Finally I get to Paint!

Last month I started taking two night classes, which I plan to continue this month, portrait painting and portrait sculpture. I am really enjoying both, but especially the painting. The first three weeks were spent drawing the head and finally this week I transfered it to canvas and started to paint. The transfer process is not entirely accurate. It lacks the human touch, so this week I painted the contours and added a light wash. I have included the canvas up to this point. Next week I will start modeling or makeing the head look 3-d. I am really excited. Because of the added problems with color this first painting will be monochromatic. Essentially, everything I have been doing up to this point is in preparation for painting. It is the same process, just paint instead of graphite. I have included both the painting and the drawing I transfered it from. The model is the younger sister of one of my fellow classmates. It is a two month pose-one night a week for three hours. So I will have four more weeks to paint.

In class I am finishing up the hand. After that I will spend several weeks working on block-ins before starting my final piece. The final piece should take 2-3 months and will be a lot more complex than I have attempted thus far. After that I will start the whole process over, but painting casts instead of drawing. I hope I can start painting before school ends in May.