A Painting A Day

Day 7 of painting Paul Newman. I am starting to think I need my head examined. I read today that Paul Newman is considered by many to be the best looking man who ever lived. How on earth can you paint that?

I tried to be more abstract and looser with my brushwork on this one. I loved the light in this portrait. I actually think it looks like him today! Ha!

Yay! Six days of Paul Newman! I really like to paint him with a beard. I'm not thinking this looks very much like him, but I didn't have a lot of time to paint him. I really slapped the paint on this one tonight, as you can see. If you look closer, you might see something else - missing! Those large canvas pores that riddle the rest of my paintings.

Lots to talk about today! First, I got up late and was determined to paint on a better surface than the cheap .47 cardboard canvas boards I've been using. I paint on 6x8 mainly. Honestly I couldn't make myself spend $5 on a decent board, so I decided to go the handyman route. I went to Lowe's and got 3 2'x2' hardwood plywood pieces that were 1/8 of an inch thick. Then I got out the saw horses, made myself a table, clamped it down, measured and sawed and ended up with 18 6x8 boards, and another 18 of various sizes like 5x7s and such. Then I took over the kitchen and gessoed the heck out of those babies. That took the majority of my day. Even after gessoing them four times they were still too absorbent. I put a couple of coats of white acrylic on them and that did the trick.

Here's an interesting picture comparison of my old canvas and my new one followed by my kitchen disaster!

I spent $10 on the boards, so doing it myself saved a ton of money and I honestly think I ended up with better quality. I am soooo happy to have some better supports on which to paint.

So the other thing interesting today was my son invited some friends over (they are all in their teens) and they came in the kitchen where I usually display the last two or three paintings I've done and they asked me who that was in the paintings. I said Paul Newman, and they said, "Who's that?" Ha!

I tried to stay a little looser with the painting today - and I really liked the photo I was working from. It was taken in the 60's I think. This reminds me of the Newman who put up a reward to recognize those who protect the first amendment.

This photo doesn't have his signature eyes, so he may be hard to recognize. I see other people in his features all the time. In this painting, I'm seeing Clint Eastwood. Ha!

Most of the photos I find online of Paul Newman are black and white, so I thought it would be fun to do a black and white with his blue eyes. It kind of makes them stand out even more.

I have decided to do as many Newman paintings as I can in December and donate them to the Serious Fun Children's Network that he started. I am hoping they may be able to auction them off and raise a little money. It will be my good deed this Christmas. Lord knows I have enough to atone for!

I can't seem to get enough Newman. I guess when I get his portrait to the point where I think it's a good representation, I'll stop!

Trying to beat the clock on this one. It's 11 so I have less than an hour to post my painting today. I wasn't happy with yesterday's painting, so I did Newman again. This time an extreme closeup!

Well I was super busy today, so didn't start my painting until late. Then I chose a subject that was waaaay too complex for a painting in a day. I wonder if you can even tell who this is supposed to be?

There are several things I plan to fix on this - the jaw is a little off, the right eye is not quite right. There is a little more to this 6x8 inch canvas where I even tried to put in his hand. I will have to finish that later.

Today I accepted a challenge to do a painting every day in December, so here's numero uno.