Matt

This is Matt. His father was the first architect I worked with when I moved to Maine 17 years ago. I worked with his father for about a year and it was during that year that I met Matt. He had just gotten married and was starting a family and was busy building a house near his father's property.

I drove out to his house on a snowy day in February to do his portrait. I've been experimenting with filming the portraits so I set up a camera on Matt and another GoPro camera over my portrait to record a time-lapse video of the portrait. I don't usually like to draw and paint teeth so I usually suggest that people keep their mouths closed. Also, it's hard to maintain a smile over the course of the portrait which can last a couple of hours. But Matt was up for it so I agreed to step out of my comfort zone and paint him with a smile - which, I think, actually suits his portrait much better.

I struggled with it the entire time I was there and was so unhappy with it that I wouldn't show it to him. I told him I would figure out the problem, fix it, and he would see it when it was posted. Back in the studio, I figured it out. Of course, it was the smile and the teeth but it was also the amount of chin I had drawn below the upper lip. With the mouth open, the chin and jaw are much longer than I am used to drawing and I was not believing (drawing) what I was seeing. I learn something new in EVERY portrait.

The writing around Matt's head relates to a conversation we had while I was drawing him. And ironically, it contains the solution to the very problem I was struggling with during the portrait. I transcribed it from the video and it's about Matt's own effort at drawing portraits back in college where he tried to do portraits using a minimal number of lines to capture a person's likeness. I've started incorporating this exercise into my portrait sketches as well - so thanks for the idea Matt!!

12x16 pencil, ink, watercolor and acrylic in my huge Moleskine sketchbook. Text added digitally.

Leslie

This is Leslie. She and my wife work together and have become good friends over the past 2 or 3 years. She's a great cook and hostess and pulls together the most fabulous parties. Occasionally, I'll come home and Leslie and Valerie will be hanging out playing cards or working and it will morph into Leslie making the most awesome dinner from the simplest ingredients.

This portrait felt different for me. For one thing, I decided to change over to acrylics from watercolor within the first few minutes of starting to paint. I wanted more texture or character than I felt that watercolor could give me. Secondly, I tried and, at least on some level, succeeded to let go of my usual attempts to appeal to do a portrait that she would like. I've been noticing this "concern for what others will think" almost always creeps in with these "live" portraits and usually makes me tighter in the drawing and painting than I like to be. So lately I've been trying to buck this concern believing that it "compromises" the portrait on some level. Maybe, by using a less familiar medium, I took my mind off one thing ("concern for what others will think")  and put it toward dealing with the more technical and mundane issues of getting paint to do what I wanted. Regardless, I'm happy with the freedom I felt in doing this portrait and think the brush strokes, lines and scratches and rich saturated color reflect Leslie's character. Come in close and take a look.

12x16 pencil, acrylic and ink in my huge Moleskine sketchbook.

Aidan

This is Aidan. I've known him since he was a baby. He and my son went to preschool together. I remember taking my son over to his house for a play date one day when they were around 4 and Aidan got in trouble for something and his mom sent him to his room for a "timeout". Two minutes later I saw him running across the lawn in his underwear with a big smile on his face. Four walls couldn't contain him. He had climbed out the window and found freedom.

I did this portrait just a few days before he headed off to college. He's a good guy - smart, kind, athletic, and artistic. But don't let his good looks and calm demeanor fool you - he has a wild side.

12x16 pencil, ink, watercolor and acrylic in my huge Moleskine sketchbook.

Chuck

This is Chuck. You can see the first portrait I did of Chuck here.

For this portrait, I drove down to his house near Spruce Head. I set up in his living room and started drawing with charcoal but didn't like where it was going so we moved to his dining table and I started over. I worked in pencil and watercolor and ended up with something far different than the portrait I am posting.

Back in the studio, I saw so many errors in the drawing that it drove me to start a whole new painting using just black and white acrylic paint. Then I tried another version in Artrage using the two paintings digitally overlayed. Not liking either of these or the mashed up Artrage version, I returned to the original and started fixing my errors using a photograph I took when I was doing his portrait. This time I used ink, spray paint, and acrylic. I love the effect of the paints and sprayed texture in this portrait.

12x16 mixed media in my huge Moleskine sketchbook.

Chuck

Painted this last night in my huge Moleskine from a portrait I painted live. Think I like this one more.

Janet

This is Janet. She was one of my mom's best friends from the time they met shortly after my mom moved to Maine in the early nineties until my mom's death in 2008. Whenever I see Janet around town we always stop and talk for awhile and she usually is wearing something that she was either given by my mom when she was alive or that she bought when her estate was sold. She always says something kind about my mom that was meaningful to her and these little connections and her expressions of love mean the world to me (though I don't believe I have ever told her that).

When I asked Janet if I could paint her portrait she said she would be happy to but asked if she could knit while I was painting her. "Of course", I said. She is a doer. Her hands are much prettier than this portrait would suggest but they came out just the way I wanted. Artistic license and all that...

12x16 pencil, watercolor, and acrylic in my huge Moleskine sketchbook.

Andrew - Part 1

This is Andrew. And this is why I LOVE this phase of Portrait Project. When I approach each friend for the portrait I'm about to do, I have been letting them know that I see these portraits as collaborations and invite their ideas in the making of their portrait. I was especially excited to see Andrew's name come out of the jar because is a creative artist, sculptor, and maker of interesting things so I was pretty sure he would have some ideas on the making of his portrait.

We met at his studio, which is in a large steel warehouse that has been partitioned into studios and workspaces where artists, sculptors, metalworkers, cabinetmakers, an architect, and a builder work separately on their own projects but also share a common bathroom, kitchen, meeting area, and woodshop tools. We talked about the portrait and Andrew came up with an idea of using a multi-plane canvas. I'm not really sure that's the right term but I'm also not entirely sure how this portrait is going to finally turn out. Andrew suggested I work out 2 portraits - one of half his face straight-on and the other at a 3/4 view - and then he would do the rest. "Sounds good to me", I said. Then he cut 2 panels, slapped some gesso on them and dried the panels with a heat gun. Then I got to work sketching and spraying and finger painting as fast as I could go because we both had other things to get to that day. This morning I threw a little more paint on and took some photos. Tomorrow, I'll drop them off at his shop and he'll finish them up. Can't wait to post the final piece!

Pencil, acrylic, and inks on 1/2" MDF.

To see the first portrait I did of Andrew for the Portrait Project 250 series, go here.

Amy

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

Tumblr Grrls

Sketching and painting 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...

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

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

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.

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

Alex

This is Alex. He's my son. 

As a father, I'm enormously proud of him. He's becoming a young man and this portrait, to me, captures him in the transition. I look at it one moment and I see the child I raised. I look at it again, and I see the man he will become. He's intelligent, talented, philosophical, and he's developing his own ideas about the person he wants to be.

I struggled with this one. It didn't go according to plan - the best ones never do - but, in the end, I got it "right". This is Alex. He is my son.

10x10 Acrylic and oil on plywood. #232

Wayne

This is Wayne.I met him when I was a young child. My parents were friends with Wayne and his wife, Ida. He looks pretty serious here but he's a kind, gentle and funny man. I have always deeply admired this man.

9x12 acrylic on canvas. #215

Santi

This is Santi. He's an urban sketching friend living in Barcelona, Spain.

This is another "collaborative portrait" where I drew Santi's portrait and then digitally mashed it up with one of Santi's sketches.

12x18 mixed media and epoxy with Artrage. #211

Marcia

This is Marcia. I met her a few years ago at an Urban Sketching conference in Santo Domingo, DR. As I was drawing her I was remembering that was she was using these strange waxy colorful pastel crayons at the conference. I asked her about them and she told me they were called Neocolor wax pastels. I meant to get some when I got back home.

This is another "collaborative portrait" where the portrait is my painting and the background is her work.

I don't know if she's a saint or not but she has a lovely aura.

11x16 pencil, watercolor, and acrylic. #201