The State of the Studio

Some recent things I've been doing in the studio

I've been expirimenting with plaid. Plaid seems very western to me. Red white and blue plaid just says American West, doesn't it?

Here I'm trying to work out Cleveland. I'm doing some smaller, more intimate portraits of these figures. Also, I kinda gave up on using acrylics for the faces. Even though SFAI has a "no toxic materials" policy (which includes many of the mediums and cleanup solutions normally used with oil painting), acrylic paints are just so chunky and I don't seem to be able to move it around and blend it as beautifully as oil. I need some more detail work on this face, but she/he is coming along.

My desk area and some more painting/drawing experiments. The face on on the right belongs to Anna Harrison. I'm getting increasingly interested in the Indian wars. Such as, before W.H. Harrison became president, he led a major battle in Indiana called the Battle of Tippecanoe. Tecumseh (a Shawnee leader) was leading a Indian confederacy against the US and recruiting a bunch of different tribes to join the fight. Tippecanoe kinda damaged that plan. I'm not sure if any of that will work its way into this portrait however, there might just be an general Indian Resistance 'feeling' to this one. Side anecdote: Harrison is the prez who died after 1 month in office, so Mrs. Harrison never actually was the "First Lady"

Here's an approximation of what Tecumseh looked like:

Hey! That's not in my studio! That's Judith in a bunny costume! Crazy Judith!