A Painting A Day

So I meant to try to leave out the white in the face today, but just couldn't find a color photo of Newman that was speaking to me. Instead I did black and white. I think I put too much shadow on the right side of the forehead and on the neck actually, and there was something a little sinister about his look in this one. Paul Newman is taking over my kitchen! I think my husband is getting jealous! ;)

Thirteen days painting the same person, wow! I did not have a lot of time today to paint, so with this one I was rushed. I put some brighter colors in the face - greens and reds and purples, but I still don't think I am getting the skin dark enough. I tried not to use pure white in the face, but I still feel like I used too much white in the mixtures.

I'll try again tomorrow to make the face darker. ;)

I stayed up late to finish Friday's painting because I have a lot of work tomorrow. It's 1am so technically it's Friday. Haha

On this one, I tried to put more color into the face, and for the most part I did. It was a bit easier easier to get the highlights. I added a little yellow in the highlights too, but I think I'm still using too much white. I think maybe tomorrow I should try to use absolutely no pure white in the painting. That will be a challenge.

 I really like his eyes in this one. I am realizing the thing that made Newman so striking was the contrast of those dark eyebrows and the deep shadow of his eye sockets contrasted with the lightness of his eyes. I appear to have no method to constructing a portrait. I kind of paint all over the place. I am trying to put in all the darks first. I had to redo the mouth on this one because it was in the wrong place, so maybe if I block in the darks and then start with the eyes and work down to the nose and then the mouth, I can get the placement of the features right the first time. ;)

Wow! Made it to 11. I was really wondering if I would make it today. This picture is a little blurry, which probably makes it look better. Ha! There's something not quite right about this one that I can't pinpoint.

I'm really liking the challenge of this 30 day Newman quest. I know that I'm getting lots more painting done because of it, and I think that the practice is helping. I take a portrait class with Sue Foell in January, and I'm hoping that I'm not getting into bad habits now. For the most part I feel like I'm not putting enough color in the face. I can tell that I'm not, because it was difficult to put the highlights in this portrait. There was too much light already in it. Tomorrow I'll try to put more color in the face.

I like todays painting. I tend to like the scruffier pictures of him where he's not so perfect. I think this one came from Cool Hand Luke, which I've never seen by the way. Maybe after I'm finished painting him I'll watch some of his old movies.

It's funny - I was calling this one Newman Jesus because it is kind of the same composition as a lot of the Jesus portraits I've seen. Ha! It also reminds me a little of Charlton Heston - I think it's the cheekbones. So yesterday was Newman Bond, today Newman Jesus! I hope no one takes offense, it is kindly meant.

 Just a sidenote, yesterday I was looking at some art online, and I was thinking "Wow, this guys work is fabulous, and wow - how does he do such a complex painting in a day?" After reading more about him, I discovered that they weren't paintings at all - they were photoshopped digital art. They really looked like paintings to me. So I wanted to clarify that my work is just the old fashioned putting paint on canvas without the aid of any digital media. The only digital media I use is fireworks to crop the paintings. I don't even use filters on them, as you probably can tell. So that makes me wonder, am I a dinosaur? Am I relevant? I wonder.

So day 9 of 30 days of Painting Paul Newman. I see other people in my portraits all the time. In this one - I'm seeing Sean Connery as James Bond. Maybe it's just the pose, but I can't shake it. I do like this one better than yesterdays although it still seems unfinished.

I decided to start doing a painting a day 30 days ago today. Yay! I am getting serious about my painting. I've been taking classes, and feel the best way to improve is to paint a little every day. I try to set limits on how long I paint during the week, because I do have a job and a teenage son to take care of.

I thought it might be a good idea to reiterate why I'm painting this particular movie star, so here goes:

My favorite thing to paint is portraits, so one day I painted Paul Newman. It was really disappointing. He looked more like George Bush than Newman. So I tried again the next day, and *sigh* it still wasn't very good. I now have 9 portraits of Paul Newman, and I'm excited because I actually am proud of a couple of them. I feel like you can really see my progress through the work. I also feel like I'm starting to develop a little bit of my own style.

I have this desire to paint people who have made a difference. I call them my real life heroes. I painted the man in the red bandana from 9-11 a while back, Eudora Welty too, and now my hero Paul Newman. Don't get me wrong. I'm not fascinated with Paul Newman, the movie star. I'm fascinated with the family man who didn't didn't seem to take himself too seriously. He gave back millions through Newman's Own. I love it that he put up a reward to protect the first amendment. So yes, Newman is a hero to me. His life was meaningful.

I have made it my goal to paint Newman for 30 days. I thought it would be a good idea to donate the portraits to one of Newman's charities. They can hang them or auction them - whatever they like.

So in case you wanted to know, that's why I'm painting Paul Newman. ;)

You know, I really thought I was making a breakthrough in my portrait painting. It seems like all of my portraits were getting progressively better - that is until today. :( I stayed waay too tight on this one and couldn't loosen up. It was also difficult for me to paint the younger version of him (this is from a mugshot while he was in college). I didn't have much time to work on this, but honestly that's not an excuse. I have not spent a lot of time on the others either. Hopefully tomorrow will be better. I think I will choose an older, scruffier ( if that's a word) picture of him so I can loosen up and be more free with it.