Lily Profile

I picked up where I left off with this pastel, good to be standing in front of a portrait again.

Lily Profile

Drawn August 30, 2010. 16×29 illustration board, ebony pencil and grey pastel.

Sam

Drawn May 10, 2010. Pastel on board. 18×24.

Richard

Sam

February !7, 2010. This is the one a started a couple of days ago-since I liked yesterdays it freed me to work more on the first one……

Lily

February 17, 2010.

Sam

Pastel- February 16, 2010. I started a new one from yesterday-I have such a tendency to take a piece too far that I decided to stop while I was ahead with yesterdays and see how I like it after taking this one further. But now I am hesitant over this one as it is so Sam… I’ll look at them both again tomorrow.

Sam

Drawn February 15, 2010.

Lily

Drawn February 15, 2010.

Richard

Possibly completed- February 10, 2010.

Richard

Drawn February 10, 2010.

Lily

Drawn February 10, 2010.

Richard

February 10, 2010.

Richard

February 9, 2010.

Richard

Painted/drawn January 28,2010

Richard

January 27, pastel beginning.

Richard

Drawn January 26, 2010.

Richard

January 25,2010

Richard

Painted January 24, 2010. Almost done- Dean Shaffer took a look at it this morning and gave me some pointers.

Richard

Drawn January 20, 2010.

Richard,Lily, and a drawing of Cory and Annie

A full day, benefit in keeping a few going so I let them rest a bit. January 15, 2010.

Richard

Pastel continued….closer to the mark. January 14, 2010

Richard

Pastel, January 13,2010. Needs work but I like where it is now so I am making a record of it- it needs many changes to be Richard so it will not look like this again.

Pietro Four

Drawn January 11, 2010. A challenge to draw 4 people with the right relationships in size and shape!

Richard Redoux

Drawn over the last week, January 7-11. A big, 24×36, charcoal.

Richard

Drawn Jan 1-4. Large charcoal,approx 24×36- fairly accurate and I very much like the texture and surface but the person part misses a bit. I’ll work again today with the same pose and try to get more of the feel of Richard.

Dancers

Drawn December 31, 2009. Love that charcoal.

3 Dancers

Drawn December 30,2009. The year is up of a portrait a day- so while I did do several quick portrait sketches this morning at Starbucks, I am posting the start of a longer drawing. I will also be going through each months postings over the next few days and trimming down the year to include only my favorites.

Richard

Drawn December 29, 2009.

Richard

Drawn December 28, 2009. A better drawing- I’ll print some better photos today to work from.

Richard

Drawn December 27, 2009. Does not look a thing like him-tiny pastel that did not work…

Richard

Drawn December 26. 2009.

Virginia and Morris

Drawn December 24, 2009 for today and tomorrow! A cheat I know but I might not get to drawing and posting Christmas day- if I do, so much the better. This is mom and dad drawn as a gift to my sister.

Couple

Drawn December 23, 2009

Couple

Drawn December 22, 2009.

Sam

Drawn December 21, 2009.

Sketches

Drawn December 20,2009.

Lily

Drawn December 17, 2009. Best of a series done while Lily was wrapping Christmas presents.

Couple

Drawn December 16, 2009.

Lily

Drawn December 15, 2009.

Claire

Drawn December 14, 2009.

Lily

Drawn December 13,2009.

Lily

Drawn December 11, 2009.

People Waiting….

Drawn December10, 2009.

Tom, Lily, Sam, Stranger….

Drawn from December 6th-9th.

Lily

Drawn December 5, 2009. Some aspects strange and wrong but I still like the approach. I should start another tomorrow as where this has gone astray probably can’t be saved.

Lily

Drawn December 4, 2009.

Lily

Drawn December3, 2009. This is the direction I am trying to describe with words. Large, simple clean shapes with economy of line. I think I need to understand far more about seeing to get this right but the approach is good. Perhaps I begin to see that so much of my time working is inattentive in the dark stuff and this demands that I be intentional…and why else do it except to pass the time. I am stopping for the moment- will return to it later today or tomorrow. It is not that it is great art but that it has a idea behind it. I suspect that this year of portraits has shown me that to be more fully engaged I have to do something other than throw myself at a task- some thought, an aim into the mix of creative play.

Lily

Drawn December 2, 2009. I thought for a long time today about how to go forward. I have some ideas and some questions for myself. I thought about figurative painters that I admire and tried to consider what it is that draws me to the work.(Modigliani comes to mind.) I am not successful with accurate painting and drawing and wonder if that is what I am aiming for since I still work pieces to death until I get it “right”. (If this is what I want then I need to learn how to achieve it as I would not be happy simplifying forms if it is as an excuse!) I know it it is a problem that I am not clear about my aim but in a way I never have been. My approach has been more to play at an image and see where it takes me rather that having an idea I am bringing to life. I always come back to faces, people. So in my thoughts this morning I imagined combining people imagery with the love of surface and color butting up against color. So the piece would be a play of line quality with shapes of color. This drawing is a start in that direction- color to be brought in tomorrow.

Lily

Drawn December1, 2009. I have not begun to hit the note I am looking for but some notes for later, again because I am thinking about how I want to adjust this exercise for next year. I want the surface to be wonderful- whatever the drawing or painting. (My dissatisfaction with todays work is primarily in the coarseness of the surface). I am not aiming for total realism but a feeling of the presence of the subject. More about this later.

Lily

Drawn November 30, 2009.

Lily

 

Drawn November29,2009. I’m thinking about the direction I will go when the year of portraits it up at the end of next month. Today I began to experiment in a direction that is interesting to me- more about it later…

Lily

Drawn November 28, 2009.

Sam

Drawn at Starbucks November 27, 2009.

Cory

Drawn November 26, 2009. I’m simply impressed that I still found time to draw today.

Cory

Drawn November 25, 2009. A start, but sort of strange. I am going to work more on it to see if I can find Cory in there.

Elizabeth

Drawn November 24, 2009. Probably done with this- I’ll take a look tomorrow before I start the next one. I like it.

Elizabeth

Drawn November23, 2009. I wish I could do a portrait from life of Elizabeth to truly see the colors. Next time I travel I’ll bring the pastels!

Elizabeth

Drawn November 22, 2009.

Elizabeth

Drawn November 21, 2009. A start that I will continue tomorrow, I wish I had gotten better pictures of Elizabeth to work from- most have lowered or closed eyes.

Elizabeth

Drawn November 20, 2009.

Elizabeth

Drawn November 19, 2009. First step in a drawing of a lovely young woman from Prague.

Lily ( but not!)

Drawn Jet lagged on November 18, 2009.

Drawings From Rome, Vienna and Prague

I kept up the portrait a day while traveling. The following were done between November 2 to November 17, 2009. I worked on a sketch pad with pen and color pencils, often completing the drawing after the subject moved on.

Lily

Drawn November2, 2009. Last one in Cleveland for 2 weeks- I’ll be in Rome and Vienna and will be doing daily small portraits but not sure about my ability to post. If not I’ll post when I return.

Lily

Drawn November1, 2009. A quick biggish charcoal, my favorite of the moment.

Annie

Drawn October 31, 2009. Two quick charcoals from life.

Laura

Drawn October 30,2009. A complete and utter miss. I was hurried and wanted to pull yesterdays portrait together and it seems I pulled it apart.

Laura

Drawn October29, 2009. Very quick, sort of big…not exactly accurate but fresh.

Lily

Drawn October 28, 2009. Perhaps an improvement, perhaps not. Got to try….

Lily

Drawn October 27,2009. I decided this morning to do a quick piece in color since I like my quick charcoals. I wondered if I could break the spell of getting too tight and fussy once color was introduced. So color from the start! I like it so far, stopped because I started dreaming about Leonard Cohen and conversations and the like. So I’ll take another look tomorrow or later today and see if I can improve upon this or simply go on.

Lily

Dwawn October 26, 2009.

Lily

Drawn October 25, 2009. Another big charcoal.

Hugo

Drawn October24, 2009. This will stay a black and white drawing…on the wrong kind of paper to accept much color. It is more than life size, nice to work big.

Lily

Drawn October 23, 2009. This one is more than done but still imperfect in so many ways. When the portrait a day commitment is done December 27 I am considering maintaining the daily commitment but allowing each piece to take as long as needed. I have been doing this the past month or so- so it really can’t be said it’s a portrait a day except that I am working and photographing daily. Which is interesting to me in itself….to be able to go back and see how the piece came together.

Lily

Drawn October 22, 2009. Lots of problems seeing the color.

Lily

Drawn October 21, 2009.

Lily

Drawn October 20, 2009. Not so happy with this today-the color is off and I lost some of the drawing I liked. Oh well- it’s a risk…..I’ll try to clarify it again tomorrow.

Lily

Drawn October 19, 2009. I started another of the same pose as I liked yesterdays quick sketch beginning and wanted to look at it a bit more.

Lily

Drawn October 18,2009.

Alex

Drawn October 17, 2009.

Alex

Drawn October 16, 2009. My last strokes of pastel took away what the previous work session had given. Sometimes it is like that.
I think the project has gone better over the last 3 weeks as I allow a portrait to evolve over a few days. I look back and think that sometimes I was so focused on a portrait a day that I was not learning as much because I was too product orientated. This project is over on December 26th. I think the best part of it has been that it gets me to work daily and like the potter once said to me….hurry up and make your first 10,000 terrible pots. So I have been doing that only with 2 dimensions instead of three.

Alexander

Drawn October 15, 2009.

Sam

Drawn October14,2009.

Sam

Drawn October13, 2009.

Sam

Drawn October12, 2009. I spent a long time trying to get the right relationship with Sam’s features. Lots of erasing made for a nice ground, but I still don’t have it right. Tomorrow.

Lily

Drawn October 11, 2009. I guess I am done with this- the pastel is resisting the paper so perhaps the build up is too great.

Lily

Drawn October 10,2009.

Lily

Drawn October 9, 2009.

Lily

Drawn October 8, 2009.

Lily

Drawn October 7, 2009. As I was posting this drawing it occurred to me that it is pretty amazing that I have managed to keep up this portrait a day business. I have gone from feeling like I would be amazing (in the beginning) to seeing what I could actually do, to simply showing up every day and doing it. And times like NOW, when the silk business calls so loudly, I am pleased with myself for keeping this going. A side benefit is that the portrait is a break from all the other work once I get myself to the upstairs studio. There have been some midnight portraits.

Chris

Drawn October 6, 2009. Finished this drawing- I see that I tend to get bored past the face- so I stint on clothes, event the neck.

Chris

Drawn October 5, 2009. More pastel—-maybe done.

Chris

Drawn October4, 2009. Added pastel to yesterdays portrait- lost and found ad lost again the look of the piece. More tomorrow.

Chris

Drawn October3, 2009. Big drawing- I like it a lot but plan to add color tomorrow and that has been the tricky part….

Lily

Drawn October2, 2009.

Lily

Drawn October 1, 2009. I like this-it is not done but I was able to stay loose as I worked. The complaint I have had with the portraits is a slavishness to detail that takes away from the freshness of the piece. I did more looking and less drawing/painting with this one,

Lily

Drawn September 30, 2009. I succeeded in making Lily look like an Italian film star…to bad that was not the goal. But it is a good start for later today or tomorrow- I can make adjustments as I add color.

Paula

Drawn September 29,2009. Perhaps this is done now- I attempted to bring the colors back to flesh tones.