Tag Archives: portrait

I Painted Martin Button in My Studio

November 9, 2009 – 9:05 am

Here is Martin. We all love him. Martin is originally from New Zealand. He first came over to America to attend college at Berkley. He is a seismic engineer, and a structural engineer. At the present time, he is working on Building No. 7 (WTC), the Chinese Ferris Wheel (largest in the world), and many […]

By Lavanna Martin | Posted in alla prima, art, figure painting, painting, painting people from life, portraiture | Also tagged , , , | Comments (3)

I Painted the Retired Military Man at Epoch Coffee

September 8, 2009 – 12:07 pm

I thought that I was going to have a nice, long time to paint this man, but he got a phone call, and left shortly afterwards. He was dressed in civilian clothes with a cowboy belt, but the look was definitely influenced by many years in miitary. He had on chinos, khaki double flap pocket […]

By Lavanna Martin | Posted in alla prima, art, figure painting, guerrilla portraiture, oil painting, painting people from life | Also tagged , , , | Comments (7)

Detail of the Girl with the French Haircut at Flightpath Coffee

August 14, 2009 – 9:47 am

Would you like to hear a little about technique and decisions that I made as I did this painting? The walls at Flighpath Coffee are sunflower yellow. Why did I not portray this? Well, when I painted the man with dreadlocks the day before, I added in a subdued yellow background, and just hated the […]

By Lavanna Martin | Posted in alla prima, art, guerrilla artist, guerrilla portraiture, Oil Sketches Live at Coffee Houses, painting live, painting people from life, painting technique | Also tagged , , , , | Comments (16)

I Painted the Sad MiddleEasterner in San Raphael,Ca.

August 11, 2009 – 6:35 pm

I’m not even going to pretend to know what was going through his mind. If he were native born, I could probably conjure up some explanations such as: poor screwed up SOB, had a fight with his wife on a beautiful afternoon, and had no where to go so he ended up here. Who knows […]

By Lavanna Martin | Posted in alla prima, art, guerrilla artist, guerrilla portraiture, Oil Sketches Live at Coffee Houses, painting live, portrait sketch | Also tagged , | Comments (2)

I Painted The Girl in the Bolshevik Cap

July 29, 2009 – 8:39 am

Some people just look great in hats, and this girl was one of them. She had on a Bolshevik cap, with silver tab button on the side. Her hair was blonde, and had a mind of its own. I decided to change color palettes to compliment the Ruskie look, sort of influenced by Malevich and […]

By Lavanna Martin | Posted in alla prima, art, guerrilla artist, guerrilla portraiture, Oil Sketches Live at Coffee Houses, painting live, painting people from life | Also tagged , , | Comments (5)

I Painted Geneva in the Bruising Sun

April 9, 2009 – 2:20 pm

Why lie? In Texas we don’t have that nice, ambient light of the north.  We have heat and intense sun that makes us squint, burns out the features on one side of our face, and cast the other side in shadow.  It’s a biforcated life, for sure.  We love the sun and the heat, and […]

By Lavanna Martin | Posted in alla prima, art, artist, commissioned painting, oil painting, portraiture | Also tagged , , , | Comments (12)

The Difference Between Painting and Drawing

March 25, 2009 – 6:30 am

People ask me if I sketch in with pencil or charcoal before I begin.   No, I don’t.  So much of painting requires restatement in the process, why start out fumbling from the beginning?  I try to say what I mean from the very beginning. Think about the process of painting as opposed to drawing.  Rendering […]

By Lavanna Martin | Posted in alla prima, art, figure painting, oil painting, painting, portrait sketch, sketches | Also tagged , , , , , , , , , , , , , , , | Comments (19)

I Painted John Erik Metcalf at Conjunctured

March 17, 2009 – 7:58 am

I painted John Erik Metcalf while he was at work at Conjunctured.  Now is a good time to repost his portrait, since he is very involved with SXSWi.  If it weren’t for the “Conjunctured Boys”, I wouldn’t have a blog.   They are helpful, smart, and will help Austin maintain it’s tech-savy edge.  I don’t understand […]

By Lavanna Martin | Posted in alla prima, art, painting, portrait sketch | Also tagged , , , , , , | Comments (2)

I Painted Mark McDermott at Epoch Coffee

November 26, 2008 – 11:30 am

OK, I cheated a little bit.  I asked if I could paint him.  I painted him at Epoch at night, causing all sorts of value/color and lighting problems.   I have only asked to paint someone once before, and I sucked so badly that I promised that I wouldn’t do it again.  But, this face, […]

By Lavanna Martin | Posted in alla prima, art, oil painting, painting, painting people from life, portrait sketch, portraiture | Also tagged , , , , | Comments (7)

I Painted this Pretty Girl at Cafe Medici

November 19, 2008 – 8:48 pm
By Lavanna Martin | Posted in alla prima, art, oil painting, painting, portrait sketch, portraiture | Also tagged , , , | Comments (4)