Figure Painting

 I plan to go to figure painting twice a week for all of summer. It was my first day today, and the first time I've painted a portrait in about five months. It was a lot of fun! I just wanted to make a post showing my process. This painting was done in acrylics. In the future, I might bring gouache to these sessions.

This was after the first twenty minutes. I really just wanted to jump into painting, but what I should have done was spent more time on the drawing. Next session, I'll spend the first twenty minutes drawing.

This might be an hour or so into the painting. My teacher, Cameron Chun, once said that painting was all about fixing your mistakes, which I find very true. I'm always finding things to be adjusted. At this point, I'm adjusting, and making sure the paint is getting opaque enough.

Here, I started adding details, and always shifting the form. Fred Fixler said that to make a picture more interesting, you should simplify your tones. For example, for every one tone you have on the shadow side, you should have two. Or two light tones/one shadow tone. Here, there is a lot more going on in the light side, but it's really hard to consciously simplify.

While I enjoy the entire painting process, I can't help but find the last forty minutes to be the most satisfying. I added a lot more saturation to the shadow side, as if he's glowing. I think it's too much here, but I would rather push it, and learn from my mistakes. The forms are turning more nicely at this final stage.

I've always loved drawing portraits, and now it's exciting to paint them.