Portrait Class

I went to my local portrait drawing class/session tonight. I started out with a quick sketch in the sketchbook, just to familiarize myself with the model. It’s a casual attempt to capture a likeness, but in a low-stakes way. If it doesn’t work out, hopefully I can identify my mistakes quickly and not make them in the painting.

I then began an oil painting. I try to start out really loose and sketchy, slowly working my way towards my preferred level of detail and likeness. I got about two hours in, and liked where I was at with the portrait, so I used the last third of the canvas to try another quicker portrait from a different angle. This one… was a bit more of a challenge. I think I saved it from being a complete loss, and as I always tell my students - you learn more from messing up than you do from getting it right the first time. So I learned some stuff on the second (third, really) attempt.

I got the painting home, and saw all those little voids in the paint. Really strange look. But they’re all in thin areas of paint, and it was raining carrying it out to the car, so my working theory is that the raindrops that were resting on the canvas pushed the thin layer of oil out of their way and left the weird raindrop patterned voids in the paint layer. First time I’ve ever seen that happen, but then I don’t usually make a habit of hauling my wet paintings around in the rain, so… At any rate, it was just a practice session so I suppose I can say I learned one extra thing even after finishing the portrait(s) tonight.

-ZR