09 July 2014

three men and a palette

Today I had the great pleasure of making live portraits in my studio!  Quite exciting, as it has been Skype portraits all the way these last couple of years.  

First, Luke Lukasewich came over for a visit and a portrait session.  This was the first time we'd met in person, and I felt very comfortable with him right away.  Luke has a beautiful face to work from, too.

A quick sketch to begin with.  These generally take 15-20 minutes:


verna vogel
graphite, conte, acrylic ink
on gesso'd 50lb paper
9x12 inches

Then an oil portrait.  I think this one took about an hour.  I couldn't resist taking a photo of the underdrawing, which looks like a zombie!  Well, things often have to get ugly before they can be beautiful, right?

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underpainting 

Hee hee.  Finished work is indeed more appealing:

verna vogel
Portrait Of LL
oil on canvas
9.5/10 x 14.5 inches
I make a point of not asking my sitters to sit still, because sitting still is very unnatural for humans!  So Luke and I were talking and he was moving around a bit and this portrait shows that, which I like very much.

Then, while I had the oil paints and brushes out, a friend who's been staying with us agreed to sit for me.  He was a little more self-conscious and sat fairly still.  Again, I made a quick sketch and an oil painting.

verna vogel
pencil crayon and oil on gesso'd 50lb paper
9x12 inches

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preliminary sketch

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Portrait of RM
oil on canvas
11 x 15 inches

Lastly, a portrait of my best friend.  He is not very comfortable being the centre of attention, which includes my artist gaze, so I very much appreciated his sitting for me.  And he sat very still indeed!

verna vogel
conte on paper
9x12 inches

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Portrait of JP
oil on paper
10 x 13.5 inches

About 10 minutes into the oil painting he was asking if it was done yet!  So I skipped trying to colour anything in and left it as more of a sketchy drawing kind of painting.  It took maybe half an hour, maybe less time than that.

He remarked that it looks like a 12th-century illustration of a peasant in a field.  Personally, I think it looks like a 12th-century illustration of a scholar discussing philosophy.

All today's portraits turned out rather nicely, in my opinion.  A good day.

verna vogel

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