Do You Want to Draw Faces?

From my Messenger series, Oil on board

If you have been following my blog, you know that I have spent most of the past year and this year painting figuratively. Every once in a while I think about painting abstractly again, and then am so inspired by the resurgence of strong figurative art, mostly made by young international artists who really know how to draw, paint, and create something new.

I hear many artist saying that they can not draw. Drawing is seeing; really seeing and measuring and I can introduce you to that ability.

I have online classes in drawing and painting faces. I am not teaching portraiture, that is a big difference. It doesn’t matter if you get a great likeness with these classes, I want to share with you the simple way to get a face that looks real, not just a caricature.

Learn to create faces in oil, acrylic, cold wax, pencil, charcoal, ink wash, ink pencil, chalk pastel, and oil pastel, .You do not need to be an accomplished artist. This course is designed for both beginners and professionals.

There are 10 classes, each using a different technique. You can watch them over and over whenever you want; https://vimeo.com/ondemand/21068

Here are some examples from my student. He only has one hour a week for a class with me. Of course he continues to paint after work and his children are asleep.

Here is where my studen José Luis started.

after a few week working with me

Conté crayon

Oil

 

 

José Luis worked as an abstract painter for years before. Now, he is loving painting faces.

Check out my website for more examples of my work.http://ezshwan.com

I will work online with artists and non artist everywhere.

The Art Mentoring Program is something new and intended as a long distance mentoring program, to provide one-on-one guidance to artists working in any medium no matter where they live.   My goal is to give artists honest, clear feedback on their artwork and to engage in meaningful conversation that will help them focus their art practice to develop a cohesive body of work.

Cost: $100 for 4 sessions

The Fifty Faces Book is ready

The book is ready. It can be previewed by clicking on the link below. I will have a few copies at the show in June.

 http://www.blurb.com/b/6240665-fifty-faces

I am excited to have a wonderful commission. A darling friend will have a special, large painting of herself to celebrate and remind her of her strength and renewed love of life.

I will also take orders for portrait commissions that are the same size and style of the 50 faces. If you want to buy your portrait, I accept dollars, pesos of PayPal. $425 each + $45 shipping to the States or Canada.

If you will not be in San Miguel de Allende for the show in late June, please make an appointment to see the faces in person.

Fifty Faces Finished

The face are finished and now I am working on the book. I am having quite a few challenges with the layout on Blurb. I have made 3 Blurb books before, but probably not during Mercury Retrograde, when the planets seem to want to test my patience. I have lost everything at least 4 times and had to start over. I'm practicing my yoga breathing.

Here is the final face:

Face #49

Tomorrow I will post the last face in this series. I am glad I cut it down to 50 faces rather than the original 100 I had planned. I haven't become tired of it. It has been an interesting challenge to keep the images fresh and not over worked and still capture a likeness. As always, the eyes are important to me. I like painting them and feel as if I am looking into the personality of my subject.

Face #48, A beautiful Woman; A beautiful Friend

The Countdown; #47 of Fifty Faces

The end of the Fifty Faces project is in sight and I have started the layout for the small picture book. 45 of the faces have been hung and I am beginning to plan the show.
Here is the face for today:

Process of Portrait #46

I am seeing the end of this series. All the faces have been worked on a couple of days and soon all will be finished.

Face #45

Yesterday, my helper and I installed 45 faces in the gallery. Five more will go up next Tuesday when he returns.  I think I am finished with 2 more - I'll look at them later, so there are only 3 more to go. It is interesting to me that I do not feel burned out and still find each face fascinating, but I am happy that I decided to make only 50 rather than the original 100.

I have been asked if they are for sale. Yes, they are and can be removed after the show. (I will figure out the date soon) The price is $425 + shipping. I will do commissions if you want your portrait and I haven't been able to include it in this series. The price will be $550, for the same 10" x 10" painting. Of course, I offer larger portraits as well and they are priced by size.

I am pleased on how they look grouped together and I will post a photo later.

The first visitors came in the afternoon and they had fun posing with their portraits.

2 Faces for Today

I've decided to post the process of 2 portraits today.

I've lost count

As of today, I have the last 5 faces started. Now I just check the remaining boards to see the count of the Fifty Faces. I hope to get the gallery set up this week since I am running out of room on the studio shelves.