Tyler on Flickr.

Last night I painted on red paper since it was Valentine’s Day.

Ricardo on Flickr.

Ricardo on Blue Paper.

Mickey on Flickr.

Acrylic on Canson Paper. 19x25 inches. 3-hour study.

Last night we painted Barbara. What a great model! Again, I’ve been struggling with the full-body poses lately so I decided to do more of a portrait. It was SO MUCH FUN. Okay, okay, I know the bottom half has some weirdness going on but since it’s paper it’s always easy to crop at some point, but I’m putting it all here so you get the full picture, the good + the bad.

Kitty was a new model, and as soon as she started with the pose several of us asked, “Are you sure you can hold that?” I have been struggling somewhat with the full-figure poses lately, feeling like they are good for me to hone my drawing skills, but I was in the mood to paint a head/shoulders view tonight. This was going to be a challenging viewpoint for me, but I was up for it. After a little while, though, Kitty’s elbow kept creeping up and up, completely covering her face. I packed up my stuff and went home early, so this is just a quick painting from the session.

I think this model’s name was Randall. He was a yogi and did handstands in between the poses. He was a great model, but he had his head tilting back slightly which I MISSED COMPLETELY so I am disappointed in the outcome.

Well, if I’m going to blog about these painting sessions, I might as well include the ups and the downs. This painting is a total nightmare! I realized early on that I was standing, looking down at this guy while I was painting him, and everything was going to be all off. Once I get something like that in my mind it’s all downhill from there. Again, the evening painting session was three short poses followed by one longer pose, which meant I had to paint even more quickly than I was used to doing. What a big mess! Chalk it up to a lingering holiday hangover.

The East Bay Figure Painting Group started an evening group on Tuesdays at the Firehouse North Gallery on Shattuck in Berkeley. Yay! I’m finally able to go again, since work has kept me away from the Tuesday afternoon painting group.

The format is a bit different, there are three 5-10 minute poses followed by one longer 2-2 1/2 hour pose. So I’m having to paint a little more quickly than I did before. I couldn’t believe this model Cynthia stood perfectly still in those shoes for that long. I had a back view, which was kind of a challenge for me. Still, as usual, it was a lot of fun.

Carla. 3-hour figure study. Acrylic on Canson paper.

Great model Prudence with the figure painting group in Berkeley today. I nearly destroyed her. 3 hr study. Acrylic on 19x25 Canson paper.