Asya

Asya Tkachuk. Tumblr Girl

Chasid Story in Progress via Instagram

Chassid (Jewish) story ready for the text to be added. 

River

Life Drawing plus Artrage. 3.9.16

Amy

Portrait from the Thursday night portrait group. This is Amy.

Chassid Story

Detail

Detail from a Chassid story I'm working on, Sort of Pollock-esque.

Ramana Maharshi

The best way to meditate is through meditation itself. 
- Ramana Maharshi

Chassid Story in Progress

Working on the layout of a Chassid Story.

Duryodana

This is a detail from a story about Krishna.

A Buddhist Story

Here is the final story and illustration. The story comes from Stories of the Spirit, Stories of the Heart by Christina Feldman and Jack Kornfield.

A Buddhist Story in Progress

This is the sketch I did in April at the monastery in Upper Pisang while trekking the Annapurna Circuit in Nepal. It was an amazing afternoon after a long hike from Chame to Pisang. We arrived in Lower Pisang around 3, got settled in our rooms, then hiked to Upper Pisang where many of the men in the village were engaged in an archery competition, then hiked further to the monastery at the top. There was one monk chanting and beating a prayer drum and I had an opportunity to meditate there for about 10 minutes. The group I was with was ready to head back down but I asked Madhu, our guide, if I could hang back and sketch for a while. He was concerned that I wouldn't make it back before dark but I assured him I would make it back. So, I found a spot to sketch out of the wind and enjoyed the time alone to draw and paint in the middle of the Himalayas a beautiful monastery and listen to the chanting and drums coming from within the temple I was sketching. 

This morning I continued working on the sketch I started back in April and plan to use it in my book project along with a Buddhist story. I posted this photo to Instagram as I was working on it.

Hand

At Waterfall Arts doing a hand study. I did both but liked this one best. Messed with it some more in Artrage. 

Exit

I started going to a new group that meets on Thursday nights to do portrait painting. It's 3 hours of one pose and we can take pictures so that, if we want, we can work on it in our own studios. Then the model comes back for a second week and takes the same pose so that we can continue working. I spent 5 and a half hours on this portrait in my huge Moleskine sketch book. I don't usually spend that much time on a portrait. It will be interesting for me to see how the portraits from this group develop.

Week 1 and 2 - Amanda.

Island Sketch

This is from a few months ago. Idlewild near Alexandria Bay, New York. USA, but just barely.

Life Drawing

Drawing and painting this morning at Waterfall Arts. Portrait in acrylic and ink. 

Stephen - Final

I keep coming back to this one. To the point that I seem to be destroying it. The paper is starting to fight back. This is the guy that uses layers of wood to make his art. Here I am using layers and layers of paint and pencil and ink to make this portrait of him. Seems fitting...

Stephen

This is Stephen. He's a plywood artist and I absolutely love his work. He makes really cool stuff out of plywood - vessels, fine art, coffee cups, etc. A couple of years ago we worked on an inkwell design together and he built me a couple that I love and use practically every day. Anyway, we've been talking lately about him building a couple plywood panels to replace the two metal gas tank covers on my Ducati Scrambler motorcycle. So, a couple of weeks ago I rode out to talk about it with him and asked him if, while I was out there, I could do his portrait.

It was a perfect autumn day so we sat out on his back porch and caught up with each other's lives while I sketched. I brought my large Moleskine sketchbook (12"x16") which I knew would be ambitious for just an hour sketch. Well, the time flew by for me, as it so often does when I'm sketching/painting and before I knew it, my time was up. I didn't especially like the portrait I painted so I took a photo of Stephen with my phone with the plan that I would fix it back in the studio.

I have mixed feeling about this portrait now that I've "fixed" it in the studio. Part of me feels like I've "cheated" - it's sort of half live and half from a photo and therefore not true to my proclaimed effort of doing live portraits. But then the other part of me says I didn't have time to "complete" the portrait so it's fair that I use a camera to so that I can bring the portrait to a satisfactory conclusion. 

Tumblr Grrls

Sketching and painting today

Dipika

This is Dipika. I met her in May when I traveled to Nepal and joined a group of strangers to trek the Annapurna circuit. She's my first "face 2 face" portrait in this new phase of the Portrait Project and this sketch is from a few months ago when we were on the trek. I ended up painting her portrait 3 times over the course of the 2 week trek. This one is my favorite, though as I recall, she wasn't particularly fond of it.

This portrait took about 30-40 minutes and was done in the evening at a teahouse near Chame along the Annupurna circuit trek. I used a 4b pencil and small watercolor kit that fits inside of an Altoids tin along with a Pentel waterbrush.

I'm going to flat out give all the credit for this new phase of Portrait Project to Dipika. She inspired it by showing me that I not only could do it but that I had vastly more to gain in painting from life. After I painted Dipika, I had the idea to paint the portraits of our entire group - eighteen in all. And since they are all friends now and live in parts of the world I may never get to, I'll be sprinkling their portraits in as I go along. So, thanks Dipika. You started something.

Truth

This is Truth. The whole truth and nothin but the truth. I sketched her today.

Fire in the Hole

Don't you know
There's fire in the hole
And nothing left to burn
I'd like to run out now
There's nowhere left to turn
- Steely Dan

Frances

Frances, but clearly not...

Me

This is me. Finally, I have fallen victim to my own brush. It's not exactly how I see myself (do I really look that intense!?) but I was going for it, like I have done with all of my portraits, drawing and painting what I see and letting the moments flow together until I feel like I have a complete portrait. When I start a painting, whether it's a landscape or a portrait, I never know how it will end up. It's what keeps me going - it's an adventure - and the act of painting changes me and I come away with a different understanding and connection with who or what I just painted that I didn't have before I started.

So, I've been thinking, after completing my original goal of painting 250 portraits, how, or even IF, I would continue The Portrait Project. I have gained much from this project, both in terms of improving my skills as an artist as well as gaining a deeper connection to my friends. But I've also realized that by working with photographs - and usually without my subject's permission - that I'm denying their participation in the process of making their portrait. So, here's what I'm going to do - I'm throwing all of the names of my Facebook friends (currently there are 477) back into my "friend jar" (The "friend jar" is a jar that sits next to my desk that has the names of all of my Facebook friends whose portraits I haven't done. I reach into this jar without looking and take a name out when I'm ready to paint a portrait) ((really, I do this)). But this time, I'm going to do "live" portraits - as many as possible - rather than working from photographs. I hope you will all join me on this new and exciting journey.

OK! Let's make some art and see what happens. Should be fun...

8x11 pencil and watercolor. #253

Greg

This is Greg. And that's a little piglet he's holding. He's a farmer now but when I first met him about 15 years ago he was working for a big bank and getting out on his bike whenever he could - probably just trying to get outside of being inside so much. Biking is a great release from stress and being indoors.

It's been interesting to see him make the transition from banker to farmer. He's not on his bike as much as he used to be - probably doesn't have the time - but he also probably doesn't need it as much. I saw him recently after not having seen him for several years and he was a different man- calmer, more seasoned, more settled in - like he's found his rhythm - his cadence.

20x30 Acrylic and gold leaf on panel. #252

Patty

Watercolor and pencil in my huge Moleskine sketchbook. This was about a 15 minute pose.

Greg in Progress 2

Portrait in Acrylic on OSB. Experiment with iridecent pearl paint. Day 2 detail.

Greg in Progress

Portrait in Acrylic on OSB. Experiment with iridecent pearl paint. Day 1 detail

Fabian

This is Fabian. He's an urban sketching friend living in Buenos Aires, Argentina.

Fabian

Quick pencil study for Portrait Project

Tugs

I rode the Scrambler up to Belfast and painted the tugboats - experimental approach - acrylic on 9x12 red primed OSB. Had Egon Schiele's "Houses On The Town Square In Klosterneuberg" in mind when I started but this ended up nothing like it. Didn't like it much at the conclusion in Belfast but found some redeeming qualities back in the studio.

I keep trying to make acrylic work for me - I just can't seem to get happy with it.

Yellow Submarine.

We all live in a "Yellow Submarine"... My submission for the "Wet Paint on the Weskeag" fundraiser for the Georges River Land Trust.

Portrait

Portrait in pencil and watercolor.

Searsmont Village

Motorcycle Diaries. Searsmont village sketches on 7/20. Watercolor and pencil in my sketchbook.

Portrait in watercolor and pencil. 11x16.

Frances

Life drawing at Waterfall Arts today. 

Alan

This is Alan. I first met him about 12 years ago when he called me looking for an architect/designer to help him renovate a building out in Montville, Maine that he was developing into an artists retreat. We worked on the design for a few weeks but he ultimately decided (wisely, I think) to put his energy and vision into creating Waterfall Arts, a contemporary community art center in Belfast, Maine that has been instrumental in helping to cultivate a thriving art scene in the Midcoast.

8.5"x14" watercolor and pencil with Artrage. #250

Kate #2

This is Kate - again. This is the other portrait I was working on at the same time I was working on the last portrait I posted. She looks like a model here. I imagine what was really going on is she was goofing around with her friends and she struck a classic model pose and after the photo was snapped she broke into laughter.

This was a pencil drawing that felt unfinished to me for a few days. I was thinking about adding color and came across a facebook post of a color wheel done in watercolor by my friend Jessie Chapman - an architect and artist living in Virginia. It was posted on Sunday with #love and I understood it to be about the shooting in Orlando. It represents the solidarity/love that many of us feel with the LGBT community right now. And it seemed right for Kate's portrait.

11x17 Pencil in my huge Moleskine sketchbook with Artrage.#249.5

Kate

This is Kate. She and my son were classmates when they went to Montessori fifteen years ago. She was an adorable girl then and has grown to become a beautiful young woman in so many ways. I made two portraits of her because I couldn't decide which photo to use. I worked on them both at the same time in my huge Moleskine sketchbook, flipping back and forth. It was kind of interesting doing it that way because she was a few years younger in the photo I worked off of for this portrait but my portrait makes her look a few years older - closer to the way she looks in the other portrait I was drawing - closer to the way she looks now.

I wrote "u are free" all over her face. This was a phrase that got stuck in my brain when I was in Nepal recently. It's not entirely random that I wrote it on her but I also don't know exactly why I did - I could say that about so many of the things I do to these portraits. I am aware she has visited Nepal and has an affinity for the people there and that part of the world. For me, "u are free" became a mantra of sorts. Something I would think about from time to time. Am I free? What does it mean to be free? Are any of us really free? I saw it written in spray paint on a brick wall on the drive from the airport in Kathmandu to my hotel. A simple piece of graffiti that got stuck in my brain and now it's a value for Kate's portrait. If you have any thoughts about this portrait or the phrase "u are free" I would love for you to comment.

11x17 pencil in my huge Moleskine sketchbook. #249

Sandra

This is Sandra. She's an urban sketching friend living in Buenos Aires, Argentina. This is another "collaborative portrait" where the portrait is mine and the background is a painting by Sandra.

8.5"x10" Acrylic and ink on watercolor paper. #248

Mt. Battie

I hiked to the top of Mt. Battie and sketched the tower yesterday with my badass little dog. While I was sketching the sky was spitting a cold rain and three teenage boys were exploring around the tower. One boy read aloud from a plaque at the base of the tower to the two who climbed to the top -

"All I could see from where I stood
Was three long mountains and a wood;
I turned and looked another way,
And saw three islands in a bay."

Edna St. Vincent Millay

My Studio

Testing out a new watercolor kit and Gopro setup.

Camden Harbor

I'm testing out my sketching kit for a hike I have planned in a month or so. I walked down to the harbor and had a sandwich while I sketched this scene. There's a feeling of spring. Not many boats are in the harbor. And this one looks ready to take it's coat off and get out there

David

This is David. He's a cousin living in New Orleans. I don't know him that well but I've always liked him.

This is, admittedly, kind of an odd portrait - even for me - and it has little to do with David and more to do with my own sense of balance today.

10x10 gouache and pencil in my huge Moleskine sketchbook. #247

Curtis

This is Curtis. I met him on a bike trip to Southern Spain a couple of years ago. He lives in Georgia.

11x16 Magic pencils and watercolor in my huge Moleskine. #246

Kimberly

This is Kimberly. I met her at Carver Hill Gallery in Rockland a couple of years ago when she was in town visiting friends. She used to live here but moved to California a few years ago. Around here, she's famous for her "Sacred Sweat" classes which go way beyond a fitness workout reaching people at a deep spiritual level. 

This is a portrait of Kimberly and her father. The words are Kimberley's and I don't anticipate they are readable with the mess I've made, but trust me, she painted a beautiful portrait of their relationship with these words.

11x16 pencil and watercolor in my huge Moleskine sketchbook. #245