Whoooooooops it's been six and a half months since I've posted. My main artistic accomplishment in those six months has been a series of portraits of some friends who volunteered to have me paint them. I'll go through them in chronological order.
This is Drew, my first volunteer. Actually for a while he was working as a figure drawing model at my school and when I asked for volunteers for portraits he was like "I can pose nude for you if you want." I was like "Let's just start with your face." I abandoned the technique I used for my last couple portraits; it worked well for that water scene but for portraits it was just too much weird texture. Instead I went for more of a contemporary "impressionist" style, letting my brushwork show and accentuating the subtle color differences most people don't see when they look at a photograph. I also painted it on a panel, because that's what I have. I think I really prefer the texture of a canvas, but it clearly worked out okay.
This is Alex. I painted these first two concurrently (I alternated paintings between layers), and they obviously have a similar style; this one was also painted on a panel. Incidentally, when I asked for volunteers I gave detailed instructions about how to take a "good" photograph that would be conducive to a good painting: preferably candid, taken with natural lighting, etc. Both of them sent me selfies, obviously not candid, and lit indoors. I think the result shows that they were right to ignore my instructions and just pick their favorite photo. It certainly had a different effect than I had in mind, but I think that's a good thing, especially since a few of my later ones were photos I took myself (following my own specifications) and this gave my work some variety.
Incidentally, Alex is an amazing jazz singer and you can hear him on my band's recordings here. (You can also hear some of my mandolin and guitar stuff there.)
At this point I tried to continue my series of self-portraits to keep learning and improving before I painted anyone else again, but I just reeeeeally have a hard time caring about self-portraits. I started 5 or 6 of these and this is the only one I could bring myself to finish. Well... "finish." Obviously I didn't bother with a background or filling out the shirt, and what I did finish doesn't have nearly the depth of color that my portraits of other people tend to have. Also for some reason my hair turned out this weird olive green color, so I tried to glaze over it to fix it and I just ended up with neon yellow hair. So there's that.
The rest of these are based off photos I took myself--all in the space of about an hour, actually. This one and the next were taken outdoors at dusk, with some cool complimentary-colored lighting and soft shadows. I made sure to capture candid moments, too; all of these models spent a lot of the time obviously self-conscious in front of my camera, trying to smile right or just looking embarrassed. I can't blame them, but the really golden moments come in the moments in between, when the subject forgets about the camera for a few seconds.
I think my portrait of Terrell is the best oil painting I've done since my portrait of my sister years ago. I actually don't really know what else to say about it, except that it's the first painting I've made where I used my fancy new monogram to sign my work. (Is it a monogram if it includes both initials?)
This one is Exhibit C in why I should just follow the requests of my subjects, even if they don't conform to the nitpicky standards I have for photographs I take myself. Meli referred me to a specific photo that had been taken a few months before that they wanted me to use for their portrait. I insisted on taking my own photo instead. The results are... okay. Although I think there are some cool things this painting has going for it, it's definitely the one I'm least satisfied with. It looks pretty amateur and isn't capturing the subject's personality quite as well as most of my paintings do. When I do another round of portraits I'm going to do another with the photograph they originally commissioned.
This is my second favorite of this bunch. By the time Courtney showed up for me to photograph her it was dark, so I set up some makeshift studio lighting inside. The warm light came from my lamps and the cool light came from the night sky through an open window. Courtney is the only one who didn't volunteer on her own to be painted; I specifically requested to paint her, partly just because she's one of my best friends and I do well painting people who are close to me, and partly because she's just an incredibly beautiful human being and I figured there needed to be a painting of her somewhere out there. (That's probably really embarrassing for me to include... whoops.) I am really proud of my colors in this painting and I think I just did an overall good job with composition, but I can't tell if the pinkish streaks in her hair are genius or if they ruined the lighting because they don't really fit in with the rest of the color scheme. For the sake of self-validation I'm going to say they are genius.