Corset Painting

Everything you paint is a portrait - including a corset!

Tonight the set-up will be something like this from my vintage corset collection for my still life demo, with some roses thrown in, for The Malibu Art Association. Come join us. Scroll down to yesterday's post for timing and location.

"True Blue" By Johanna Spinks
30 x 50, SOLD
www.johannaspinnksfineart.com

How To Paint Roses

Spode alert...I'll be doing a still life demo tomorrow night for The Malibu Art Association. Join us? Yes, there will be roses for sure. Come back to see what I painted and how I did it.

"Birthday Roses" by Johanna Spinks
Oil on linen, 12'x16"

Southern Charm - Portrait Commission Just Off My Easel.

 A Lovely Southern Charmer
30" x 40"
Just Off My Easel
By Johanna Spinks

Close-up
The Eyes Have It!
By Johanna Spinks

The Start, A One Hour Life Study.
My portrait clients are always requested to do a one hour life sitting for me and this is always a great time for us to get to know each other in a most unique way, heading to a great portrait. Priceless!

The ABC's of Painting Eyes.

Close-ups By Johanna Spinks. Eyes in progress.


Going cross-eyed? I painted four sets of eyes on my studio easels this week, three of them from life.  Come back to see them finished. 




My ABC's of Painting Eyes
A: AVOID hard outlines: hard whites of the eyes, hard highlights within the eye and hard socket edge shapes. There is never pure white paint within the eye and there are lots of soft halftones around the exterior eye socket.

Think of putting a mist between your 'painted' eyes and the viewer. Lavender helps to push it all back. 

B: BE rigorous in your own art training. Draw eyes often. Paint studies. Study these old Superstars, my own personal heroes of portraiture:

Philip de Laszlo: https://www.delaszloarchivetrust.com

Anders Zorn:  http://www.anderszorn.org

 John Singer Sargent http://www.johnsingersargent.org

Joaquin  Sorolla  http://www.sorollapaintings.com

Also look to modern day Masters:

Everett Raymond Kinstler, N.A. http://www.everettraymondkinstler.com

Jeremy Lipking  http://www.lipking.com

Morgan Weistling  http://www.morganweistling.com

C: COURT your sitter. Paint from life as often as you can. All the greats did - and do.

Chat to your sitter while you are painting them. Their eyes will light up revealing a spark of their personality, their bodies will go into a natural pose. If you have your ABC's down, you will catch it.

Good luck. I will be doing my ABC's too. Always.

A demo of an eye I did in my teaching class this week for students showing the light source moving through  socket.

Art On Caffeine...

Caffeine rush?... or maybe the cranberry scone combo.

I did two "block-in's" today in my teaching class, life model portrait/figure and a still life set-up.

This was the first week of my new semester,  a four hour teaching class at my studio, the very best models in town. Packed house. I love my students and they are very talented..so honored to share their art journey.

Next week no coffee or cranberry scones. Sorry. But do come back to see how these block-ins progressed.

A GOOD START... 18 x 24

10 MINUTE QUICKIE BLOCK IN

Portrait Flattery? To Be or Not To Be?

Beautiful Fiona
One life sitting
18x 24"

The Starts

A Sample of This Month's Sitters at My Studio
All painted from life
18 x 24 on Board

I am often asked how much do you flatter a sitter? How far will you go? I have been painted a few times myself from life by other wonderful artists which was a great lesson  to me in all of this.

Let go of the ego?

But I also don't want to hang jowls on my own personal wall space and look at them if you know what I mean. Unless it's a Rembrandt.

I say I want to paint my sitter to look how they feel on their best day, when their hair and features are in tidy place, they have had a good night's rest without a salty dinner, and then sit them under the best lighting and competent brush.

I often joke I'll go as far as 10 pounds and 10 years off. But that is really in jest. 

Fiona is a good example. A former dancer from the U.K., she came to sit for my teaching class recently. There was such an elegance in her carriage and her amazing white hair  that I had to get that down with my brush and it was ever so interesting to me.

One or two of the students 'over-aged' the middle age factor in their sketches. The competent brush is important. Hanging on hard to drawing lines by using the lines you see on the face for a guide is not a good idea.

We all age. It's a fact of each life but I can always find something in a face that's interesting to paint, young or old. 

One of the students asked:"Are you going to leave it there?", meaning I had perhaps over-flattered. I answered most certainly yes.  And then went into a little side-talk about elegance. The BIG E.

 I strive for elegance through the ages, young or old, male or female. Whether that face is lined or not. And that is what I saw in the lovely Fiona. A lady in her mid years aging very gracefully with a visage as interesting, if not more so,  than anyone in their 20's.

I have learned so  much from past  master portraitist Philip de Laszlo about this elegance thing. Thank you Mr. L. Check his work out.

https://www.delaszloarchivetrust.com

India Via A Palette Knife

"Noma's Diya on The Ganges"
By Johanna Spinks
Oil on board via palette knife
24" x 18
Image copyrighted

Close up

I'm excited to finally have India process through my art brain and come to life via my palette knife on board. I met this little girl Noma on the ancient steps of Varanasi last November. She was selling diyas which are little earthenware pots filled with marigolds and candles.

Moni sitting with me early morning while I painted, my new BFF

These are lit and then put into the sacred Ganges River as part of a ceremonial prayer ritual. I put one there myself.

I could write a book on Noma. She was a Donald Trump in the making. This was the job she did both before and after school and she knew how to work the tourists those old steps of Varanasi like a pro.

She hustled me hard, even waiting for me outside my hotel one day demanding I come down. She was there at 6 a.m. on another day when I was trying to paint a temple. By this point I had got used to her stalking me. Noma sat with me thru the whole painting session getting me chai tea from the nearby vendor when I needed it. I had to pay her to do this of course but that was fine.

Finally her brother came over and told her she was going to get in trouble if she didn't leave me NOW. We discussed the importance of her getting an education, especially as a female in India, Finally, I paid her to leave me and get to school. That was the only way she was going to go.

I made her promise that she would work hard at her studies.

By the way she spoke exceptional english and was really very charming in her 'hustling the American tourist' kinda way.

I sure hope I get to see her one day again. She left a lasting impression on me hence this painting.

No after school play for Noma...a life of hard work for one so young.