo - be afraid, very afraid.

 A favorite photographer, Diane Arbus.

NYC Metro Card Diane Arbus No. 1

2" x 3.5" Oil on Metro Card

Available here.

Very interesting process photo progression here on Instagram.

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Keith Haring

 Another favorite New York artist:

NYC Metro Card Keith Haring No. 1

2' x 3.5" oil on Metro Card

Available here.

See a series of process photos here.

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Starting something, gotta be starting something

Inspired by the wonderful artist Nicolas Uribe. as seen here on Instagram and here on his  newly launched series on Youtube, Our Painted Lives, I decided to tackle a portrait using his some of his techniques. The result will be an oil painting on paper.

Following along with his first of 3 steps for a portrait I began with pencil drawing, using Faber Castelli, on a page of my sketchbook - Canson Multimedia 7"x 10." The sketch could probably have used some more detail but I was impatient to get to the paint. 

The next step consists of first preparing the paper by adding layers of clear acrylic binder to the surface of the paper.  I added  layers on the drawing side, letting each layer dry for at least an hour before adding the next layer, and then one more layer on the reverse. This immediately added more depth to the drawing as the pencil pigment spread slightly.

Next step is to create an underpainting

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NYC Metro Card Joan Mitchell - Portrait with Process

NYC Metro Card Joan Mitchell
2" x 3.5" oil on Metro Card
Available for purchase here.


Process:

NYC Metro Card Joan Mitchell
Available for purchase here.

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NYC Metro Card Kara Walker No. 1

One of my favorite artists:

NYC Metro Card Kara Walker No. 1
2" x 3.5" Oil on Metro Card
Available for purchase here.


Some close ups:

I went through many false starts and wipe offs before finally feeling good about this likeness - here some process shots of this bumpy ride:

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NYC Metro Card Andy Warhol

Process:

NYC Metro Card Andy Warhol No 1

2" x 3.5" Oil on NYC Metro Card

SOLD

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Oil Portrait Study " Peter" with Process

This final 5"x7" oil painting came to be after a lot of stops and starts, scrape downs and wipe offs, re-shapes and adjustments but I'm content with this result:

First steps were sketches in charcoal and some light washes :

Gradually building up layers:

I was pretty happy at this stage, since it was very loose and expressive:

 I revisited it the next day because I wanted more detail and also felt there wasn't enough volume to the head, the darks and highlights weren't quite right yet - I wiped down the forehead and neck/shoulders:

And then attempted to bring the shadows/highlights back in but it was still a mess:

I also felt the likeness was off - I was working from my own reference photo and knew it was off. I took this last pic of the painting into photoshop and compared it to my source and could see where the position of some of his features were off and the width of the face was wrong. Had to wipe elements away - that was scary but I knew instantly that it was the right thing to do:

As I re-worked the face, I could see it coming together - the head was more of a 3/4 turn (as it should be) whereas the first efforts had mistakenly flattened the face to the viewer:

And done:

"Peter Study"
5" x 7" Oil on wood panel

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