Portrait is progressing, I made the head too big, so that needs fixing, hands OK... etc.

Portrait I am working on in oils right now. more to come...woman in white flamenco dress, or gypsy?

Beautiful paintings of nudes and portraits in another blogPaul S Brown

The drawings I am doing in preparation for an oil painting to be called woman in white, or Gypsy in White

I just discovered this fantastic artist David Palumbo: here is a youtube demo
http://www.youtube.com/watch?v=zSlRKSSJ2vk&context=C420910eADvjVQa1PpcFPqxrKwu2zu3oDjeOd8PgT08qaN9Gn1vmU=

his web site of nude figure studies in oil

Alexandra Manukyan


"I focus on combining traditional oil painting techniques with surrealist symbolism to communicate the immediate and lasting impact of technological innovations on the human body and psyche. One recurring motif in my paintings often appears as the feminine form bearing the burdens of worldly grief and mistakes on her body bowing in resignation to a seemingly inevitable fate: the acquiescence of the corporeal state to the encroaching dominance of modern technologies conjoining itself like an apathetic demon of silicon and circuitry cursing more than fulfilling promises of beauty and comfort. " – Alexandra Manukyan

Alexandra attended the College of Fine Art and Design and State University of Yerevan/Armenia before emigrating to the Unite States to study Textile and Graphic Design at UCLA. Since 1990 she has worked extensively in Fashion and Entertainment, designing movie posters, key art and sets. This is her first solo exhibition. http://www.laluzdejesus.com/shows/2012/Manukyan/Manukyan2012.htm

The model and the portrait, side by side. My Yoga teacher.

This woman's paintings are not sweet, in fact they are very disturbing, yet beautiful in their own way. Very powerful, and well painted. I would like to go in this direction in my next painting series....alexandra manukyan work

This Irish woman's paintings are sweet, and well painted, like her small ones as well.

Dr Frank Netter, was a commercial artist, before he went to medical school. His artwork is the yard stick that other medical illustrator's use to measure. Here is a lovely nude, and other patients, illustrating pneumothorax. Here is the original page; Netter

Here is a page devoted to drawing the famous pin up model or calendar girls. Pinup nudes, girlie art, or as it is known officially as cheese cake, was and is a wonderful area of art that goes back thousands of years, and will probably continue as long as humans are around. Here is a blog showing examples of well known artists.  click here to see the work

Bob Peak illustration for My Fair Lady, when illustration was at its peak. Here is a blog that gives more examples. go here to see more illustrations

From the art blog of Eric Bowman, copyrighted by him, from his blog at find the image here

Here is an interesting artist's blog, and I like his realistic style of painting. Enjoy!Eric Bowman

The greek ideal of  male beauty. Of course reality is much different, unfortunately...

Cajun Rocker, a sort of Whistler's mother pose, oil portrait on panel. The model is my Zoology laboratory Partner at LSU Lafayette. She wore a Cajun dress, and went to a living museum in Iberville Louisiana to take photographs. Photo on top, oil painting below.

Yes, this is a woman. A body builder who has spent years training and getting her body in shape. She is an extreme example of female beauty, but she reminds me of the female statues in the Medici tomb in Florence by Michelangelo. The painting on the left is Acrylic and the one on right is done in oils using the Maroger medium.

The harpist, in afternoon sunlight, on board, oil paint using Maroger Medium.

Red heads are a challenge to paint, because of the color of their hair  that  requires extra care to make natural. Red heads also have pale skin that  is more translucent than normal skin; less pigment that lets blues and green colors show through. Again, care has to be exercised so they don't look like they have corpse skin - gangrene green. But I think these three redheads look pretty good, if I do say so myself.

These two oil paintings of nudes could go behind a bar, in a saloon. The bottom one is based on Diego Rodríguez de Silva y Velázquez  painting called the toilet of Venus in the National Gallery in London (it reputed to be his mistress). They made a movie called Venus with Peter Otoole called Venus, that treats an old man's obsession with a younger woman. 


The second one is a dreamy pose, a summer day, woman relaxing... The curves of the chaise longe with its ornate wood carvings echo the curves of the model. The linear drapes and cast of sun shine are a stiff reminder of reality? 

Here is a series of paintings I did based on the seasons, I had started painting after 20  year hiatus, so still getting back into the saddle. The blond girl has foreshortened arms, a bit weird, and everyone tells me I don't know my anatomy... to be redone in the future, maybe.

Magnolia woman, acrylic paint on cotton duck canvas.

The Greek woman, portrait in acrylic and acrylic medium on cotton duck canvas.

Acrylic painting, of Greek woman, close up detail.

Cecilia Green, see more here at  information, was Sir Russel Flint's favorite model, a woman of extraordinary beauty, she was his muse, telling him that he had been painting her for years, before they met! Over the years I have been inspired by models and by landscapes, I want to paint and repaint them as they are always beautiful.

Sketches of dancers, demi vetu, as the French say.

Nude sketch in sanguine on laid paper by Sir Russel Flint

Flints exquisite ability to use water color to capture water and nudes is unsurpassed. Fine example here.

Sir Russel Flint did few portraits, to my knowledge, so this one is a find! Very Renaissance in style.

Russel Flint British watercolorist, landscape

My master teacher, Siegfried Hahn, studied under Sir Russel Flint at the Royal Academy in London before WWII. Flint is know for his ability to paint flesh in watercolor, a difficult task. Here is a landscape painting of the beach, beautiful in its execution and fluidity. Enjoy!

If I like a model, or am inspired by her poses, I may do a series of paintings. Like these:

The gold Sari, oil portrait

Final painting in oils titled Red Duppta.

Red  Dupatta oil sketch preliminary for larger portrait.

In my yoga class they sometimes have live music. One night this beautiful woman came in and sang, and played the harmonium, an Indian accordion, and I wanted to paint her and asked her to pose. Here is the oil sketch for the painting.

The stages of the Harmonium player painting.

This is the final art of the Harmonium player, oil painting on canvas.

A wood carving by my dad, caduceus

Yours truly.

This Russian artist always amazes me, here are two self portraits, young and middle aged.

Sometimes it is  interesting to see what the subject looks like compared to what the artist creates. Photo and actual painting side by side.

Some watercolor still life studies, done years ago.

I know, why did I put this up? Because I think it is incredibly beautiful, a Japanese wedding dress from Nara Japan.

An interesting effect can be achieved by using Adobe Photoshop filters, almost like an oil painting, if used judiciously. It gives the artist a target to aim for, with tones and colours pre figured out. Interesting.

Two sketches of Notre Dame cathedral in Paris, that I used as basis for paintings. A building and a body are the same in many ways, if you understand the bone and muscle structure, then you will be able to draw a better body, and so too a building, that needs to be looked at and understood before drawing it, or while drawing, you come to understand it. This applies for both landscapes and life drawing.

While I was drawing Notre Dame from the front, I kept thinking something was wrong with my eyes, but no, the left bell tower is askew. No doubt they didn't use laser levelers in those days...

Yes, they took hours to create.

An digital painting in the style of a George de la Tour candle lit piece.

The Pieta compostion is coming along, I need models to refine the pose and hands. The triangle of three people is like the Michelangelo Pieta composition of two people.

I have been experimenting with photoshop filters, trying to take a photograph and make it look like it has been painted in oils or pastels. Here are the results, hope you like them. patrickmcdonnell.com

The copy of the Mona Lisa in the Prado museum, that was recently cleaned, offers a fresh view of what the original painting probably looked like before centuries of varnish, dust and soot covered Leonardo da Vinci's version. Plus the greenish bullet proof glass... The sfmanto technique of the master is evident, though I find the student copy (if that is what it is, one his apprentices in Leonardo's bottega/studio) did a very bad job with the eyes - the sitter's right eye looks a bit bigger and darker, and to close to the nose? More on my blog on how to make sure portrait eyes don't look cross eyed. Or, the sitter may have had one eye larger than the other, as I have encountered with sitters. Look on the Prado web site for more information on this enigmatic painting.