Practice Layout and Features

Sitting around after dinner last night, I got out my new Moly (Moleskin) sketchbook and used colored pencil and did a real study of the photo I will work on below. This drawing looks very much like the photo, especially my son-in-law, handsome dude that he is. BTW his eyes are very dark..when I squint down at the picture, they stand out as the darkest darks. It occurs to me that when you look at those photos that are taken by the person who is in the photo by a cell phone or digital camera, you are usually dealing with an arm that is raised off one side of the photo, in this case, my daughter's. I will experiment in taking that arm down to her side if I can - in the painting. I need to work on the sketch/drawing on the canvas before continuing, because it is not correct yet, and I never continue on, hoping to correct it as I go. It doesn't work that way.

I have been trained how to paint portraits without the sketching, but I find I get a better likeness with the sketch in place.

I am thinking of some art goal setting for the month of January, stay tuned!