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.

Pastels and a Photo Tioga Trip

This post should have been before the last one as it's about the Friday before it. The day started of with the YWA (Yosemite Western Artists) painting session. I was experimenting with using rubbing alcohol with the pastels. It worked nicely to give the pastels a wash look to start on but it didn't work well with the lighter pastels.

I wound up scrapping this portrait and trying one from another location. There was only time enough for two twenty minute poses. But you're unhappy with a piece sometimes it's best to just start fresh. I hadn't planned the composition of the first sketch very well. I really liked her hand holding the can but trying to squish it in without allowing for it in the composition was a big mistake. I know I should plan more and do thumbnail comps but I rarely do when sketching.

Loved this angle but with too little time and too much talking I didn't get as far as I would have liked on it.  Never-the-less it was a fun morning of portrait sketching.

Sometimes I'll fine tune a pastel when I get home but the weather was looking too good to stay indoors. Big puffy clouds were showing up and I loves me some clouds.

So I talked my son into a drive along the Tioga pass up to Tuolumne Meadows  It was a spur of the moment late day afternoon trek. But with the flowers blooming in the high country and the promise of a nice sunset it seemed worth it. It was. Well sorta.

Got this great pic of the back side of Half Dome and a few others sunset pics from Toulumne Meadows.

Sometimes you arrive at a spot just a best time. That seemed how this evening was shaping up.
Unfortunately on the way back home my car blew out a spark plug.

We hobbled down the mountain and just barely made it to El Portel. Missed the last YART bus out so we slept in the car till morning.

Ma I hate sleeping in a car. Cramped cold and learned that my son snores quite a bit. Sadly we were stuck there because our other car was not working. Having no cars when you live in the mountains sucks.

Fortunately what I thought was going to be the death of my car turned out to be an fairly easy fix for our mechanic.

Fridays Painting Group

 

Every Friday I join a bunch of other artists in painting from a live model. The sessions are three hours long, with the model usually holding the same pose very 20 minutes with 10 minutes break. Of course we all get to gabbing during our breaks so we don't always get 6 poses in for the full three hours. But we have a lot of fun and we all look forward to Friday mornings.

In this pic you can see what I did in the first 20 minutes as compared to the last 20. Though I got a good likeness by the last pose the first 20 seem fresher and still a fair representation of the model. In fact I think I caught more of his likable personality in the first 20.

Sometimes in the struggle of getting a realistic likeness the struggle becomes apparent and the freshness and vitality in those first initial strokes is lost. 

Anyway this is my new blog about my various artistic endeavors. I look forward to connecting with other artist friends and sharing our love for the arts.