This is another of the sketches I do as often as possible. Again, it is cleaned up from the initial light pencil lines and drawn over with a pen.

There is something very calming and tranquil about watching someone sleep. I often draw my models while they sleep. Most often they are not without cover so in this case it was posed but from the idea of watching her sleep late into the morning. I do expect this will end up as a painting and think it should be kept without a lot of background. Just the figure says all that needs to be said.

A sketch from yesterday. Sunday is a lazy day and a good one to spend with someone who makes you feel like drawing. This was not done from posing standing models but from memories & reflections later that day.

This is not exactly the original. It was done first with a very hard pencil and when the right lines were found I used a pen to draw the final shapes. Then the light pencil lines are eraced. I will often do this sort of process to give me a starting place for a larger painting.

In this case I'm thinking of doing it as two paintings. One more or less as it is here but another that is less erotic and more just affectionate. Doing this is not so much for different types of collectors as an interest in the different moods possibe and the different feelings both felt and expressed.

This is only about 10 inches high but I expect the final paintings would be more in the order of 48 inches high.

This is a page from a sketch book. These are quick sketches done from model earlier today. I often will do these quickies and add some notes in case I see I want to make something more with them later.

This is the rough sketch for a possible painting probably named, "Nude Standing By Tree"

This is a charcoal on newsprint about 24 inches high.  The original idea for this came from seeing a small statuette in an antique auction. I often will see a statue or painting and take a quick digital photo of it and then use it as a starting point for a painting. I then come back to my studio and work with a model to get the right pose. The model might not look exactly as the sketch, it isn't photography, but she helps with the lighting and proportions.  She is also very often a great sense of inspiration on her own.

With this I have decided to first do a pastel of it about this size, 24 x 12 inches.  This will allow me to work out final composition issues and decide on the colors in a much quicker way than during the painting. I have decided to do the oil of this (providing the pastel works out well enough) a bit larger than this or the pastel but I will make the final decisions on all that later.

The face is so very important in my work. This face is only a rough but in the pastel and then the painting she will have to be given the expression I'm looking for. I want her to be looking down and to her right with a sense of her dreaming of something or someone. Would that it were me. [grin]

Let me know what you think, good or bad. I usually learn something from them.

Danae PaintingThis painting is based on a Greek myth. Danae was the daughter of King Acrisius of Argos. Disappointed by his lack of male heirs, Acrisius asked an oracle if this would change. The oracle told him to go to the Earth's end where he would be killed by his daughter's child. She was childless and, meaning to keep her so, he shut her up in a bronze tower or cave. But Zeus came to her in the form of golden rain, (He had a habit of showing up as something else and do these things.) and impregnated her. Soon after, their child Perseus was born.

Painters have made paintings of Danea for centuries. Rembrandt, Klimt among others. They have always used it as a vehicle to portray a woman alone experiencing sexual pleasure.



In my case I became friend with a beautiful woman on MySpace and she showed me many photos of herself in body paint done by a very good professional artist. We talked about them in messages and I decided on one that would work for this idea with my using her body pose and beauty and me adding the vine and background. The idea of the vine is a variation on the shower of gold but I liked the idea of it growing from colors very human or fleshlike and going through the purple of passion to the gold around her face.

As I worked I sent digial images to the model and she would make suggesgtions as I went. She was and has been a great inspiration for me on this work and on some of the work I’m doing now. I hope to do more paintings of her from photos she takes especially for my paintings.
To view a larger version of or purchase this painting  go to: DANAE

Here are  the continued stages as well as the final of the painting I call, "Natasha Waking" 

I will start with the 3^rd  , 4^th and ^5th stages (earlier stages are described in earlier blog posts) of the painting and then the final.  The biggest struggle here was the skin tones and getting that feeling of morning but still having some drama in the values or shading and a contrast with the background.   

When I reached this point I knew where I needed to go and was able to finish the painting. Below is the image of the final painting. You can see a larger version of the completed painting here, "Natasha Waking"