Portrait and Figure Studio

Last week I went to Portrait and Figure Studio at Hayner Culural Center in Troy, Ohio.  A group of area artists gather there to paint portraits and figures from live models.  We share the cost of the model.  These models are clothed.  That is important to add because in the typical college figure painting class, the models are nude.

These are my quick warm up sketches.  I choose to work in watercolor although many of the artists work in pencil or pastels.   The sketches are between 4 and 5 inches tall.  They are painted in 3 or 4 minutes since I never seem to be quite ready to start when the timer is set for 5 minutes.

Below is the longer pose. The model stood for 20 or 30 minutes, then took a break. I had between an hour and an hour and a half to work. This is watercolor on Fredrick's Watercolor Canvas which is a forgiving surface to work on. As long as I don't use staining pigments, I can wash off the color completely if I want to change my painting. I really like the canvas for figure and portrait studies. This portait is about 11 inches tall.