Female Oil Portrait Sketch

"Oil Sketch of a Young Blonde Woman" (14"X11", Oil on Canvas, $300)

I did this one as a kind of self-imposed homework from my Adult Education figure painting class that I mentioned in the last post. It was a quick version and I really enjoyed having the practice. I did it by pulling a photo article out of the Improper Bostonian when they had one of their hairdo editions or something. Maybe makeup, I can't remember.

Anyway, the full page photos of the models made for easy interpretation, considering the IB was a large-format glossy. Not the best way to get portrait models, but it worked very well for practice. I did a few of them, but this one came out the best, so I didn't paint over it.

I really miss doing the figure painting classes, but they're hard to get anything out of, unless you're pretty dedicated to doing lots of practice work. Painting people is the most challenging subject and painting their faces is the most challenging aspect of that subject.

Figure painting and portrait painting are definitely the things that give me the most satisfaction since they're so difficult and I want very much to get back to it.