31, 32, 33 and the progress of 34,

I won't include the count of acrylic paintings I did in school in my count, though I will attach some at the end.

For my final this past spring I did three portraits in oil, after swaying my proff to let me work by the doorway in oil so the fumes would blow out. :) (I'll work outside if I have to!). The plan was to do three portraits in three different ways, all in my favorite medium.

The first one was painted from a picture taken by a webcam of my friend Alison Gayton and her two girls. (Recently the oldest daughter chopped off her hair with scissors, and now looks like a little boy... I was sad.)

Second, I suckered my bff Kristin Thomas into sitting "for twenty minutes" with cupcake bribery. It took 2 hours. If she looks miffed its because she was waiting for me to finish so she could go to the Woodlands mall before it closed.
The second one I decided to experiment with monotypes after seeing an article about them. I got my friend Amy Barnes to sit for a quick drawing, then placed the drawing under glass and painted (with thinned oils) one color at a time over the glass and pressed watercolor paper on it with a brayer. Got this:


I definitely want to get some more practice with live models, it was fun painting Kristin but I definately need more practice to keep her form better. The easiest is still painting from a photo, for the most obvious reasons, but it just feels different to paint from a live person.

Currently I am working on a painting of a Tibetan buddha, Padmasambhava, for my friend Matt Greer. He threw me a reference photo and I went at it. So far this is what I have:

My laptop, er, broke on vacation. (Wasn't my fault but it's a long story about an angry drunk guy and I don't feel like typing it all over again. Rest in peace, Studio Laptop.) For now I will try using my netbook in the garage despite its tiny tiny screen.

And here's a few choice pieces from the spring 2010 semester in varying mediums.