To do

Nope, I can't leave it alone. Too many things bother me. At this point I literally do write out a to do list so I don't forget anything. As Richard Schmid says, "Never knowingly leave anything wrong on your canvas!"

Dr. Anderson to do list:

-hand redder in shadow
-perspective on black cabinet
-fingers by book
-shine on shoulder annoying
-paper too crisp
-wall by floor darker
-darks in hair
-darker shadows on side of face
-blue reflected on neck
-darker under desk
-edges of pants by table

Dr. Anderson progress

He's coming along. With the background in though, I'm discovering that some of the values in the skin tones are not as dark or at least as deep as they should be. Guess that's why Sargent says to paint everything at the same time! But I avoided it this time so that I would have somewhere to rest my hand as I painted the face. Now I know! He's by no means done, but I need to wait until the paint gets a little more tacky. It's too wet to do much of anything right now. In the meantime, I'll begin a painting of the lighthouse. That should go fairly quickly. I always appreciate suggestions by the way!

The Ludington Show: Dr. Bill Anderson

Recently I met with another one of Ludington's finest, Dr. Bill Anderson. Dr. Anderson has in previous years been Westshore Community College's president, and he has done a lot of work in support of the arts (he knew about the College for Creative Studies which is a first for anyone around here that I've talked to!). In addition, Dr. Anderson is an avid historian. He has one of the largest private collections of Tiger's baseball memoribilia. His basement is literally a small museum of signed baseball bats, photographs, and even some of the old Tiger lockers! More importantly for the area though, Dr. Anderson has an extensive knowledge of Ludington's logging history, given that his grandfather used to be a logger in the area. He will be adding to White Pine Village (just like Greenfield village for you eastern Michiganers) an original logging site, which is truely a remarkable find in this day and age! For these reasons, I can understand why he was so instantly recommended to me to be included in the show. Keep up the great work, Doctor!

Here are my color studies, and what I've begun today. The skin tone I'm going with this time is a base of cadmium yellow, cadmium red, and some ultramarine blue. I think it will be a nice contrast of warmth to the sort of cooler warmth of the Mayor portrait. The cadmium yellow and red are warmer than the lemon yellow and majenta of the Mayor portrait.


You can see that as I went I got tired as I did the studies.


Coming along well! Maybe I'll even finish tomorrow.

Mayor John Henderson

Almost done! Just waiting for it to dry to make some final touch ups. I'd really appreciate any helpful suggestions/corrections people have. Here are some process photos:


Also, I'm extremely excited about my new studio space at the location where I'll be holding the show, the Ludington Arts Center! I get the space in return for volunteering for the Center, which I'm more than happy to do. Oddly enough, the Center is located in my old church before it changed locations, so I'm very familiar with the place (my studio is my old Sunday School room!). I have tons of space to actually move now! You wouldn't believe it, but before I was painting in my bedroom and I literally had to pull some Cirque du Solei moves in order to maneuver around with all of the stuff.

Next portrait and post will be concerning Dr. Bill Anderson, and that will be coming up over the weekend and beginning of next week. Also, early next week I will be posting something in our local newspaper to ask the public who they feel is important to Ludington, or who makes the city what it is today. The project is moving along at a good pace, and I just need to keep staying on top of it!

The Ludington Show

Hello all! For the summer, I have decided to create my own show highlighting the great people that make my home town of Ludington what it is. The show will be a sort of snapshot in time of these people and the beautiful places here. I have big plans, including an end of the summer show in August that will be open to the community. Also, I will soon be posting something in the local newspaper asking the community for their suggestions on whose portraits should be included in the show. In this way, it really could come around full circle and truly be a Ludington show.

And I believe I'm starting off on the right foot! The first portrait I will be doing is that of our Mayor, John Henderson. Recently I met with him to take reference photos at one of his favorite locations, our city's fairly new marina, and to talk to him about why he cares about Ludington and what makes him want to be Mayor. The largest thing I took from our talk is that if you can believe your actions can have a negative impact on the community or world, then you have to believe that they can also have a positive change as well. Mayor Henderson says that he became mayor to combat the stagnant situation of Ludington in the past. Apparently, the city just wasn't moving forward, or in any direction, as it held on to the idea that what had always been done was all that could be done. Henderson says that he stepped in to initiate change. Whether the issues made everyone happy or not, he believed that certain projects, like the new marina, might never have happened without people making some waves (pun intended!). In a small city such as Ludington, instituting change is certainly not an easy feat, and so I'm proud to be able to honor Mayor Henderson's vision of positive change with this portrait!

The challenge I'm facing with this portrait is light. The Mayor and I were able to meet at 4:00pm, which unfortunately means the sun is setting towards the marina. This makes it so that any interesting view incorporating water will unfailingly cast the Mayors face into a harsh shadow. However! I think that the shadow can be made interesting, if I am careful to not make it too dark. I like the look of the shadow, because to me I really feel the sun and wind with that bright light on the side of his face. Shadows also, in my opinion, not only create interest, but help to define planes of the face, which I enhances a portraits structure, and therefore likeness to the person. And, I think I can get the shadow to creep a little more into the second half of his face, which will help it to be even more interesting. Here is the original reference photo, and three color studies for the portrait.






From the photo you can see my dilemma with the shadow. But, I think the color studies show that it can be resolved in a convincing manner utilizing the same shadow. As far as skin tone, I think I prefer the first one best, using cadmium lemon, as opposed to the other two in which I used cadmium yellow. I think it helps give it that still sort of springtime lightness as opposed to midsummer heat of the day. But, I also think that in the first one the cerulean blue for the summer sky is too green, and I prefer the cobalt or ultramarine versions. So! A little of this, and a little of that and we should be golden. The rest of the day I will probably work on the final full sized sketch, taking breaks, looking at it with fresh eyes and standing farther back, because I can tell even now that there are some issues when an hour ago I didn't see them.

I can't begin the painting today because I will be leaving tomorrow for San Diego, and the painting would dry before I return. So I will update you on the progess after labor day. And hopefully, I will be able to get a studio space at the new Ludington Center for the Arts so I can get out of my very cramped studio/bedroom!

Anna Lisa Finished!

Here is my lovely "Anna Liser" finally finished. I'll need to get a better photograph (and photographer!) though, because the piece is pretty shiny, and it's difficult for me to photograph it well.

Anna Lisa Progress

Here are some more process photos of my Anna Lisa oil painting. She's coming along well!