Charcoal sketch

Charcoal on newsprint

OK, so not all of my sketches are of women. It's a good idea to draw men once in a while. I saw some work by an artist who specialized in beautiful women. Among all the drawings was only one man, as I recall. He looked kind of feminine. The artist limited himself too much.

Practice drawing

Charcoal on newsprint

I practice from photos, and fashion photos are often good ones, in terms of size and lighting. So most of my practice drawings are of attractive women.

Sketch from a photo

Charcoal on newsprint

This sketch is a few years old, from a photo I took of a friend wearing a scarf. It appeared as a miniature painting in the early days of this blog (about three years ago). The likeness of the painting is good; this one is not. If you didn't know that, it probably wouldn't matter.

Cream Pitcher

Oil on panel -- 4 X 5 in.

I borrowed this from a friend because it looked so paintable. I will be posting mostly sketches for a while, but plan to graduate into more paintings.

Unfinished blog painting

I started this painting today, but it was interrupted by a situation that had to be taken care of. I told some people that I would post a painting today, so here is a painting in progress. I have another commitment tomorrow, so it might be a couple more days before this is finished. Such is life. The objects in the corners are clips holding the panel to the easel.

Mother and daughter portrait.

This is a portrait of Lolet (mother) and Joy, my neighbors and friends.

If you're wondering why I am posting so many charcoal portraits today, it's because these represent some of the work I have done recently, and also because I'm practicing uploading photos. I'm trying to learn the strange relationship (strange to me) among Blogger, Picasa, AOL, Google, Safari, Firefox, and my computer. I still can't figure out exactly what's going on.

Claire's mother

Claire is a former co-worker from my previous job. She saw a charcoal portrait I had done for another co-worker, and commissioned this one of her mother. This is how she looked as a young woman. (And Claire looks a lot like her.)

"Papa"

This sketchy drawing was done for a friend. It's a portrait of his wife's grandfather, who recently passed away. It was used on the program at his memorial service. I'm sorry about the yellow tone. I apparently had weak light or too much incandescent light on the drawing when I photographed it.

This is a test.

I did not die. I've been taking a break.

Sketch 2/23/09