Last night was the first Arizona Artists Guild meeting of the "season". As usual, I drove a van load of artists to the event and it was a fun ride. The program demo was by Bill Lundquist, who is a wonderful artist in all media and especially I love his watercolors (big surprise!). We were there early and he was looking for a live model for the demo. I was asked by a program committee member if I would like to sit for the demo. When told I could keep the portrait I said yes. What an honor! All I needed to do was to sit and hold a pose for 2 20-minute sessions during the demo. That turned out to be more uncomfortable than I thought but I am so glad I did this, I love the portrait. He said to choose a facial expression I could keep constant so I chose not to smile. I agree that my countenance does look a bit severe here, but I do think he captured my likeness well in the short time he worked on this.
Bill used a variety of charcoal....powdered, pencil and vine charcoals. In the beginning he wet a large brush, scooped up some powdered charcoal with it and blocked in areas of dark. He then used a hair dryer and used vine charcoal to establish the eyes. I couldn't see any of this process so my friend, Ann, used my camera to do step-by-step photos.
This is after the first 20-minute session, during which I had five minutes to stretch my legs, etc. Interesting!
This is the final portrait after about 45 minutes of work. I love it, even though I do look a bit dour here. But, it was an experience to have my portrait done by such a great artist as Bill.
Now I have to learn how to spray this and with what to preserve it so I can frame it. Cool!
1 comment:
This is really exciting. You deserve a special treat like this and I can see why you are so happy with it.
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