Frustration with Faces

Last couple sessions with the portrait group I've been feeling very frustrated with my pastel sketches. I like pastels because their much faster when working from life but their also quite messy. Having lost my main boxes of portrait pastels I've had to resort to a jumble box of broken bits where you can't tell what color they are until you wipe them off. If you don't wipe them off real good you can wind up making a dark mark where you hoping for a light one.

So that's frustrating but sometimes I just feel like I'm not really getting the pose or likeness. Sometimes I don't care about the likeness as much as the feeling.

Last Friday we had one of my favorite models Cheyenne. A lovely beauty who reminds of an indian princess. Yet her peasant blouse put me in mind of a pretty senorita. So that is how I drew her. Here's two drawings from the same angle. Just approaching the lay in a bit different.

The one on the left is the first one with a more traditional drawing lay in. The one on the right I focused more on the color shapes avoiding any drawing till the end. I tried using blue and green mixed into the shadows to compliment all the lighter gold skin colors.

Headdress

We had a Cowboy with a mustache wearing a indian chief headress. Never saw an indian with a mustache so I drew him without it. It was one of those rare times I preferred moving to a profile postion. Normally I strive to get a likeness but this time I made the features fit more in the guise of an indian chief.

The second sketch I was able to move over a bit for a slight 3/4 view. The costume didn't quite seem right on the model. I would have preferred him as a cowboy or in his civil war outfit.

A Visit with Abe Lincoln

Last Friday we had a fellow named Wayne who is an Abe Lincoln Impersonator. He wasn't in costume this time but you can see a certain amount of resemblance.  One lady said reminded her of an undertaker.

I think he'd look good as an Amish dutch man. He's a fairly tall bloke with a good sense of humor. A little corny at times but I like corn.

I forgot my little box of dirty pastels so all I had was a bag of blues and a small old selection of some fleshy colors. Nothing like starting your day of with a bag of blues.

I switched to a side location and found a piece of black pastel. He had switched to his glasses at this point. Suppose he was uncomfortable not being able to see who all was staring at him.

Wayne is a real character with lots of stories to tell, Not only does he travel the states doing Abe Lincoln but he served our country in Vietnam and was once a police officer. He also teaches traffic school for all those who would rather do that than may their traffic ticket.

Apparently he is also big into guns and target shooting. When asked if he ever hunted he said he gave up killing after Nam.

 After  my last sketch of Abe for the day I was talking about a painting I had started of Lake Eastman near Raymond. Raving about how beautiful the oaks were this time of year in the foothills.  He said that his ranch was near there and invited me to come down and check it out after the session. I did and brought along photographer Lori Cole and artist Jaunita Smith. We had a good time taking picks at his ranch along the Chowchilla river. I'll show the painting from those pics in my next blog.