Alex at LAA

  A little while ago I did a demo at The Loudoun Academy of Art (now ArtSquare).  The model who was scheduled for the event had some sort of issue and Alex stepped in as the hero.  She did a great job.  
  Due to technical error the first part of the painting is completed prior to the beginning of the movie - this is unfortunate, since I had demonstrated every painting secret I know during that portion of the demo.  The part caught on film, however, does feature good music and time-lapse brushstrokes.  I hope you enjoy it.  

  The music is by Jon Schmidt - a wonderful pianist (and former Highland High Rugby player) and performer.  If you ever get a chance to visit a concert of his, do it because it's Two Things - it's cultural and it's entertaining; at the very least check out his music - I've painted to it for years.) Also, I posted a pair of photos of the demo on Facebook, part of a new album called Behind-the-Scenes.

The Portrait Drawing - Charcoal

Here's another time-lapse video of a portrait drawing I completed recently. I used vine charcoal and charcoal pencils on a piece of paper toned with watercolors. A clean paint brush and paper towels (Bounty) were used to unify and/or blend the charcoal. Several erasers were also employed, the most useful for this drawing being the eraser pencil - a Faber-Castell Perfection 7056. (How can you go wrong when your tools are perfect? - and not only perfect. . . the 7056th iteration of perfection!!  Keep it up Faber-Castell.)

The music really makes the video. It is from David Tolk again - a very talented musician. "To the Limit" is the song. I hope you enjoy it.

Tuesday Morning

This is a video from a demo I did last Summer.  It is a figurative sketch of a great model, Beth, painted alla prima en plein air on a Tuesday Morning.  Thanks to Holly, Jeanette, and Lynn for making it happen, as well as Zeynep Baki, owner of the Hillsborough Winery, for hosting the event.


The song in the video is "Olinda Road", written by Barry Flanagan of the group HAPA. Their music is definitely worth checking out.  Several years ago I heard a snippet of one of their songs on NPR.  I emailed the program, found out the song was by HAPA, and have been enjoying their music ever since.  They were very kind to give their permission to use the music on this video.  I hope you like it.

Avery

Avery is a recently-completed commissioned portrait of beautiful and kind young girl, named Avery, that will be featured in the May issue of The Artist's Magazine.  This video shows some of the 'making-of' Avery.  I've also included some higher-res photos of the completed painting below.


The music for the video is from David Tolk.  I found his song Through the Trees looking through the iTunes genius feature.  I liked the music and the title fit quite nicely.  After purchasing the song, I soon found out that David is the brother-in-law of one of my closest art buddies, J. Kirk Richards - the brother of Kirk's wife Amy - as in Amy Tolk Richards, also a talented artist.


But the coincidences don't end there. . . Avery was painted in New Jersey - in the bucolic and historic town of Morristown (Washingon's troops spent two winters there during the Revolutionary War).  David grew up in the bucolic town of Mendham, NJ which happens to sit exactly next to Morristown.  Through the Trees is on the album Memory Road.  I'm not saying it was destiny to pair Avery and Through the Trees, but I am saying that, to me, it seems like artistic peanut butter and jelly.  A big thanks to David for letting me use the music.