We've been given some photographed subject matter by our teacher to work on. This time it's pears. Not being quite sure of the colors I would use, I sketched a preliminary drawing first with my trusty Derwent Inktense pencils, wetted with a fine point waterbrush. I love getting to know my subject matter intimately as I paint; doing so certainly helped when I was a portrait painter in Boston in the '70s. By "intimately" I don't mean... well... excuse me while I blush. What I mean is, I studied the model's features carefully as I painted. I even engaged them in conversation, asking about their lives and interests, which somehow helped to distinguish certain aspects of their posture or features. For instance, maybe an enlisted man's tender reference to his mother as he posed somehow helped me to focus on the way the sunlight struck the tips of his blond eyelashes. Something fragile, innocent, boyish.
Now if I were to ask these pears what they love to do on their days off, they would no doubt giggle and squirm, drawing attention to their bashful posture, one against the other.
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