Day 18 - Assignment

Well, it really looks like I'm not going to be able to do a painting a day. To get it to the point I prefer, it is taking about 3 days of painting for a "quick" still life.

So about the mentoring; Jennifer and I spoke on Friday. A wonderful chatty call with lots of info and updates. She is working on a portrait commission and it is giving us a good chance to talk about the process. At this stage she has taken photos and is building a composition from her references. This is something I've done to a very small scale. And there we have my assignment! I must find a model willing to let me take a number of photos for a full portrait/figure. For fun, I'll probably try a number of different outfits and backgrounds and lighting. Part of this exercise is looking at lighting, too, so I'll do some inside and outside.

Of course, the most willing "model" is my husband, Wayne. Might even get him in a tux for the shot.

I've loosely set my goals:

Build a "winning" body of work for portfolio and competition.

Have a professional quality portfolio useable for galleries, portrait brokers and potential clients.

A sub-goal, which is a part of the above, is to work on incorporating an environment in the paintings. A background/story/location. I like vague backgrounds and fabrics, but I haven't really explored anything else. So this is a good opportunity for that.