Bundled Up

As I'm sure you're aware, Chicago's got a case of th' Weathers at the moment. 

Nevertheless!

Late last week, as what became known as #chiberia began, I managed to get all the snow off the car and then drove (very slowly) to Platform for figure drawing.  A couple hours of hot coffee and good company later, I felt I had a good start to 2014:

Friday I stayed in, and kept busy with a couple sticks of charcoal and an 18"x24" pad of newsprint.

I've come back to this image of Jaime a few times now.  The original photograph is actually an Instagram selfie she posted a long while back.  I'm still not sure what my final take will be on it.  I think one more go, maybe with gouache.

The cold crept in over the weekend and, for the most part, I spent my time nested up at home.  Max got an interesting new stylus recently (Sensū), and I hijacked it to try digital painting for the first time.  

The first attempt was a sort of merpy made-up face, just trying to get the feel for the colors and brushstrokes and all that.

After that, I got down to trying an actual portrait with the thing:

The likeness started to get away from me - but I'm happy with the overall experiment.  It's addictive as real painting - except it's easier to do on the couch bundled in blankets.  

As fun as sketching digitally is, I think I'll stick with the real oils.  Must be something about the smelly messiness.  I'm hoping to get those out and moving around in a week or so - still roughing out the 2014 goals and work.

Shifting focus, or maybe just sharpening focus.  

xo