Study of an Ilya Repin painting

The image above is the final!  

I finally put the background in, which should of been done

earlier in the process, but I am so excited to get it going that

I forget about it (bad habbit!).  

I usually lightly do the shadows and go into the lights to 

model them.  Got to make the form turn and have the right 

chroma and value.  When I feel that is on the right direction,

I then start going into the shadows and refining them, which in

turn should be important in the beginning, it does dictate how 

cool or warm your colors should be. 

Started to introduce Terra Rosa, and English red to the mixture.

I started without toning the canvas, I did not use

charcoal in the beginning, just drew with the brush.  

Yellow Sonnet

 This painting I did for a show, Its pretty limited in palette, lots 

of fun though!  Oil on Panel 16x 20 

Portrait

This was another portrait I did, a quick one again, about four hours spent on this

one. 

Another Portrait Sketch!

This is another quick one I did, it took me about three hours to paint.  

These are so much fun to do and so educational too, I love it! I hope

you enjoy this as much as I did! Ciaoo!

Quick Portrait Studies

These are quick portrait studies I did.  In total each of them 

must of been at-least 4-5 hours each.  The top one was 

after a Sargent portrait, and I learned a lot from it.  It was so

much fun to be free with the brush strokes, I am excited

to see where this will take me with my work.  

Presidential Portraits!

I always forget to sign my name, not this time!!

Finished!

Im almost done!

Just working even more and trying to get the painting more harmonious.

Finding that right stroke that works is an infinite journey, but when found,

its all worth it!!

I have smoothed out the bottom area of the painting, and moving up to 

the top.

I then put in the background, I was very hesitant, but finally did it and did not

regret it at all!!

Great shot of my crazy palette! its so messy!

I am trying to decide which colors to use!!

Of-course now the focus shifts onto the trunk!!

One of my favorite portrait is of Senator Mc. Cain, because I learned so much from it.

Great learning experience!!

This is a close up of the portraits when they are done, I am very satisfied with

the process and what I have learned from it!!

At this point I am done with the portraits and really happy with the results!

Not done yet though!

I have just stopped and saw that it was a good idea to introduce color

to Eisenhower and Roosevelt!

I got it framed half way through, due to time constraints.  This is the way the old

masters used to work, in order to have the frame work hand in hand with the 

painting.

I started to introduce color to the painting from the left side.  I originally was just

going to have the painting be half colored and have black and white.  I am glad I 

eventually covered it!!

I then start putting the tones in the white areas that have not been blocked in by the

shadow shapes, I am essentially giving form to a two dimensional painting.

I started with just using Ivory black paint on white canvas.

"Republican Portraits"

This painting was created for the Republican National Convention, that was held at St.Paul, Minnesota.  It was shown at the Premier Gallery in Minneapolis, Minnesota.  I have no political views in relation with this painting, it was purely for the convention and targeted for the delegates.  I have also put up the process work of this painting, Enjoy!!!

 Ghandi, also done in ball point pen.