The Faces of Humanity -- the Richness of Spirit

(This photograph will be the basis for my next painting)

I have an obsession with faces. They tell so much about a person, and yet so little. Worry lines may soon turn into laugh lines when the heart is merry. Eyes glisten in the presence of a loved one or a good friend. Tears may signify joy or sadness; the face reflects the nuance and the feelings that others seek to interpret.

As we age, faces become more like maps to the past. How we have lived, what we have experienced is often reflected in the way we hold our mouth or in the downcast look in our eyes. Creases may symbolize chronic illness and pain or a hardworking existence in the great outdoors.

"A Joyful Heart" 9x12 pastel on Bristol; Matted and ready to frame (11x14).

As poets have said for hundreds of years “the eyes are the windows to the soul.” We like to think that we can see into someone else’s life through their eyes, but we’re only guessing. Ted Bundy, a serial killer, had very seductive eyes; but I doubt his victims saw into his soul. If they had, they would have fled in terror.

Still, eyes can tell us about emotion. My next portrait is of a young Indian mother and her two children (1st photo) as they observe something with reverential eyes. Are they worshipping? Do they see someone they revere or are they only hoping for something better to come into their lives?

Their faces captured my attention and I needed to paint them. This is an actual photograph taken by some friends in India. I see longing in the eyes of this family, and at the same time awe. Perhaps you’ll see and feel something altogether different; but if I paint them with my interpretation, perhaps you’ll see them the way that I do.

This is the delight of the creative life. An artist has a deep felt need to express what he or she sees and feels. Sometimes it is a negative message to convey an opinion or make a statement. At other times it is a heartfelt desire to share a joyful picture representing the goodness and the common bond of humanity.

(I have applied the drawing to a 24x18 white canvas)

Faces are like sculpture. Their form and definition, their shapes and lines are beautiful unto themselves. I enjoy painting people of color. The richness of skin tones and the variant shades are remarkable and a challenge to capture. Facial features are bolder, more pronounced, and they fit together perfectly, beautifully into a whole.

I’ve had some difficulty seeing lately so this new painting will be a challenge. I have mono-vision lenses that make it difficult to see depth; one eye is for close-ups and the other for distance. Luckily, when I hold a drawing or a painting up to the mirror, my flaws are usually revealed to me.

(Work in Progress: First layers of acrylic paint on the figures. I will change and altar what doesn't look right.)

I’m disheartened by the recent outburst of hate and racism in this country. While I see beauty in diversity many others focus on differences and see danger. Yet one God made us all and loves us equally. In that light, how then can we not reach out to others in friendship and tolerance?

"With these hands -- Hope" 16x20 canvas; oil on acrylic background.

Foodies who Love to Paint, and Artists who Paint what they Eat

We all love to eat. Food is the essence of family get-togethers and camaraderie. Dining is our point of caring, celebrating, and nourishing those we love. There is an intimacy in eating together and biting into succulent morsels of exquisitely prepared food in the warmth of family and friends.

Food is also survival. It is life. Food is pleasure. It’s not only pleasing to the palate, but to the eye. Good cooks and chefs are as creative as any artist. Their finished products look like works of art and taste even better!

I’m not the only one who’s noticed. Artists from past to present have recognized the richness of color and the distinction of form that food presents. Photographers and advertisers have been aware of its beauty for a long, long time. Artists are again turning to the variety and fun that food can provide. In recent years, there has been a revival of sorts in the painting of everything scrumptious.

Today many artists are using their culinary skills in designing and presenting food as art. Their tantalizing compositions literally look “good enough to eat.” 

If you want to know what’s trending in the world, check out Twitter, Pinterest, and YouTube. In all likelihood, food is playing a major part. Recipes are being tried and shared as never before. People are concerned about nutrition, gluten, lactose, fats, and GMO’s (genetically modified organisms).

Our food sources are not only at risk, but more people have allergies and food sensitivities than ever before. I’m lactose intolerant and, in addition, was forced to restrict myself to gluten free products. People in general are focused on eating healthier foods.

Even that staple golden honey is at risk. In a Monsanto AD recently, the discussion centered on endangered honey bees. Without honey bees, some of our most nutritious fruits, vegetables and nuts would not be pollinated. 

Farmers rely heavily on honey bees in order to grow a crop. When the Biblical heroes talked about wanting a land “of milk and honey,” they knew how important these creatures were to the production of good things to eat. Even here in Florida, 80% of the orange groves are pollinated by honey bees. Without them there would be no oranges and no honey!

Beginning artists often focus on food in learning about color and form. Still life works with fruit is popular in practicing shape, shadow, and light. This is a wonderful way to experiment and branch off into cubism and abstraction. Pick up a brush and try it! The results may be delicious.

Seeing is believing and not seeing is Foolishness

It’s been two years since I had my eyes checked. I sometimes think the reason I like to paint with bright colors is because my eyesight is growing dim. The beginnings of cataracts are clouding my eyes, and my invisible bifocals slip down on my nose while I paint. Getting old is not as fun as some people make it out to be.

You’re only as young as you feel, people like to say. But what happens when you’re not feeling as young as you used to feel? Ah, now there’s the rub.

"Blending In" Acrylic on canvas

I was overjoyed to find that my eyes are relatively in good health, and I don’t need to see the doctor for one year. All my fretting was for nothing. My husband, on the other hand, is having to redo his cataract surgery in a few weeks. In this light, I couldn’t help but think of all the expressions we use every day pertaining to sight.

We say someone is “looking beyond the mark” when they worry too much about the future and not enough about the present.

We say someone is “short-sighted” when they fail to plan ahead.

Wisdom is often compared with sight, as in understanding. When we gain understanding, we can see truth clearly.

Most art instructors agree that what they really teach their art students to do is how to see. Being able to focus and see what is rather than what we think is there is a matter of re-training your eyes to ignore your brain’s perceptions.

"Pelican Pointe" 8 x 10 acrylic on canvas. Recently SOLD 20 x 24 Print on FAA

The brain has a tendency to fill in missing pieces for us, much the same way a computer is programmed to finish or fix a misspelled word. It has been proven that we can read a sentence of consonants without the vowels because our brain fills in the missing letters.

Truth is a lot like that. We must learn to examine what is actually there, but also call into play our sixth sense or gut instinct. Sometimes we know something is true and we ignore it. 

Why do we ignore truth: because of preconceptions that have been taught to us
by our parents or teachers and because of ingrained habits or traditions. 

Thinking clearly for ourselves requires searching, learning, studying, and something many people call “heart” knowledge; another term for gut instinct.

Seeing with an artist’s eye requires focus, study, and practice. Gaining an understanding of how things are made and how they work together helps to define form, shape, and movement.

Learning to see what is instead of what might be or could be is how professional skill is developed. Innate talent helps, but the knowledge is out there for all of us to use and better ourselves.

"Brown Thrasher" 16 x 20 acrylic on panel in decorative barn wood frame

Two Minute Sketches Push you to the Brink

If you want to become adept at drawing people or doing portraits, “quick studies” offer a way to focus on what’s important. If you’ve never done it, now is the time to start!

Beginning with gesture and motion, focusing on the way a person’s body leans and moves is critical if you want your images to look vibrant and alive rather than just plastic replicas of stick people or flat uninteresting copies. Gesture is what makes each image unique. Exaggerating those gestures makes for a more interesting pose.

Once gesture and movement are identified, then form comes easily. The form makes the figure three-dimensional. Here the weight of the image and the likeness are developed. Completing your gesture sketches with more fully developed drawings of form gives you a foundation on which to build a likeness and imaginative scenes with complex characters.

Practice makes perfect. Some of my sketches are out of proportion. As I become better, the proportions should become more natural. Sometimes I have to slow my drawing hand down to the same level as my brain. I’m hoping my brain will soon catch up to my hand.

C-CURVE (backwards)

S-CURVE Gesture

Portrait studies can be done in the same way. These quick studies force you to see shapes and values before getting into the details. Unless the foundation is solid, the details will still look flat or cubist. If that’s what you want, great! But if likeness and a portrait is your goal, your details need to be placed on accurate solid forms.

Notice the slant of the shoulders

My favorite online teacher is Stan Prokopenko or “Proko.” Here is one of his videos. Practice along with Stan and check out his other videos. If you’re new to portraits or the figure, you need all the help you can get!

http://youtu.be/0I_egPHop9A 

TIPS: Use soft vine charcoal for smooth lines. Make certain you have extra sharpened sticks nearby (they dull quickly). Also use inexpensive drawing paper. The perfect size is 9x12. If you use a larger size as I did below, and try to cram more drawings in on one page, your proportions will end up way off and you'll run out of space to draw.

Online Contest Winner -- First Place for "Hearts Afire"

Online Contest Winner Second Place -- Title: "A Joyful Heart"
Pastel 9x12 on Bristol

Painting Perfect Hair is a Harebrained Idea

Work-in-Progress -- "First Daffodil" 16x20 acrylic on canvas

Imagine that – painting hair can be both difficult and satisfying. To illustrate:  my “work-in-progress” at this stage, simply looks messy. Finding the right color is also tricky. In my efforts to add lightness, my basic color turned somewhat gray, muddy even. I will have to rectify that with warmer tones.

Of course, there is no such thing as perfect hair or there wouldn’t be the expression “bad hair day!” If you study the way hair frames the face and falls, you’ll see that to get the hair right, you have to get the shape of the head in proportion first. Once you have that down, block in the shapes of dark and light hair that follows the contours of the head. The more uneven these light shapes are the better.

"With these Hands -- Love" 24x18 mixed media on canvas

The next step in the painting process is painting the strands of hair or the shapes of hair that stand out or seem separate. Texture comes last of all as you fill in the strands and shapes with the “illusion” or appearance of hair. Getting the right color and texture is a matter of practice, trial and error.

For some reason, I find painting texture easier on birds and animals than I do on people. Perhaps because I’m not quite so obsessed with getting every hair or strand of feather and fur right. The patterns must be correct, but the individual strands of hair, not so much. Capturing the sunlight glistening from hair and contrasting that with shadow makes the fur or hair look realistic.

"Raccoons at Sunrise" 16x20 acrylic on canvas

Because of the way people and animals move, their covering is constantly changing. Don’t worry that you don’t get it exactly like your initial photograph or drawing. As long as it looks realistic, it will ring true.

Sometimes a painting can get slightly off as we apply paint. Paint is malleable. It changes and moves depending on the tool or brush we use and the medium we choose.

 I use a ruler to see how much my painting has enlarged from the original drawing. Has the width on either side of the face changed from the hair to the outer eye? Has the width of the nose between the eyes changed? When these distances increase, the shape of the head will change and throw the hair proportions off as well.

Once you fix the proportions, the hair will begin to take shape and form. Some people are genius when it comes to hair. Don’t be upset that yours doesn’t fall into place as you think it should. Practice does make perfect. In order to move beyond self doubt and floundering, keep attacking the problem until you find a modicum of improvement. Learn from your mistakes and you will become a better artist.

"Day Dreams" 11x14 oil on canvas

Everything’s always about the Money!

I don’t know about you, but I’m tired of curious people wanting to know how much I earn as an artist. When I was honored with a feature, including links and recognition, it was the same: “Did you get paid?” Somehow, if I didn’t, I got screwed; forget the advertising and network opportunities.

Yes, it all boils down to money in the end. The difference between an amateur and a professional is not only the amount of time the artist spends working; it’s that he gets paid enough to “quit his day job.”

I haven’t reached that point yet, but that’s not why I paint. I paint because I have to. On a recent vacation, I sketched my daughter-in-law in 30 minutes and she was thrilled with the finished product. I was able to draw from a live model and get some extra practice in my down time. She had an original sketch revealing how others see her. It was a win win situation although not a nickel changed hands between us.

Don’t get me wrong. When I sell an original painting I’m thrilled; not only am I richer, I’ve opened up space for yet another canvas. When I sell prints off of an original, that’s a plus! That’s like interest from the original investment of time and money.

We artists are a little kooky. We think our gift to the world is valuable enough even if we don't get a monetary reward. After all, most of the famous painters of the past didn't receive recognition or recompense until after they died.


We're kooky in another way. We can’t see the sky without envisioning color and brushstrokes. A tree is not just a tree; it’s a series of negative spaces joined by curved and extended lines. The trunk is examined for various color and the grooved lines or smoothness distinctive to each individual species.

At family gatherings I not only see the people I love, I model their faces with imaginary brushstrokes, shapes and color. I spot artistic faces in a crowd, and I’m off and running. I can’t paint or draw all of the finished paintings I’ve created in my head while traveling in a car or bus.

What makes a true professional? Attitude! I am an artist. I am a writer. These two gifts are intertwined in my soul and both are meant to be used. If I make others happy, if I make people think or question their own motives and attitudes in the process, I've been successful whether money changes hands or not!