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My sister, Alexandra, visited us recently and was gracious to model for me for the 30”x24” oil portrait shown here.

The last half to one hour of a three-hour-sessions I concentrate on the abstract look of the entire painting disregarding the subject, here the figure. Attention, especially, is focused on appealing colors, good texture and strong value range in the composition. The problem with most of group sessions, unfortunately, is the static stance of the modeling. Modeling is not easy. Unless the model is professional and can hold a gesture for a period, the stance would likely be the stiff type of sitting-in-a-chair, immobile. This may be okay for a portrait artist which I am not, and have no interest in portraiture. It is unlikely that one can create a good portrait with a perfect likeness in a three-hours sessions. True portraiture, for me, is boring, unless the portrait is done in a sketchy manner such as John Sargent’s portrait sketches, for example, which I love. Sargent's sketches are lively and very expressive. Yet, his commissioned portraits although, technically speaking, are superb, for me, they are much less interesting. In such a short pose session, when the artist’s goal is a good likeness chances are, he or she foregoes the requirement of good painting. In the attempt of getting a good likeness, the picture is polished and unnecessarily adjusted and corrected to achieve some sort of a likeness.  Such a painting lacks good texture, exciting colors and composition, irrespective of whether it is a good likeness or not.