Join E. 10th Street Studios for East Bay Open Studios 2012

Want to participate in East Bay Open Studios, but don't have a studio you can open to the public?

E. 10th Street Studios is looking for artists to share their unique space.

E. 10th Street Studios is a 12,000 square foot warehouse conveniently located next door to the Fruitvale BART station.

Participating artists will each get two 8 x 8' modular walls.

Dates: June 2-3 | 9-10

For more information, please email Lisa Pfeiffer, pfeiffer_lisa@hotmail.com.

Deadline: February 17th

E. 10th Street Studios | East Bay Open Studios 2011

Jellies at the Monterey Bay Aquarium

This past weekend my friend Lindsey and I made a pilgrammage to the Monterey Bay Aquarium.  We were both captivated by the jellies.  Below are some of my favorite shots.

Lara Hoke, Red Jelly

Lara Hoke, Pink JellyLara Hoke, White JellyLara Hoke, Girl with Jellies

Approaching Completion (in muffled steps)

I'm excited to share these images, the portraits are getting closer and closer to completion. It's been difficult working with reference photos that are black and white (portrait on left) and under saturated (portrait on right), but I'm always up for a challenge.

Please note the black lines are digitally imposed and used as guides rather tan being part of the final product.

Lara Hoke, Portraits in Progress

Another Technique for Refining a Portrait

Many artists project the source image on canvas and trace the outlines.  In my portrait work, I've found this approach to be helpful when working in the dry, precise medium of graphite.  However, it is totally useless when I work in oil.  My painting process involves loose application of paint, blending, wiping, and reapplication of paint.  If I traced the image, it would be like painting between the lines or color by number.  The painting would have no life of its own.

In addition to overlaying the in-progress portrait over the source photo (see the previous post), I've started outlining the source photo in Photoshop and overlaying the drawn outline over a photo of the painting in progress.

Original with Line Overlay, Painting, Painting with Overlay

Update on Sunday, November 13, 2011 at 9:32PM by Lara Hoke

Just a quick update on progress made after using the line overlay...

Lara Hoke, Portrait with Outline Overlay

Update on Monday, November 14, 2011 at 9:40PM by Lara Hoke

Lara Hoke, Portrait with Line Overlay

Update on Wednesday, November 16, 2011 at 10:12PM by Lara Hoke

Lara Hoke, Portrait in progress, line overlay

Update on Wednesday, November 16, 2011 at 10:14PM by Lara Hoke

Lara Hoke, Portrait in progress with line overlay

Using Technology to Capture Likeness

Periodically while I work on a portrait I use Photoshop to overlay a photo of the painting on the source image.  Not a fancy technique by any means, but a hugely useful one.  By overlaying the images I can see immediately where my painting is off.  For example, in the first series below, I can easily see that my painting is too straight on.  Rather than directly facing the camera as I've painted him, the subject is turning slightly toward his right.  In the second series I see several issues.  The most important of which are the tilt of the head and the placement of the right eye.

Capturing the spirit of the subject can't be helped by technology.  Thank goodness at least likeness can.

Source Image, Portrait in Process, Overlay

Source Image, Portrait in Process, Overlay