This semester I am taking my VERY LAST art class at BYU. Once I finish this class I am officially done with my Illustration major. I'm glad that I'm ending with this class (although, as you can guess, I would have loved a figure drawing class too), because I wanted to get more solid at painting before I left school. The class is called "Painting the Human Head" which sounds kind of funny. But portrait painting is something I've always wanted to learn and be good at-- so it's great! I am taking it from Bob Barrett (have I ever taken a class from anyone else?) and so far I like it a lot.
These images are from the first two weeks of class. The first one (yikes) was basically all about trying to remember how the heck oil painting works at all. It was a little rough, but since it's been over a year since my last time doing oils I didn't feel too bad.
In the next one I focused on increasing contrast in the lights and darks (since I felt like this was a weakness with the first painting).
The third painting is where I decided to try playing with color more (and I reigned in my shadows to a more realistic level). I had slightly less time on this one, so the shapes aren't as smooth. But I seem to be improving with each painting-- so hopefully this trend continues!
