Leroy's Art Blog

 I don't know what is going on - the photos I'm uploading aren't doing what I want them to do.  Hope this post comes out OK, finally.

Since my last posting, I haven't been ENTIRELY slacking off.  Some, yes, since it was December after all, and Patricia and I spent a week + in Costa Rica for Heidi and Carlos' wedding - that I officiated, actually.  What a kick!  Then we were in Madison WI for Christmas, with Patricia's kids.  And I've been shopping for furniture for my apartment.  Should have bought stock in Ikea first.

But I'd done about all the homework I could reasonably do for the portrait of Frances Harper (b. 1825, d. 1911), so finally had to fish or cut bait.  I have paint on the canvas, now.  First I traced and then gridded my photograph of her - a half-tone print from the Library Company of Philadelphia - and blew it up to the 4ft x3ft size of the portrait.  That defined her features and profile, after a bunch of adjustments, but I still needed a model for skin color and variation.  I found that in Ronsha Dickerson, a dynamic black woman who was leading a Kwanzaa dance celebration in the Gallery.  She has posed once for me by now, although she rescheduled the session at the last minute.  She was to be here again last Friday, but again opted out at the last minute.  That's two for two.  Hmmmm.

Anyway, I wasn't satisfied with her hands, so spent a lot of today poring over the handouts from Neil di Sabato's course on Conquering Hands and Feet.  That led me to look at paintings by Raphael, and I found this beautiful hand that became the model for her right hand - with a bunch of modifications, of course:

Then, in a grouping of sketches, there was an outstretched hand that was great for her left hand, after I drew it larger and played with it.  Frances' hands will need a lot more work, but at least they are underway, and look like this for now (This much of the portrait I can show you, at least):

The object was to place the hands so that they would lead your eye to the book that is under her right hand, since she was an important writer/poet.  The book will be a lot more prominent before the painting is finished, of course.  That left hand also lifts your eye back in a circle to her face, which is a nice effect.

Meanwhile, I need to keep doing some quicker paintings so I don't forget that there are other things beside the portrait.  A couple of days ago I made this little (8" x6" oil on foamboard) painting of the Christmas decoration I had stuck in my door knocker for the holidays.  I put it in a glass bottle, and liked the effect.  So this is my first more-or-less successful attempt to paint a bottle so it really does look like glass.  Sort of.  Maybe one day I will even try to paint white grapes, to see if I can get that beautiful translucent glowing effect that so many painters seem to achieve.