The nose seems to be a little off,
the eyes have to measure and be precisely the same distance to the ears.
Multiply 2 eyeballs to find the equal distance between the ––––
Okay this makes no sense.
It sounds like math and my brain immediately jolts in the opposing direction.
Nothing against the math lovers out there… but the two don’t seem to mix for me.

The idea of painting the figure has always led me to thinking about Renaissance painters and Da Vinci dissecting the human form to understand perfect proportions of the body.

These common misconceptions with painting the human form have often led me to only attempting the top portion of the body…and I didn’t notice this fully until I saw a pattern within my works over the years. (listed below)

There seems to be a little pattern…
Which leads me to the question, “Why haven’t I painted the whole body??”

I started painting just the face which then transitioned into painting the chest and upper body.
There was always a resistance to painting the full figure because of common distortions, foreshortening, and believing that the proportions had to be PERFECT.
Well, with the start of 2020, I decided to delve a little deeper into the body and going at it from different angles.

I approach it in a more loose way… focusing on the basic shapes and then harnessing a greater attention to detail as the process progresses.
I talk about the initial steps with the acrylic underpainting and then adding the additional layers of oil paint as I go.
It does not involve adding eyes and ears to find the distance to the toes – which may be an approach that works for some.
Check out my video to hear more about this process.

I think I’m off to an good start – here are some of my latest pieces where I focus on the entire human form.
What will you do this week that will get you out of your comfort zone? (maybe try a cold shower…see last week’s blog post for details) :D