Portrait Painting

Painting a portrait sketch from the live model is like comfort food to me... Comfort painting.  I love it.

The first one is of artist/musician Mark Taber and the next one is of Rob.

Work in Progress, Debbie Miller

Not sure on the exact dimensions of this but it is quite big. Tacked up on the wall to paint along with 2 others.
The small paintings are on the back burner for now

Sitting in the Morning Sun - pink,figure,abstract,debbie miller

24"x30" acrylic on panel

 Playing with acrylics today - my painting is turning a corner, evolving, changing.  This more abstract direction is challenging and fun.
 Makes we want to hurry up and paint- more more more - just to see where this takes me.
   It's something to be excited about - bigger-bolder-freer.

 Still holding on to the figure, perhaps a little too tightly.  Let me tell you - this way of painting is not easy! - it is hard to make it look effortless or the way it is in my mind - that is where the fun comes in.  Switched to acrylic because of the quick dry time as I hope to put a nice thick layer of gloss varnish over the top.

Don't worry the other work - my portraits and beach scenes will still be around but peppered in will be more of these.

in the studio

Black Hat - beach vacation, daily painting

6x6" oil on panel. - kinda happy this is still around, its always been one of my favorites. The colors are just so summery

Beach week 1 - oil painting,beach scene

6x6" oil on panel. lets kick off a week at the beach shall we? here is beach week #1. such a little cutie

Dawn

20x20" oil on canvas - just love this one. Dawn - as in new dawn

Bangle - beach scenes, people at the beach

6x6" oil - had a marathon painting session at the beach - which is the best for several reasons, my favorite being seeing what develops towards the end.

-after painting a bunch of 'serious' landscapes, I started painting a few close up people studies. quick, fun and loose, not over thinking - in fact barely thinking about painting.

I love getting to that place.

Sunshine Shoulders - daily painting,beach scene

6x6" oil
A little study for a bigger painting in the works....

Chris -portraits

14x18" oil. Chris - another portrait from my monday open painting group. First time ive had to tackle glasses and that was a challenge.
So fun painting people...

Nate -portraits,figurative,teens

18x24" oil.
Nate -
the colors in this are much richer than the photo shows but it is toooooo nice out to stay in and fiddle with it... so here it is...

Warrior one - yoga poses, beach

6x6 oil.
Warrior One. I always paint on a surface that is not white. This little painting is a good example of that. See around the clouds - that orangey color showing through? - that is the color of the panel and I just love that effect.
Orange is my go -to ground color for most paintings - a habit picked up in art school that has never left. Many artists switch the background color to a warm or cool color depending on the overall tone of the final painting. Ex - cool blue background with a warm toned painting.
Not me - I'm happy with bright orange :) in most cases - the Sofia painting was painted on a very pale umber because a lightness effect was the point...
try it! experiment with different colored backgrounds - you just might like the results.

Sofia - portraits

21x18" oil
Sofia - another portrait - just cant stop myself :)
- Sofia in the sun - with that gorgeous head of hair and the most perfect oval face ever
- oh to be 16

Molly - portraits,children

16x20" oil. Theres a great cast of characters that frequent Chez Miller and Molly has been a regular over the years. Love having another girl around especially one with such spunk!
Think this captures her spirit a bit. - thanks Mols!!

P#17 - Matt -portraits

8x10" oil

P#5 - Boy - portrait,children playing

8x10 oil

P#3 The Blue Dress - portrait,children

8x10 oil. the Blue Dress
Followers will know that last year an image of 3 surfers kept returning - they got painted over and over and over. its going to happen again with this image - sooo not done exploring this.
the first of many...

#1 feb. Portrait -,people Do What You Love - February

4x10" oil .

Over on facebook weve got a little group going for the month - a 'do something creative, something that you love a little every day' kinda thing.

For me -since i already paint a lot - its all about faces,people,portraits - a favorite subject of mine and also getting back to doing it EVERYDAY.

So bear with me while i get my portrait chops back and maybe you'll be inspired to do something too!!
Facebook Do What You Love - February