Portrait Painting of Victor

Cari Amici (Dear Friends),

For two hours each Monday and Thursday evening, my artist friends and I take turns posing for portraits for each other. One model usually sits for four evenings, or eight hours posing time. This last round happened to feature my friend Victor Goikoetxea, who taught the mural workshop I attended in Spain in September.

Sadly, I missed Victor’s first sitting because I finished my mural in Caprese Michelangelo in the wee hours of a Monday morning and by the time I returned to Firenze, all I could do was sleep. Victor is quite a handsome fella, with a strong jawline and kind eyes. I often find portrait painting a bit bizarre. It is very difficult to catch a personality when the body is trying to remain still. Victor is vivacious and interested in many things with a very expressive face, but he did tell me that he spent his time posing thinking about and designing his next mural project.

So, here you may see my little portrait sketch in oil paint. I used raw umber and white, with a bit of black/grey in the hair. I had five and a half hours on this painting, having to leave early one night to meet a friend for a lecture we wanted to see. You can tell how scatterbrained I have been lately by the way I “prepared” this canvas. I grabbed a random piece of loose canvas in which I had done some figure outlines in acrylic a week or so before. Not having a drawing board at this studio, I simply taped the scrap onto another mounted canvas and started to paint. I wish that there were more hours in the day, but in truth, if there were, I would probably fill them up as I do now.