So I decided to copy Bridgman for a while since the gesture drawing was starting feel kind of repetitive so I decided to do this for a while along with the feet.

I think that this came out pretty good. There are some areas that I would have liked to tighten up but I don't have any major complaints.

 I like the way this hand came out. Not much else to say other than this is my last hand for a while. I've decided to do feet next so tomorrow I will be starting on that.

Added some color and refined the face a bit. Coming along pretty good so far. 1 hour left to go.

This was kind of an interesting one to draw because of the rubber band, it put the fingers in some interesting positions that they couldn't otherwise be in. 

Rooney Mara from the American version of the Girl with the Dragon Tattoo. Never actually seen the movie or read the book but I thought that the actress had an interesting look so I decided to paint her. This is going to be another 3 hour portrait and this is the first hour.

Drawing hands holding something is a as much of a challenge as foreshortening because of the way the hand deforms around the object. This one came out pretty good, probably because I see my hand this way all the time.

So I was able to save this painting. I tweaked the face, the lips, the eyes, pretty much everything. But I think that in the end it came out pretty good.

I like the way this hand came out. It's not perfect but not bad.

uhg. Still working on shaping the face but it still has a lot of issues. The eyes and the lips are still a little wonky and the face is still a little long but I do get around to fixing it.

I like the way that this hand turned out, the shadows create a nice contrast. Not much else to say about this one.

Another Liepke copy from a painting called Genuine Beauty. This was the first hour of a three hour a copy. I think this started out kind of rough. The face is to long and the lips are to big but I will be fixing that.

I think that this one came out pretty good, some minor issues but other than that I like it.

My finished portrait of Mark Ruffalo. I think this one came out pretty good. There are some issues with his jaw line and his hair but overall not bad.

Foreshortening thou art a heartless bitch. I always have a lot of trouble when it comes to foreshortening and I think that this hand shows some of that. I got the foreshortening down okay but it took me a lot longer to get the initial drawing down so it's not as finished as I would like. 

Hour two of my Mark Ruffalo portrait. Added color and continued to shape the face, I think that this coming along pretty good and I'm looking forward to finishing it.

While it would have been nice to get this one a bit more finished, I still think this one came out pretty good for 30 minutes. I particularly like the way the reflections came out.

Working on another portrait this time of Mark Ruffalo as Bruce Banner from the Avengers movie. This is going to be another three hour portrait and this is hour one.

A hand holding a phone. I think that this one came out a bit better than some of the previous hands. It's still a bit rough in some areas especially around the knuckles. 

I spent most of my last hour fixing the color, getting her lips and nose right, and reworking the shoulder and neck. Overall I think that it came out pretty good and I think that I learned a lot from this painting.

A hand making the "L" shape. I think that the wrist came out a bit too desaturated but the rest of the hand came out alright.

Hour two of my copy of Sargent's Egyptian Girl painting. I've added color and refined the facial features. The hair needs some work because in the painting the highlights are more blueish than they are here. I also need to bring down the saturation a bit, adding color with the overlay blending mode can do that sometimes.

The hand signal for hang loose. I feel like there is a reason why that's the signal for hang loose but I've never been a surfer and I don't feel like looking it up so I guess it will remain a mystery to me. I think that I took the color exaggeration a bit to far with this one. The arm and the wrist look like they belong to a corpse. 

Another day another portrait copy. This time from the painter John Singer Sargent. He was an amazing artist and one that I have admired for years. One of the problems with copying some of his paintings is a lot of his subjects are snobby looking rich people or there children. But this painting that I've chosen to copy is of some anonymous Egyptian girl. This is going to be another three hour copy and this is hour one.

 I like the way this hand came out. Some of the areas aren't very finished but overall not bad.

My three hour portrait is done. The hair ended up giving me more trouble than I thought it would and I had some issues with the eyes. I think I got her likeness down pretty well.

The colors here feel a bit off here. Sometimes it's necessary to tweak colors when it suits the composition or to make some thing stand out but sometimes its not necessary, like here where I pushed the colors to far away from reality. Other than that the structure of the hand is good and I'm getting faster at drawing hands. 

Hour two of my portrait. Added color and worked on shaping the face. Also I'm fairly sure that shes smoking a hand rolled cigarette.

One of the nice things about focusing on one part of the anatomy is I get to notice little things that I would otherwise miss if I was doing the whole figure. One of the things I've noticed is the way that the tips of the fingers and thumb have a more red tint to them than the rest of hand. Little stuff like that is what makes doing studies like this so valuable.

Doing another portrait from a photo and decided picked the actress Natalia Tena who is best known for playing Tonks in the Harry Potter movies. This is going to be another three hour portrait and this is hour one.

Another day another hand. I'm getting better but some of the color seems a bit off. Also I would have like if some of these photos had more dramatic lighting but they were free so I shouldn't complain to much. 

So it's finished and while it doesn't approach the skill of Zorn I think that I learned a lot from doing this. Some areas gave me a lot of trouble, the wrinkles around the jaw and eyes giving me a lot of grief. The lighting also gave me trouble.

One of the toughest things about drawing hands is when there holding something, that has always caused me a lot of trouble. So naturally on the second day I do these studies the three hands I get are all holding something. I think this one doesn't have enough contrast so it feels a little flat to me, but other than that not bad. 

Hour two of my copy of Zorn's portrait of the 22nd and 24th President of the United States. I've added color and continued shaping the face and I think that in another hour it will be a nice painting. Two fun facts about Cleveland, he was drafted into the civil war but paid for someone to take his place (legally) and until 1969 he was on the 1000$ bill.

So I've struggled with hands for while so I decided to spend a couple weeks practicing hands. I'm going to do two five minute hands and then do a thirty minute study. In addition I'm doing twenty minutes of gesture drawings. This first pone came out pretty good even if some of the colors are a bit wonky, its a bit more orange that it should be. I'm still struggling with my second monitors color issues. 

Doing another copy now, this one is President Grover Cleveland the only President to serve two non-consecutive terms from 1885 - 1889 and from 1893 - 1897. The painting was done by Anders Zorn a Swedish painter who is one of my favorites. This is going to be a three hour study and this is the first hour.

The last drapery study for a while. And I think that this one is a good one to end on, I think that this one came out nice. There's a nice definition to all the folds and the color looks nice. I think that this whole two week study has been extremely valuable and I will probably do it again in the near future.

Roger Moore is done. A lot of the last hour of work on this one was to just tighten up edges and details. Oh and the hair, which was a battle. Hair might be something I spend some time studying in the future. Ugh that list is growing faster than I can check things off. But at least I'm checking things off and as long as I keep doing that I feel like I'm making progress.

I think that this one worked out pretty good. I think that the colors worked out really well and while some parts of the cloth could have used a bit more definition overall not bad. 

Hour two of my Roger Moore painting. Added color and tweaked some of the facial features. I think that it's coming along well and I think another hour and it'll be good. 

 After almost two weeks of doing these studies I think I'm running out of things to say. These are all 30 minute drapery studies none of them are going to be fantastic and they rarely need much of an explanation. I'm almost done with them so soon I'll be able to go on to another subject.

Roger Moore the third James Bond. I always like the sense of humor be brought to the role; the dry one liners he delivered and his banter with Q. This is going to be a three hour portrait and this would be hour one and I was having some trouble because of the downward angle of the face and the little half smile he has going on. Both of these things are the reason I choose this photo because they are things that I need to work on but both of these things make the portrait harder to paint hence this not being as far along as I think it should be.

 Another 30 minute drapery study. It's a little rougher than I would have liked but not bad.

Another page of Hogarth copies mostly focusing on legs and feet this time.

This one feels a little incomplete. I can see where I drew in some cloth but didn't finish drawing it in and there is no color. I think that I was thrown by how complicated dome of the folds where. That's part of the problem with fabric is that unlike anatomy there aren't any rules or landmarks that stay consistent from image to image you just kind of have to muscle through. 

After three hours I think that this came out pretty good. I think that my version is has a little more contrast than the original and that's something that I'll need to watch out for in the future.

I really like how this one came out. There are some areas that could use some more attention but for 30 minutes I think that this is pretty good. I was able to get both the white and the orange parts of the cloth colored correctly and having the shadows and the highlights looking good. 

Hour two of my Liepke copy. Got started on doing some color and refining the face. I think that in another hour this one will look pretty good.

 The fabric was kind of grey in the picture so that coupled with the fact that there is a lot of fabric doing a lot I decided to go monochromatic for this one. I think that doing that helped me focus on capturing the movement of the cloth and there was a lot of movement to capture. Most areas came out pretty good some need a little work but overall not bad.

So in my continuing effort to improve my portrait painting I decided to do some copies of good portraits starting with one of my favorite painters, Liepke. This is the start of a copy of his painting Cascading Hair and it's about an hour in. Not much else to say at this point.