Portrait Practice 17 (with side-note)

 

Hi! - if you are just seeing this series 

for the first time, please pop back to the beginning HERE where I explain what I am doing.

The Shaw Air Base yearbook also pictured the nurses working there.

I was excited to paint some of their portraits and the first one is Lt Jane Hoff.

(Reminder: I don't work on these for days,

just try to do them in a few hours, to try to keep their freshness.)

Lieutenant Jane E Hoff

Ok, here is my "side-note" (which could be a whole blog post, but since I had hinted 

at something I was working on during this series, I decided to post it here).

My enthusiasm for painting sometimes gets the best of me, 

(many painters will understand this), 

and the best laid plans

go awry.

I wanted to do a portrait of Claude Monet, and I had found this old b&w photo,

that I have kept in my "to Paint" file for a long time.

I began the painting on a 16 x 12 inch Arches Huile paper,

and I will show you the progression

(with some trepidation).

I used GridPainter app to grid my paper and then a willow charcoal to do the sketch. I was probably already off, but tried to use the "rule of thirds" for placement of the focal

point - Claude's head.

I was almost liking this part.

... but his head was wrong! 

I wiped it out.

I worked again and it seemed all proportions were off,

so ... 👇

I just painted over the whole thing.

I have a beautiful bouquet here that has some sunflowers

and I thought it might be nice on this neutral background that Claude is under.

It was very fun to paint and I didn't have to think about 

proportions, much.

Lost Edges & Sunflowers
16 x 12 inches 
oil on Arches paper

This painting is not on my website yet. Will keep looking at it

to make sure it is ready for "prime time".

I am still going strong with my Shaw Air Forces Training Center yearbook

photos and will continue next post with those,

and hopefully no histrionics.

THANK YOU so much for reading!

Happy Creating! 

🎨

Teri's website

Portrait Practice 16

Shaw Field Army Air Forces Training Center 

was named in memory of Lieutenant Ervin D Shaw 

who was the first man from Sumpter County, South Carolina, 

to be killed in France in World War I while serving 

with the 48th Squadron of the R. A. F. (Royal Air Force, British).

This photo is from around 1914.

These are my efforts at his portrait.

Lieutenant Ervin D Shaw

Lieutenant Shaw was only 24 years old 

when he died in aerial combat over France in 1918. 

If you are interested in learning more about Lt Shaw,

you can go HERE.

Thank you for reading!

TeriRobusStudio

🎨

Portrait Practice 14, 15

Painting teeth in a portrait is really tricky.

The image can look very cartoony.

Here goes!

 

Lieutenant Roy Fling

Lieutenant Fling has a bit more of a saucy grin than 

his photo, I think, but this is ok.

Captain Rice is a flight surgeon! 

A flight surgeon is a physician whose patients are serving in the military. The title of flight surgeon is a tad confusing, as these guys are usually not pilots, nor do they typically perform surgery."  (The link goes to more explanation for flight surgeon.)

Captain Albert J Rice

I loved painting the glasses on Captain Rice!

Thank you for reading! ... stay calm and healthy.

Teri's Website

🎨

Portrait Practice 12 & 13

 

For portraits 12 & 13, I'm trying 

a bit more of a radical palette.

 

Mixing a nice rich red using Alizarin Crimson and Cadmium Red Light,

I "washed" the back ground/underpainting and began

to put my very darks on the "canvas" 

(not actual canvas, it is Arches oil paper, in this case).

Lieutenant Seymour Frank

The underpainting for this one soaked so deeply into the paper,

when I just wanted to stain it, that I almost tossed it! 

It was a sample Winsor & Newton paint,

Pthalo Turquoise.

But I just left it and began putting lights on. 

It turned into a strange little portrait, specially with the way his expression turned out!

Lieutenant John J Hildebrandt

Ok, these were very interesting, and always a challenge.

Thank you for checking out this post! Let me know if you have any questions.

At the same time I have a painting going with a rather notable portrait ... 

I'm pretty sure you would recognize the person. I might will probably intersperse

this project with that one. It keeps me going.

Yours in art,

🎨🎨🎨

Portrait Practice 9, 10, 11

It is fun to paint mustaches, so I picked Lieutenant Murray

for my 9th portrait.

And ... I tried an underpainting of mostly Alizarin Crimson. Pretty wild.

Lieutenant Lewis G Murray

Lieutenant George W Ramey

The background for Lieutenant Ramey is composed mostly of Indian Yellow, 

a transparent, very strong synthetic pigment.

Here is a link with some cool info about Indian Yellow.

I love it with the pink shirt.

Lieutenant Mandal A Burcaw

Isn't that such an unusual name? 

The background here has a bit of Indian Yellow, but there is maybe something else mixed in. I really wanted to get the "chin up" pose for Lieutenant Burcaw, but it isn't lifted as much as I wanted. I also did not paint his neck

as long as it looked in his photo.

Thank you for reading! 

This project is interesting enough to be ongoing; 

I have painted 17 portraits from the yearbook, and there

are many more that I could do.

Stay tuned! I painted a nurse's portrait the other day!

It is interesting to do the portraits and not fuss too much

over them. I see so many things that are not quite

right, but "No Fiddling" will be my motto for

the project.

ps If you are new here,

Welcome! My website is:

Teri Robus Studio

You also have my permission to forward this post

to whomever you think may be interested.

Cheers!

🎨