Quick Sketches

A couple of 15-20 minutes charcoal quick-sketches on newsprint done from life at the Valentine Art Show at the Farm at South Mountain, Phoenix on Feb. 14th. It was a beautiful day. Not a lot of traffic, but still good experience working from life in an unstructured environment. These people were artist members of Tempe Artist Guild, not professional models. So was extra good experience :)

Monochrome Study - Costumed Model

In a local open studio offered by PAOA, I practiced a monochrome study using the "sight-size" technique. Approx 3 hours of work and I feel it still needs quite a bit of tweaking. I did add a little color to the skin areas and some white on the highlights.I used burnt umber on a 14"x18" linen canvas. When I prepared my canvas with a wash of burnt umber the previous day, I used Artisan oils with the Artisan thinner. This was a mistake. When I attempted to remove paint to achieve the highlights, it did not come off easily or at all. I should have used water for the wash. It is a learning experience working with water-misible oils. (Below) a photo of the in-progress painting with model set to size.

New Pastel on Velour

The companion portrait to the other pastel of a young girl, both sisters. A difficult expression to capture, but still fun. 11"x14" on velour. I'm on a roll. Will begin soon two more on the velour.

Pastel on Velour of Young Girl

Back to doing humans again! LOL This is the first pastel I've done on the velour of a person (not pet). It is a young girl around 8-9 yrs old. I took the photos myself which I worked from. About 11"x14" size. I am truly enjoying working on the velour paper and my next one will be of this girl's sibling. I have been very frustrated with working in oils and the joy just was not there. But, I am finding new joy with the pastel on velour! So, I will be focusing on this for awhile. Hopefully, I will feel more comfortable with color when I return to doing oils.

Graphite Portrait of Tippin

Pet portrait of a black Labrador puppy. Black fur is not easy and was very challenging. About 5"x7" on Aquarelle Arches paper with graphite in different hardness. This is the fourth dog portrait in the last month...I must be on a roll here. Am taking commissions for Holiday Pet Portraits. Please contact me at pljarizona@yahoo.com for more information or visit my website at www.pamelajonas.com

Graphite Portrait of Gomez

Another cute little puppy portrait of a yellow lab. This was done rather small 5"x7" on heavy-weight cold-press smooth drawing/watercolor paper. I used different hardness of graphite, hb to 6b. Wonderful surface for graphite, it glides across and melts like butter in the darks. Love it.

Pastel of Nala

Cute little doggie belonging to a friend. This is pastel on velour paper about 8"x11" The challenge is a reference photo where much of the defining features are in shadow. Animal art is another whole skill set as I've mentioned before. I admire the work of Lesley Harrison and have her book "Painting Animals that touch the heart". She is a master at pastel on velour and wildlife and an inspiration to me.

On this, I worked on a gray velour using 3 different pastels, hard pencil pastel and Nupastel and soft pastel.

updated with final 11:01pm

Just in Time for the Holidays - - Tim Allen as "The Santa Clause"

This was fun to do! I added the snow globe since this was taken from the 3rd sequel, not the first and was significant to the story. Graphite on white paper, approx size 4"x4". I'm doing these fairly small, in a dimly lit room, in my lap! LOL They look so much better up close and not in these digital files. Eventually I will figure it out.

A word about this Blog. I don't really know if anyone visits it and reads these things or not. But, just the fact I've made this commitment, whether I manage to accomplish, or not, is always on my mind. I've done over 26 portraits in sketches, oils, etc of people and pets in the last couple months. That's more than I've done in the last 2 years! So, I feel pretty good about that. Anyway, if you are reading this, THANK YOU. I've have 3 pet portraits lined up to do...still. I'm hoping tomorrow is the day :)

Graphite Sketch

This is another pencil sketch while watching a movie "Hitch" and is supposed to be Eva Mendez. Not the best likeness, she moved around alot, very animated in this film. Size 5"x6" on white paper. I am having trouble getting reproductions of my graphite drawings to be true. I've tried scanning and photographing. This one is a photo. I will keep working on that.

Grecian Costumed Model from Life

This was done in charcoal and white chalk on a light greenish-gray toned pastel paper from life at a Portrait Artists of Arizona work session October 31st. The model Elizabeth Claret posed in a costume I created by draping some ivory fabric tied with gold cording and an ivy garland for her hair. I also started an oil painting of her but it still needs some work and finishing touches before I post. I love the classical theme.