John Smith Is Face #53; 47 Alla Prima Portraits To Paint

"John Smith: Face #53", oil, 12"h x 12"w, copyright Jill Banks 2011

John Smith was one of my very early volunteers and he picked ... a good while ago ... this particular date to sit for me. We had an excellent time from beginning to end, and although I didn't bring out his inner George Clooney, he approved of both the process and the painting.

This is actually the third time he's been painted because he hangs out in artist circles. (Watch out for that. We're always on the lookout for faces.) His previous two painting sessions were caused by Tricia Ratliff, an artist friend of mine.

John's painting took exactly three hours with breaks and a leisurely stroll down to my home studio. The painting came together naturally, comfortably. I wish I could figure out why that is some days and not others and package that knowledge up. But, no. The secret remains with the painting gods.

My grisaille sketch. This is how the painting started.

John Smith with the painting of Face #53

I really am working at doing something different with this 100 Faces in 100 Days Project. I'm in training to be able to paint the subjects I want to paint ... from life. My goal is to be able to paint groups of people ... in comfortable settings ... without anyone posing or staying still for me so I can capture "real" life. Maybe that can work? Should be fun trying.

John and tomorrow's sitter, Janet, are a couple. John told Janet to prepare to have fun sitting and told me to be prepared for Janet to try to usurp my kitchen. She loves to cook and doesn't have enough space at her place. (Ours is pretty darn nice.)

Okay, time to wash brushes. Slow down. Take it easy. Get ready for tomorrow.

Read more about my 100 Faces in 100 Days Project on earlier blog posts (there are 52 of them starting January 1) and on my web site: www.JillBanks.com on my 100 Faces Project Page (link to it from my home page). 

Web: www.jillbanks.com
Blog: jillbanks.blogspot.com
100 Faces in 100 Days Project: www.jillbanks.com/jillbanks/100_Faces_in_100_Days_Project.html
Email: jillbanks1@aol.com
Phone: 703.403.7435

Grisaille Painting of Da Vinci's Nephew's Sculpture

"Marble Man" is basically a grisaille, a painting using just French Ultramarine blue, burnt sienna and titanium white. Typically a grisaille is a painting done in shades of grays. I use this three color combination to build a fairly warm gray. The more burnt sienna I use, the warmer the results. There aren't any super darks in the painting -- grisailles are usually used for underpaintings -- but I like the look especially for the application of depicting a marble sculpture.

The painting is based on a photo I took on an art historical trip to Florence, Italy in 2006. The statue, found in a niche in the courtyard of the Palazzo Vecchio, is of Sanson and the Philistine. This sculpture is by Leonardo Da Vinci's nephew, Pierino da Vinci. Now, I didn't know this until I took the painting into Rob Liberace's class -- figuring that Rob's encyclopedic (really!) knowledge of art would come to the rescue. It did.

"Marble Man," 12"h x 9"w, oil on Raymar panel, copyright Jill Banks 2008

Soon after this I'm back into color. I've been working on another sepia-toned watercolor wash today -- a scene of Venice for this week's entry to the Landscape show at the Art League. Plus, I've been to Kinko's to enlarge a black & white sketch for a commission I'm working on. I think all this monochromatic work stems from the dark and light exercises I've been asking my class to do. But now I'm ready for yellows, reds, blues and greens... an outburst of color.